FW capacity

I came to the truck camper world from the toy hauler side and was spoiled with a 10 gallon hot water heater, dual 75 gallon fresh tanks and dual 50 gallon waste tanks, so even there it was easy to over fill your waste unless you managed what went outside or carried a tote for overflow. It was an adjustment for us, so we chose the truck campers that had greatest capacities and compensated with additional tanks in our enclosed trailer. I remember looking at the Northern Lite 8-11 and really loving the quality, but was put off by the small 30+ gallon fresh tank and waste tanks so small the combined capacity was less than just the gray on other campers.

I would guess only 1/3 of the nights we camp are without hookups. Of those boon docking nights only about a week per year are we in a location where we can use the external shower to divert gray water. We currently comfortably boon dock for three nights without worrying about usage - Next month we are going to try to double our boon docking with only onboard tanks and see how long we can go.

The water in the heater gets used if you take showers or anything else using warm water.
My camper goes to Burning Man (hence my username) where absolutely zero grey water, trash, or anything goes on the ground.
Sometimes it goes to races or car shows where you can’t dump anything in the ground.
It’s going to the Bonneville Salt Flats where you can’t dump on the ground. In fact you have to park on a tarp so you don’t so much as leak a drop of oil.
Sometimes it’s even a portable guest house for visiting friends
I’m a little surprised I’m that much the odd truck camper user. I almost never go to a campground.
My primary reason for owning it is the heavy trailer pulling ability.

kaydeejay wrote:

Gjac wrote:

sbryan@vtbryans.com wrote:
We have a Northstar Igloo and we have 40 gallons of fresh water. What really makes that work for us is the cassette toilet, which has its own 5 gallon water supply and that can be used with very little water. We also carry jugs for drinking water and mostly use the FW thank for showers and dish washing. It's amazing how little water you can get along with if you try.

I just looked at your model online, looks nice with a dry weight of 2600 lbs, I am guessing that the traveling weight would be less than 3600 lbs, does that mean a truck with 4000 payload would be sufficient to haul it? Also I notice that the new Ford F150 with the 3.5 eng has a payload of 3700 lbs would this be sufficient?

What about people and "stuff" in the truck? They use payload too.

Right, if a camper weights 2600 lbs dry then water, food, clothes people and other stuff can't add up to more than 1000 lbs, at least that is how I understand it.

zcookiemonstar wrote:
Not sure why people count the water heater tank as fresh water capacity. Once your fresh water tank is empty other then the drain plug how can you use the water in the heaters tank?

Well.. that is valid option to dying from thirst.

Not sure why people count the water heater tank as fresh water capacity. Once your fresh water tank is empty other then the drain plug how can you use the water in the heaters tank?

Fresh water ends up in the black tank too. I’m happy to have a larger fresh tank than both gray and black. The fresh runs out long before the others are full.

Many campgrounds have a gray water disposal for tent campers’ dishwater.

From what I know taking outside showers is allowed everywhere.
Only on few campgrounds with faucets at driveways I have seen signs "no dish-washing"

You guys are assuming everyone uses their truck camper to go into the woods.
Where I usually use mine, dumping the waste water on the ground isn’t an option.

burningman wrote:
Remember to pay attention to the waste tank size too.
All my previous campers were way outta whack on that.
My last two had 40 gallons fresh, and about 15 or so grey. Less than 20.
That made half the fresh water useless.
I’m really liking my current rig, it has more waste tank capacity than fresh. I can use all my water now. You want to make sure you buy something like that, what comes out of the faucet has to be able to go down the drain.

Unless you go shower outside. :) Plus pee outside. Plus loading up water bottles for hiking and biking that never gets into holding tanks.

From what I have gathered boondocking in remote places it really is the amount of water and wine you bring. All else can be mitigated.

Just camp where if ya leak a little gray water out, no one notices......
Don't go water the lawn like cousin Eddy, but if you're in the woods, not a big deal.