Extending stay/ Blackwater?

Those small tanks limit your boon docking - Mine has three times the capacity. Taking daily showers and without conservation efforts, we average 5 gallons per person per day. We went from toy hauler to TC, so our usage must seem high compared to those who always had small tanks and adjusted their lifestyle.

Your 10 gallon black tank can last a week if you are conservative with flushing. Washing yourself and dishes outside would take care of lack of gray tank capacity. Can you carry enough fresh water to make it a week? If not in the camper, what about in the truck cab?

On our little 17 foot sailboat (with a small cabin) we use the WAG bag system and their portable toilet (really quite more comfortable than most RV toilets).

http://www.cleanwaste.com/products#pop

We plan to carry this as a backup system in our camper. You get a few uses out of the $2 WAG bags but they can be tossed in any garbage container legally. The whole toilet collapses and fairly easy to store (we keep it in the 6" bilge area of the boat).

Thanks guys, lots of suggestions. Some won't work but a few to look into.

billtex, I like your idea with the tote on a cargo carrier as my dump would be right above. Seeing as I have a tote I've been hanging onto since my ladder hit it on a sharp turn and the axel dissapeared, I knew I was keeping it for some reason....

What is a wag bag? As a guy I don't have a problem using the great outdoors and my pee bottle. But when the wife is along that's when the problem arises. She will go out but not at night and in bad weather. And for you that said how long you can go, I have only a 12&10 waste tanks.

When we had the smaller TC the black tank was a limiter for us as well.
When we needed more capacity I rigged up a blue-boy on a rear hitch rack, which was right under the dump valve. When the on board tank got full, I would dump in to the blue boy. Then we could fill the on board tank again. This effectively doubled our tank capacity.
When we got to a dump station, I would drain both the on board tank ad the blue boy. I drilled/tapped an outlet on the bottom of the blue boy to drain using an old pc of garden hose.

Used this system on x-country trip and it worked great.

B

Tuna,

Some suggestions that may, or may not, work for you:
- Use less water for flush (too little isn't good either)
- Pee outside...please disperse (or pee into river) so area doesn't get saturated by you and other visitors to the area.
- Use campground facilities when available
- Bring along a 5 gallon bucket (or similar type of rafting toilet) with screw on lid and place outside as a "second toilet". (BTW, used correctly, this should last one person ~40 days!)
- Use WAG bag, or similar, system (expensive per use)
- Blue tote, or similar, to transfer contents of black tank to (don't overfill.....)
- Add second black tank
- Replace toilet (and eliminate black tank) with composting toilet

I use a combination of the first four approaches depending on my mood and how long we will be out. For us, potable water (unless near a lake or river) is usually the bigger challenge.

Steve

We can go two weeks on our black water tank but gray fills up within four days. We use the TC like our home, so there are no bathroom rules of when or how you do your business. We carry a 30 gallon tote in our enclosed trailer which gives us a total of one week capacity. If showers are outside, our black tank is what limits us. If you're wondering how we can have so much water to fill the gray tank twice plus the black, the enclosed trailer carries over 80 gallons of water and has a transfer pump.

How long is your stay? I've gone 30 days by myself, and 2 weeks with 3 people before. You just have to conserve your use. You could certainly setup a latrine outside for use as well.

Since this must be boondocking in the woods...(or you'd have access to a dump facility)

Get a 5 gallon bucket, cut the bottom out, glue a toilet set to the other end. Then dig a hole, put the bucket over it, and cover the hole when you leave.

Also...make a rule, no peeing inside. It's a waste to fill your blackwater tank with that anyway if you don't need to.

If the TC is off of the truck - 12v macerator pump and a small tote ... pump into a tote / tank in your truck bed and head to the dump station.

Of course then it's one (two) more things to bring on a trip. This is what I've been thinking about for extended stays in our 5er but with a TC I'd think it's "easier" to do what the previous guys have said and just drive to the nearest dump station.

May be a pain, but I would run up to the nearest campground to drain the tanks which hopefully isn't too far.

Other option would be to do as the back packers are required to do in the area you are camping, use the stuff that gels and can then be thrown in the trash.

Hopefully you aren't taking care of the gray water by draining it on the ground as even in the NF this is a no-no.

Blue poop tote is about your only option. And if you do not already have one of those, it would probably be easier to break down camp and go dump.