Increasing potable water tank
My camper has a 55 gal. fresh water tank (I think). I purchased it used in May and took it out for the first time on July 23rd. We ran out of water in 3-4 days and refilling with a water jug was a pai...
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I recycle my grey water to flush the toilet...it not only saves on fresh water but increases my effective grey water capacity (which is always the bottleneck). With a family of four taking navy showers every night, I can now go four nights boondocking v. two in the past.
In short, I installed a new 12v water pump. On the input side, I connect a hose to the grey tank via a cap with a hose connection on the grey dump pipe. To make things easier, I installed a new hose inlet on the side of the trailer and connected the input side of the pump to the inside of this fitting (same as what you'd use for the "city water" inlet)...that way when I get to a campground, I just run a short hose from this fitting to the threaded fitting on the grey dump pipe.
On the output side of the pump, I ran a new hose to the toilet valve.
Installing all this was a pain and took quite a bit of time, but it's way less time in the long run than refilling fresh tanks (not to mention sanitizing the 50 gal bladder I used to use), dumping the grey tanks after a couple of days, etc. Once installed, there is no extra effort and my effective capacity grey just about doubled...and increased dramatically for fresh.
Some people put a "t" in the line to the toilet with manual and/or backflow valves so they can choose to flush with grey or fresh. I didn't want any connection between my fresh and grey tanks, so I opted to make it so I can only flush with grey water. But I connected a sprayer attachment to the fresh water line originally going to the toilet so we can use the sprayer to flush if the grey recycling hose isn't hooked up (e.g. if we're on the road at a rest stop, etc).
In short, I installed a new 12v water pump. On the input side, I connect a hose to the grey tank via a cap with a hose connection on the grey dump pipe. To make things easier, I installed a new hose inlet on the side of the trailer and connected the input side of the pump to the inside of this fitting (same as what you'd use for the "city water" inlet)...that way when I get to a campground, I just run a short hose from this fitting to the threaded fitting on the grey dump pipe.
On the output side of the pump, I ran a new hose to the toilet valve.
Installing all this was a pain and took quite a bit of time, but it's way less time in the long run than refilling fresh tanks (not to mention sanitizing the 50 gal bladder I used to use), dumping the grey tanks after a couple of days, etc. Once installed, there is no extra effort and my effective capacity grey just about doubled...and increased dramatically for fresh.
Some people put a "t" in the line to the toilet with manual and/or backflow valves so they can choose to flush with grey or fresh. I didn't want any connection between my fresh and grey tanks, so I opted to make it so I can only flush with grey water. But I connected a sprayer attachment to the fresh water line originally going to the toilet so we can use the sprayer to flush if the grey recycling hose isn't hooked up (e.g. if we're on the road at a rest stop, etc).
