Black tank best practices

[Paulzy123]

Hello

We purchased a permanent site to place out travel trailer on.

What would be the best practise for using the sewer system on the trailer with the parks, on site sewer connection.

I'm a little iffy on just leaving it all open, as I don't want to have any leftovers stuck in the tank. Or are they designed to fully drain?

What are the thougths on this?

I don't really want to have to wak behind the trailer every few days and pull the drain levers either.

Thanks
Paul

[louiskathy]

When we had the '88 Champion (old class A) hubby put a macerator on the rig with separate valves. One for the gray and one for the black. I don't exactly remember the way he setup the valves but I DO remember where he put the switches. He put one set inside beside the shower.

If you really hate having to walk outside to pull valves ... look into that.

[path1]

Get with your new neighbors or campground management. The basic idea to get rid of stuff and not have any smells or damage.

[korbe]

If my rig was parked at a permanent site, I would at least install some ABS pipe and fittings and not use the slinky.

Unless you can figure a way to bypass the black tank, fill and flush seems like the only alternative to keep from having solids build up.

[jimmyinsd]

right or wrong....we leave the black closed and let the grey flow. with that said we rarely use the toilet in the camper, there is a bath house about 50 yards from our trailer so its really as easy to just walk over there if we are outside.

[DavidP]

Black definitely closed. I leave the grey open and then flush it before packing up. Since your trailer will be semi-permanent I would flush the grey when leaving the trailer unoccupied/departing. Draining off grey water each time the tank fills in a perm site or IMO any site would get old fast. When I’m set up I’m not interested in dealing with my tanks until I leave.

[Road_Phantom]

I leave the black valve closed. When I know I will have to dump within a day or two, I close the grey valve and let the tank fill up so that I have something to flush everything out with.
After the dump,
I close the black off and leave the grey open.

[Paulzy123]

Not being lazy.

Just making sure that I don't get a build up of dried terds in the tank..

Fill and dump it is..

Thanks

[Old-Biscuit]

Dump valve open......liquids run out, poop stays behind....building up, drying out, turning hard. Next thing you know you can't properly flush toilet due to blockage.

Your choice.......be lazy and leave valve open OR go open drain valve when tank is full, flush/rinse tank. 10 minutes of involvement once a week.

[myredracer]

The black tank must be kept closed until ready to dump. If you left it open all the time, there would not be enough liquid to flush the solids out and the solids would build up. I can't imagine how awful it would be to have to clean out a tank plugged up with solids. :E

The grey water helps to flush out the hose after the black water goes through so it's better to keep that closed too. I *think* some say it is okay to leave the grey open. If you had a galley tank on it's own outlet, that should be okay to leave open.

[wildwest450]

Paulzy123 wrote:
I don't really want to have to walk behind the trailer every few days and pull the drain levers either.

Thanks
Paul

You either have a very small tank or you poop way too much. Let it fill up, I can't imagine just letting an open tank fill up with solids, yuck. My tank has never been full even with 4 people staying for 5 days.

[weathershak]

Leave the valves closed until tanks are near full, then dump, so you do not get the buildup. Sorry, but its the best way. Thats what I have been doing for 3 months now and usually only have to dump once a week. It only takes a few minutes.