Gray tank under truck

I have thought about installing a "saddle tank" under the sides of my truck so I could transfer waste without taking the trailer anywhere.
Seems like it would work.

To answer your question: Look at mounting a 6" or 8" pvc pipe about 5' long from the hitch or even in a hitch cradle. A 6" piece 5' is about 4.8 gallons. My father had an 8' piece mounted under the wing of our old Franklin for the kitchen sink.

But if it was me, I would do the following and use the camper tanks:
Spare tire cable retractor can easily be fixed by rotating 90* so it can be accessed from the wheel well. just have to remove 4 small bolts, rotate and then re-install.

License plate usually isn't really blocked since it can usually still be seen when sitting in a vehicle 3 vehicle lengths behind the truck. My tag has never been real easy to see since even my father's old Franklin, but I've never been stopped by the police except when I pulled out too close in front of one so had to get on the throttle and released so much soot he had a black cloud to drive through.

Air bag valves can easily be relocated. They are usually plumbed to behind the fuel door to give them a little protection.

If you live where campers have a license plate, the truck plate doesn’t need to be visible, same as when towing a trailer.
On my previous campers that had the tanks hanging below the rear I put a piece of 2” thick 4’x8’ rigid foam insulation under the camper to buy a little extra room. I towed a large trailer with the tongue extended to reach the truck under an 11.5 camper without using a hitch extension and it looked fairly tight but wasn’t ever a problem.
As mentioned, spare tire crank can be reoriented and air bag fill valve are easy to put anywhere, I used to have them inside the gas filler door. But - a far better way is to drop the couple hundred $ on an onboard air setup for your bags. It’s very handy to be able to fill and dump air at will, anytime and anyplace.

thanks, but I use camper too much, and will take it on and off too much to bother with additional hassles. I dont have interest in moving spare tire thing, air valves or even moving the license plate each time. If you had any idea how much effort I spent just renovating the camper you understand. TCs are way too complicated to attach as it is. (with my trailer the biggest hassle was wiggling the plug out of the socket).

I know 6 inch pvc pipe is supposed to exist, but I have yet to be able to buy one. I dont know if I have the room for that length pipe and still have 4x4 clearance. Would a long pipe tend to slosh the waste back up into the shower pan on hard accelerations uphill?

Sidehill, interesting to just put a tray under there. If I were not towing at the same time that could work.
I thought about a tank on drivers side at the rear, where original black was anyway, not blocking anything important, but I dont want to have to drill holes to hang something. I need to keep it pristine under there for when I re-sell and put the stuff back together. It is a fiberglass shell. But , maybe I can make something to attach to the hitch extension. Will render that

Sorry, but you removed all the waste tanks from your camper at by your own admission, considerable time and effort, but are unwilling to make simple mods to your truck (some of which aren’t necessary anyway) but now want to plumb the gray tank into the back seat of your pickup??
To each there own, but maybe rethink what your end goal is here.....

I started RVing in California when dumping gray on the ground was still legal ;)
Then when big drought hit CA about 15 years ago, they actually start asking the residents to use household gray water for lawns watering.
still trying to figure it out? try to ask if marijuana is legal.
Gray water is perfectly safe for dumping and it is actually holding it for more than 24 hr that allows for bacteria growth.
All CA campgrounds allow for washing dishes in tubes or taking campshowers and dump the water around.
I think the main issue with RV dumping at campgrounds was kitchen debris coming with it and that is why whole issue started.

If you shop outside of a big box store you can find 6" PVC. Any real plumbing supply will have it and larger, but it's probably not the right solution for the problem. It works great to make tanks that fit between the floor joists on an enclosed trailer, but for under the cab of the truck, you won't have enough room for an appreciably sized tank. It'd be more efficient to use gallon milk jugs, LOL.

However, if you can find a suitably sized and shaped tank, I see absolutely no reason not to do it. You may want to add some sort of shield for road debris, but other than that... Why not?

Oh and for those of you who insist on passing judgement for dumping gray water, get off your high horse. I, and everyone I know who camps, dumps their gray water on the ground. Yes I said it, I DUMP MY GRAY WATER. Within 10 minutes you can't even tell anything was dumped. Food particles? Scrape your plates off into the trash before you wash them like normal people. Your camper doesn't have a disposer so food particles should not be going in the sink.

SideHillSoup wrote:

I did same with our first TC as it had small tanks. I modified the blue boy with a hose bib. When I needed to empty I would attach a short section of garden hose and run it out at the dump station. I was able to fit a 15 gal blue boy under the camper on the hitch rack. Worked great!

If you think loading and unloading your camper is a hassle, you really need to look at a Stable-Lift.
It’s an absolute game changer.
You do NOTHING but press the buttons, back under, and press the buttons to both retract the lift and self-clamp the camper on.
No blocks under the camper jacks on soft ground. No tie downs. No being scary and iffy while it’s up in the air. Solid as a rock while off the truck, with no extra help.
Safer, easier, faster, what more do you want.

My new camper has electric corner jacks. They’re better than manual-cranks, but nowhere near like my old Stable-Lift. I miss it and will eventually install one on the new rig.