Gray tank under truck

[ajriding]

Anyone ever put an extra gray tank under the truck?

I removed all my holding tanks, and will not use them til I re-sell it. They block too much, the spare tire thing, the license plate, the air bag valves and the trailer hitch.

I usually boondock and can drain gray to ground, but sometimes need a small tank. I dont do toilets.

I have room under the Ram passenger seat for a decent size tank. A garden hose will suffice to get it there.

[burningman]

Upon sight of one, it appears that it’s square and rigid and wouldn’t conform to uneven surfaces but the joints have enough flex that it actually does work great on odd ground.
I can tilt my camper forward backward or sideways like a ‘64 Chevy on hydraulics.

I’d rather off-road with the Stable-Lift than with corner jacks. Over the years I’ve ripped out a corner jack or two, but the Stable-Lift can take a pretty good hit with no issue.
It sits about as high as my axles do.
Of course for ultimate clearance you’d have corner jacks and remove them from the camper.
It’s got three little turnbuckle stabilizers that literally drop into place if you want it totally rigid while off the truck. Drop those on and give ‘em a twist or two and it feels like the camper is on a concrete foundation.

Anyway... if the loading/unloading difficulties are a big concern, these things are the solution.
As far as backing under the camper straight, you’ll have to do that with any setup and that’s a matter of learning how to drive your truck. It’s got mirrors, that’s what they’re for.

[Grit_dog]

How’s the stable lift handle uneven terrain? Not talking straight slope longit or transverse, but situations where all 4 jack legs seem to be at differnet heights to either unload camper or to level it out once unloaded ?
I can pull the truck and TC into a “difficult “ area, unload easily and if I meacure the jacks right when the camper lifts off the truck, can replicate it in one shot for re -loading, with separate jacks of course.

[mkirsch]

A Stablelift does not change the requirement of being in near-perfect alignment to get the camper on the truck.

You can have all the room between the fenders and the jacks that you want, but you still only have 3/4" per side between the camper base and the wheel wells. Not many people are capable of driving within a 1" tolerance no matter how much practice they get.

[burningman]

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.

[billtex]

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!

[mkirsch]

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.

[Kayteg1]

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.

[Grit_dog]

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.....

[ajriding]

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

[burningman]

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.

[SideHillSoup]

[kohldad]

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.

[ScottG]

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.