Septic tie in

nevadanick wrote:
Just think of all the rv parks that are on a septic system.

I have seven septic systems in my RV park because in GA you are allowed to have 10 RVs on a 1000 gallon system. They all have the chamber type drain fields. They've been in for 20 years without any problems and less than 1/2 of the drain field has any water in it.

Just think of all the rv parks that are on a septic system.

Mocoondo wrote:

JaxDad wrote:
A typical 5' bathtub holds 42 gallons if it's filled to the overflow drain. However with a person in it and not completely full, an average bath takes 20 to 25

However, since these devises are a long way away from the tank and the pipes between are very shallow slope the water sort of trickles in.

Put a 4" line right into the primary chamber and let loose 100 gallons and your asking for problems.

Also, your bathtub, dishwasher, washing machine, and even toilet are not filled with 100 gallons of raw sewage. It takes some time for solids to settle out and if you send, for example, 50 gallons of black sewage and 50 gallons of grey immediately thereafter, the sewage has not had time to settle out and some will end up displacing over the baffle and eventually out into the fields. The effects of doing this are cumulative and very damaging to the system.

OP I have been doing the impossible for over 40 years. My dad put it in over 40 years ago. No, he was not an engineer or anything like that. He did have a lot of common sense. Never any problems.

I also use blue in my tank AND drink out of a water hose AND use regular toilet paper AND dump my tank when it's only 1/4 to 1/2 full sometimes AND have ST tires on my trailer AND tow at 70 to 75 MPH. :E

Guess I'm just lucky. :R

You naysayer people sure are dreamers as very few RV's that would be dumped into a home septic system have any where near 100 gallons in them. What an explicit exaggeration!

Follow closely:

To begin with, you first open the black tank valve and dump it completely which isn't a one minute task! Then you close the black tank valve and open the gray valve and dump it which then flushes and rinses the dump lines and the outlet valve area. Any RV'ers with half a brain wouldn't dump both tanks at the same time as the whole dump system would stink like mad in a couple days max in warm weather! How much is actually dumped? Usually only 30 to 40 gallons max in each tank when dumping and at home, it's you that controls how fast the total dumping is done and remember that there's not even one other RV behind waiting for you to get finished.

Still nervous about dumping your RV into your septic tank? If it makes some of you feel better, simply dump the black first as fast as you desire, wait an hour or even more, and then dump your gray water as fast as you desire! DUH, consider it solved! See how simple that is? Regardless, even if a total of 100 gallons is dumped, it's only 1/5 to 1/10 of what a home septic system is designed to handle each day and your dumping the RV at home isn't done each day but maybe a few times during each season! Such lame exaggerated claims exhibited by a few on this thread!

Even full hookup RV'ers are certainly smart enough to keep their dump valves closed until it's time to dump the tanks. At which time, they dump their black first and follow with the gray! WALLA! It's gone and now they close the gray valve!

On top of all of that, only a small fraction of what the RV holding tanks contain even when totally full is RAW SEWAGE. Most RV's total combined tanks dumped contents is shower water which contains a small amount of soap which is not raw sewage. The second in content is dishwashing and rinse water and also contains soaps. Then comes face and hand washing etc waters and more soaps. Finally we get to "black water" from the toilet which contains some raw sewage and tissue (TP) and a very large percentage of clean rinsing water.

FWIW, just looked at our Amanna washing machine manual and the manual says 8.3 gallons for large load wash and 8.3 gallons for each rinse cycle. That's 32.9 gallons for each and every load washed and rinsed alone and DW says we average 7-8 washings a week. We virtually always wait until we have a full load before washing and why not? Yes, we do like and demand clean clothes on totally each and every day after our showers and more clean clothes on when we go out to eat etc at night and aren't about to change. I've/we've noticed and so does our noses and eyes that many people tend to do elsewise! Remember that you must include washing all sheets and blankets which we do more than once a week! When in the RV for over a week at a time, there's nothing like using a decent laundramat and getting all the washing done very fast and cheap too. Usually takes about 1-1/2 hrs each week to 10 days. Big deal! Then there's the showers and baths, the dishwashing and toilet flushing, hands and face washing, etc!

When we spec'ed the new septic system at our cottage, that includes a "clean out" conveniently located about three feet from our coach's waste tank discharge, the septic tank manufacturer supplied us with one that was rated for up to a 100 gallon short term inrush. The only change our local building inspector made to our plans before issuing a permit was to change the "RV dump port" label to a "Clean out" label.

Bumpyroad wrote:
if you do it, call it an additional clean out. not a RV dump station.
bumpy

Very important phrase to remember, in case the town's building code enforcement official happens to arrive on the scene.

Well, I'm not a septic engineer, nor am I a plumber. But since 1989 I've been dumping holding tanks into our septic system, and all 3 of my dumps are about 80' from the tank and I'd be willing to bet the slope is less than an foot in that distance.

When I set them up I poured water in and verified it flowed to the tank, that was it. Sadly, both our septic tanks (two 1200 gallon concrete, one is just the pump tank)are only 6" below our lawn, wish they had been set a little deeper. Our drainfield is 3000' from the tanks, and that is why we have a 1200 gallon pump tank which pumps only effluent to our drain field. We do have our tanks pumped and cleaned every 5 or 6 years and aside from being cautioned about wet wipes getting in the septic system we've been told it always appears healthy. (We eat yogurt)

Our current trailer has 120 gallons holding capacity between two gray and one black tank, so it's rare that I ever dump when we are camping, and it seems I'm the first to always use the bathroom on the trip home so I find it easier to dump at home, where I can do a good job rinsing and cleaning. Weight in the trailer is never an issue since all my tanks are forward of the axles.

I used triple wall solid drain tile pipe for all my underground piping, and then transitioned to white PVC where it comes up to the surface. One of my dumps ended up being right inline with a concrete sidewalk I added years later, as seen in the picture below, and I made a nice dump station using a valve box and sloped the concrete on the inside so if there was any spillage it would just rinse down the pipe.





Below is a dump station in our lawn that is used when people come to camp on our farm. It's real smooth so we can just glide over it with our mowers, but it to slopes in and will accept any standard sewer hose coupling to make it air tight.



And the picture below are my two dump stations built in the carport where I keep our 30 travel trailer. I put two connection in here because I thought at one time I was going to have living quarters in the loft of my big garage, which I never did, so I only use the one stub.



Our home is small and it's always nice when we have company we can offer our trailer or truck camper as a guest house and have both hooked up to the utilities.

Hans

what % of stuff in a typical black tank is water/fluids and what % is solids?
bumpy

JaxDad wrote:
A typical 5' bathtub holds 42 gallons if it's filled to the overflow drain. However with a person in it and not completely full, an average bath takes 20 to 25

However, since these devises are a long way away from the tank and the pipes between are very shallow slope the water sort of trickles in.

Put a 4" line right into the primary chamber and let loose 100 gallons and your asking for problems.

Also, your bathtub, dishwasher, washing machine, and even toilet are not filled with 100 gallons of raw sewage. It takes some time for solids to settle out and if you send, for example, 50 gallons of black sewage and 50 gallons of grey immediately thereafter, the sewage has not had time to settle out and some will end up displacing over the baffle and eventually out into the fields. The effects of doing this are cumulative and very damaging to the system.

Why not just use a Macerator Pump. likelly cheaper..

I have a Flo-Jet portable.. And I have some color coded "Garden hose" type hoses.

White: Fresh water to the RV
Gray: Gray water tank #2 to drain
Black: you can guess that one I'm sure. (Black and Gray #1 macerator to drain)

Work great.

Green (or clear) Wash and Rinse.