grey and black water tanks

[goatguy]

realize it's a function of tank sizes, but how many days between emptying tanks are realistic / typical for 2 persons when "boondocking" (hookups not available)? or maybe a range?

thanks!

[tenbear]

We have relatively small tanks, fresh water 35g, grey 21g and black 25g. We regularly go to events for 4 days without dumping. It requires some effort, like saving dishwater and dumping that in the black tank, very quick showers, using the event's pottys, etc.

[wanderingbob]

I guess ya could fix the valves so all the tanks mixed black ,. grey and fresh . Just use the water over and over ! Be sure ya use a good filter !

[2gypsies1]

dahkota wrote:
Our average use is 10G of water between the two of us per day.

This just made me smile and think of a single friend of ours. He allows 2 gal of water/day which includes drinking, cooking, washing... and he's a very neat, clean person. 🙂

[SoundGuy]

bukhrn wrote:
If you go back & re-read the OP, it asks about how many days can he go on, Grey & Black tanks, not fresh, or "where" to fill/dump.

Think about it - doesn't matter whether he "asked" about fresh or not because without an adequate supply of fresh water his question about grey / black is moot. :R Point is, how one deals effectively with fresh / grey / black is greatly determined by whether one is truly "boondocking" out in the middle of nowhere or simply dry camping in an organized campground where services are usually available. 😛

[bukhrn]

SoundGuy wrote:

SoundGuy wrote:
I'm not clear either what you're asking as "boondocking" is generally accepted to mean camping out in the middle of nowhere with no resources of any kind immediately available as they would be in an organized campground where you may be "dry camping" but where fresh water and dump station facilities are available somewhere nearby. Those are two entirely different scenarios that require two entirely different approaches to sourcing fresh potable water and disposing of grey / black water. Which is it you're talking about? :h

korbe wrote:
Boondocking or dry camping? Does it really matter?

Of course it matters. :S If you're boondocking well away from any source of resupply you have to have a workable plan as to how you're going to manage your valuable fresh water supply without running out and when necessary how you're going to get rid of unwanted grey / black water. In comparison, if we're dry camping in a provincial park, state park, conservation area, COE park, etc, fresh potable water and facilities to dispose of grey / black water are almost always located within the campground. BIG difference. :R

If you go back & re-read the OP, it asks about how many days can he go on, Grey & Black tanks, not fresh, or "where" to fill/dump.

[Clay_L]

My wife and I put 3 1/2 gallons in the black tank each day and 10 gallons of gray water in the gray tank each day.
This is when only one of us takes a shower each day. We could use a little less gray water by putting a plastic tub in each side of the sink when washing dishes and dumping that outside (where allowed).

[JAC1982]

60 gallon fresh, 30 black, 35 gray

For hubs and I, we have gone from a Wednesday afternoon to a Monday morning, with minimal dishwashing (paper plates!), each with a daily navy shower. The indicators usually show the black to be 2/3 full for the last day or so (I know they aren't entirely reliable). Also, this experience is at a music festival in 90-100 degree heat so we're drinking a lot (both non-alcoholic and alcoholic beverages). We also do use the facilities inside the festival while we're in there for 4-6 hours a day. I'm guessing we could probably make it another day or two, especially if we aren't drinking like college students 😛

We've never even come close to running out of water. I frankly wonder why they designed it with such a large water tank, but such a small black tank.

[korbe]

SoundGuy wrote:

SoundGuy wrote:
I'm not clear either what you're asking as "boondocking" is generally accepted to mean camping out in the middle of nowhere with no resources of any kind immediately available as they would be in an organized campground where you may be "dry camping" but where fresh water and dump station facilities are available somewhere nearby. Those are two entirely different scenarios that require two entirely different approaches to sourcing fresh potable water and disposing of grey / black water. Which is it you're talking about? :h

korbe wrote:
Boondocking or dry camping? Does it really matter?

Of course it matters. :S If you're boondocking well away from any source of resupply you have to have a workable plan as to how you're going to manage your valuable fresh water supply without running out and when necessary how you're going to get rid of unwanted grey / black water. In comparison, if we're dry camping in a provincial park, state park, conservation area, COE park, etc, fresh potable water and facilities to dispose of grey / black water are almost always located within the campground. BIG difference. :R

:S :h Hey, this topic looks like it's debatable. :B If I have to leave my camp spot to go to the dump station, It doesn't matter if that dump station is a quarter mile or 10 miles away. I will have had to break camp in either case. Why does every topic or question posted here end up with a ":h" at the end of your comments? It doesn't have to be so difficult, IMHO. 🙂

[SoundGuy]

SoundGuy wrote:
I'm not clear either what you're asking as "boondocking" is generally accepted to mean camping out in the middle of nowhere with no resources of any kind immediately available as they would be in an organized campground where you may be "dry camping" but where fresh water and dump station facilities are available somewhere nearby. Those are two entirely different scenarios that require two entirely different approaches to sourcing fresh potable water and disposing of grey / black water. Which is it you're talking about? :h

korbe wrote:
Boondocking or dry camping? Does it really matter?

Of course it matters. :S If you're boondocking well away from any source of resupply you have to have a workable plan as to how you're going to manage your valuable fresh water supply without running out and when necessary how you're going to get rid of unwanted grey / black water. In comparison, if we're dry camping in a provincial park, state park, conservation area, COE park, etc, fresh potable water and facilities to dispose of grey / black water are almost always located within the campground. BIG difference. :R

[korbe]

SoundGuy wrote:
.......I'm not clear either what you're asking as "boondocking" is generally accepted to mean camping out in the middle of nowhere with no resources of any kind immediately available as they would be in an organized campground where you may be "dry camping" but where fresh water and dump station facilities are available somewhere nearby. Those are two entirely different scenarios that require two entirely different approaches to sourcing fresh potable water and disposing of grey / black water. Which is it you're talking about? :h

Boondocking or dry camping? Does it really matter?

With our 60gal fresh, 40gal black, and 40gal grey, the 2 of us, while in conserve mode can stay away from the dump station for about 7 days.

[dahkota]

Our average use is 10G of water between the two of us per day. We have an 80G tank. We can go 7 nights/8 days before needing more water. Our gray and black tanks together hold 90 gallons so we run out of water before our tanks are filled.

[filthy_beast]

larry cad wrote:
The "ultimate" boon docking experience is to stay out in the desert at Quartszite AZ. We did that a couple of years ago and found that with myself and my wife, we could last a week on the grey tank which is 60 gallons. We had bottled water to drink, and took navy type showers. Typically the black tank is not a consideration as the grey tank fills up much more quickly.

May be your "ultimate" boondocking experience but too many people for us!

[braindead0]

We have 25gal black, 12 gal gray. When we're boondocking we can go a week no problem, we do not generally take showers (er, we're 50 miles from anyone else, and being dry desert sweat doesn't tend to stick around and get all that stinky anyway) and dish washing is very limited. After a week I usually take a shower to make sure there's enough water in the gray tank to flush the slinky.

As you can see there is no answer that fits everyone or every situation.

[SoundGuy]

goatguy wrote:
realize it's a function of tank sizes, but how many days between emptying tanks are realistic / typical for 2 persons when "boondocking" (hookups not available)? or maybe a range?

I'm not clear either what you're asking as "boondocking" is generally accepted to mean camping out in the middle of nowhere with no resources of any kind immediately available as they would be in an organized campground where you may be "dry camping" but where fresh water and dump station facilities are available somewhere nearby. Those are two entirely different scenarios that require two entirely different approaches to sourcing fresh potable water and disposing of grey / black water. Which is it you're talking about? :h