Toilet usage

[birish21]

So I just bought my first travel trailer, a 22' Jayco Jayflight and I have a question about toilet usage and boondocking. We are going on our first trip next weekend for two days and we want to be able to use the toilet for liquids only but I read that it is not a good idea to travel with water in your trailer. Is there any way we can use the toilet without having water stored in the fresh water tank? Like bringing a large jug of water or a hand sprayer to rinse the bowl?

[birish21]

fallsrider wrote:

Huntindog wrote:

2112 wrote:
Welcome to the forum birish21

I'm not sure why you want to go the liquids only route but that's your business. It's your camper, your rules.

I have no need to carry a full fresh water tank but I always have at least 5 gallons or so in the tank to flush the toilet and hand washing while on the road. You could carry water containers to pour into the toilet and hand washing if you wish but that defeats the purpose of having the system you purchased.

ALWAYS keep a little water in the toilet bowl in order to keep the seal wet. About an inch or so. This is while on the road, camping or during storage. NEVER let the bowl seal dry out.

Enjoy your first trip. You'll learn a lot and maybe change a few rules as you go.

Caution! If you leave water in the bowl when on the road, it can end up on the floor! If the road is bumpy enough, or steep enough, or you have to brake hard, or any combination of them.... Don't ask me how I know this.
The bowl seals will be fine without water for a few hours while you are under tow...

We have never had this problem...yet. You may prove us wrong some day.

To the OP, put some water in your FW tank and enjoy the benefits of it. It is nice to turn on the pump and use your own toilet while traveling.

We use our toilet just like the ones at home. I only have 1 rule...the only thing that goes in it is human waste and toilet paper. Nothing else. No sanitary products, etc.

That sounds like a good rule. The wide finally bought off on using it for what it's meant for lol. I am sure I would have snuck a few in there anyway!

[RandomAbstract]

If you are a guy and a really good aim (although those might be mutually exclusive), you don't need to flush for #1. 🙂

[RandomAbstract]

wrenchbender wrote:
I plan ahead with water quantity always Cary 3 days of emergency rations. Learned the hard way

Yeah, that one!

[siamese]

A full tank(s) on my 26 ft. trailer weighs close to 800 pounds. I carry only about 20 gallons to keep the weight more manageable, but still have a little water onboard for nature calls, etc.. Like so many things, it's a compromise.

[wrenchbender]

I plan ahead with water quantity always Cary 3 days of emergency rations. Learned the hard way

[fallsrider]

Huntindog wrote:

2112 wrote:
Welcome to the forum birish21

I'm not sure why you want to go the liquids only route but that's your business. It's your camper, your rules.

I have no need to carry a full fresh water tank but I always have at least 5 gallons or so in the tank to flush the toilet and hand washing while on the road. You could carry water containers to pour into the toilet and hand washing if you wish but that defeats the purpose of having the system you purchased.

ALWAYS keep a little water in the toilet bowl in order to keep the seal wet. About an inch or so. This is while on the road, camping or during storage. NEVER let the bowl seal dry out.

Enjoy your first trip. You'll learn a lot and maybe change a few rules as you go.

Caution! If you leave water in the bowl when on the road, it can end up on the floor! If the road is bumpy enough, or steep enough, or you have to brake hard, or any combination of them.... Don't ask me how I know this.
The bowl seals will be fine without water for a few hours while you are under tow...

We have never had this problem...yet. You may prove us wrong some day.

To the OP, put some water in your FW tank and enjoy the benefits of it. It is nice to turn on the pump and use your own toilet while traveling.

We use our toilet just like the ones at home. I only have 1 rule...the only thing that goes in it is human waste and toilet paper. Nothing else. No sanitary products, etc.

[birish21]

DE88ROX wrote:

wanderingbob wrote:
I do not understand why to save weight that you would carry water in a jug !Does it weigh less in a jug !
2112 said it , always leave enough water in the bowl to cover the seals , for several reasons . as the seals dry out they will sometimes seize together . These seals are usually not rubber but some magical , mystical, expensive compound .

i get the OP's logic. A couple gallons of water in a jug weigh a lot less than 40-50 gallons in the tank. In lieu of jugs, i just throw about 5 gallons in the tank and fill up whenever i reach my destination.

Yea it was more of way to just rinse out the bowl after going #1 instead of filling up the tank with water. I have never done this before so just trying to get my facts straight before we leave next weekend. But if rolling with 1/3 of a tank is not a problem then we will do that. I really appreciate the responses.

[Atlee]

I use the black tank/toilet for what it's intended for. The bathroom in my trailer is used like the bathroom in my house.

As for carrying fresh water, I've always had at least 1/3 tank, which, in my old trailer, amounted to at least 13-15 gallons. And if I were boondocking at football games where there was no water source, I carried a full tank of 40 gallons.

My new trailer, Jayco 23RB, has 84 gallons of fresh water capacity. It will be rare when I have a full tank of water. However, I will always still have between 1/3 and 2/3 tank of fresh water.

I haven't seen any warnings from Jayco about traveling with water in the tank. And I hope I don't. If I had, I would not have bought the Jayco.

A warning from the manufacturer to not carry fresh water when traveling tells me that manufacturer knowingly makes and sells an inferior product.

[FrankShore]

Yep, keep some RV antifreeze or olive oil in the tank when in non-use, or you can do what you want.

[Huntindog]

2112 wrote:
Welcome to the forum birish21

I'm not sure why you want to go the liquids only route but that's your business. It's your camper, your rules.

I have no need to carry a full fresh water tank but I always have at least 5 gallons or so in the tank to flush the toilet and hand washing while on the road. You could carry water containers to pour into the toilet and hand washing if you wish but that defeats the purpose of having the system you purchased.

ALWAYS keep a little water in the toilet bowl in order to keep the seal wet. About an inch or so. This is while on the road, camping or during storage. NEVER let the bowl seal dry out.

Enjoy your first trip. You'll learn a lot and maybe change a few rules as you go.

Caution! If you leave water in the bowl when on the road, it can end up on the floor! If the road is bumpy enough, or steep enough, or you have to brake hard, or any combination of them.... Don't ask me how I know this.
The bowl seals will be fine without water for a few hours while you are under tow...

[DE88ROX]

wanderingbob wrote:
I do not understand why to save weight that you would carry water in a jug !Does it weigh less in a jug !
2112 said it , always leave enough water in the bowl to cover the seals , for several reasons . as the seals dry out they will sometimes seize together . These seals are usually not rubber but some magical , mystical, expensive compound .

i get the OP's logic. A couple gallons of water in a jug weigh a lot less than 40-50 gallons in the tank. In lieu of jugs, i just throw about 5 gallons in the tank and fill up whenever i reach my destination.

[Mark_and_Linda]

Put water in the fresh water tank...and don't be afraid to use your toilet. This past Monday, traveling down the interstate, have to go #1, rest stop closed, pull in to a Love's. Get key out of pocket, open door, turn on pump, use my own bathroom. Just like home! I clean it...I use it.

[01tundra]

We use our toilet for liquids only and also camp in the middle of Winter when the TT is already winterized.

In the Winter I pour about a half gallon of pink anti-freeze down the toilet prior to leaving the house and then we have a small plastic bottle that we fill with water and use to flush the toilet with - works great. There's no reason that same principle (minus the anti-freeze) couldn't be used in the summer.

On our lightweight TT we can't afford to travel around with a full tank of fresh water due to GVWR, so if we dry camp we bring along water in collapsible jugs loaded in our TV.

[pira114]

2112 wrote:
My goodness, I didn't mean to create an argument.

No argument, no worries. I always like several varying opinions, theories, experience, etc. I'm not always right. No one is. We all throw in our posts and people can do more research based on that if they want. That's what I do. Helps me learn more. Never too old to learn. Never know enough to want to stop learning. Some people will go with whatever was posted more.

Also, people new to this game can start learning answers to questions they didn't even ask. For example, everyone needs a bigger truck. Haha