1973 Terry plumbing question

Had a 72 Terry. Loved that poor old trailer. If I remember right you need a portable tote tank to dump all the gray water. Otherwise everything goes into the black tank. But to do that you need to use a termination cap and open the dump valve. Kind of an ugly deal. Also you will find the piping is probably still galvanized along with the pressure tank. When we bought our Terry all the lines had frozen and ruptured. Replaced it with plastic and it worked great for years. I also got rid of the compressor and installed a water pump instead.

If you can, drain your tanks, then in your yard open the dump valves into a five gallon bucket. Yeah, it can be ucky, but you need to know. So, then put some water down the shower, does it run out of the black tank? Dump some down the sink, does it run out of the black tank? That is how I figured out mine and I just dumped the waste down the toilet in the house.

Thank you guys so much. It’s great to finally get some answers after searching the Internet for ever and finding nothing! I’m heading over to my trailer tomorrow to try the water system and I’m hoping that the pipes are in good order until I can get some cash for Pex.

It could be that the gray water doesn't have a tank and drains out on the ground (or directly out the outlet). It used to be not uncommon to let the gray water flow out wherever when camping, though of course that's not acceptable in most places today.

So as it turns out I only have a black water tank I’m thinking of getting a portable tank so I can dump my gray water in that. A more pressing problem has arisen that being I have two ruptures in my water lines so I’m going to pex the whole thing I found some pex for cheap thank god. Also my hot water tank has been leaking and is no longer useable. Any ideas on what the best kind of hot water heater would be to use for my trailer? I’m rather strapped for cash so right now it will be cold showers! Thank you for your time and I hope someone has some good ideas as to what kind of hot water heater I can use!

You will want to replace your hot water heater with the same type make and size as you now have or you will be facing major structural remodeling to get a different size to fit. More then likely you should have an Attwood or Suburban hot water heater.

Ok, Black water is normally the toilets.. OCCASIONALY a maker will plumb the bathroom Lav Sink into the black but normally that, and the kitchen sink, and the shower go to Gray.

If you have THREE tanks.. (I do) the proper labels are BLACK (Same as above) GRAY (includes the kitchen sink) and WASH (Gray with out the kitchen sink).

Why is this important.

The rules for "Can it just be dumped on the ground" Depend on Black (Never) Gray (Some places but not everywhere) and Wash, (Even more but still not everywhere).

NOTE: Soemn folks leave the gray valve open. I have found that does not always work well.. I keep mine closed till time to dump.. Then dump black first. and then gray.

Excellent thank you all for your input it is great to have such a informative and generous community willing to share their knowledge. New big problem though got to replace the flywheel on my tv it seems like I will be well acquainted with my new tt and tv!