Boondocking question

[Route66Rambler]

Originally Posted by Foldbak

Thanks, Carl. That's what we planned. I just with the dam tank monitors worked. It's a little unnerving not knowing how full the black tanks is.

Just get a water flow meter and attach to your fresh hose when you fill your tank. You will know exactly how much water you have to start.

Use the bath house as much as possible. That is where most of your water is used. We can go a week without dumping tanks when using a bath house.

[DutchmenSport]

Originally Posted by Route66Rambler

...

Use the bath house as much as possible. That is where most of your water is used. ...

Because I have used my Barker Blue Tote so much, I can honestly say the heaviest water usage in our camper is the kitchen sink as I've tracked the amount of water this way, multiple times. Now, when washing dishes outside there is no water going into the gray tank, agree... the tank can go for days. But the actual water usage is still highest for our kitchen sink.

Next is the bathroom grey tank. Why? Well, mostly because we have a washing machine. It takes approximately 8 gallons of water to run one wash cycle. We have always done "Navy Showers" and our water usage "there" is always minimal. It's the washing machine that fills the grey tank in the bathroom.

With that said, that's actually a good thing. When back-flushing the grey tank into the black, all that laundry soap water is back-flushing out the black tank. This helps keep the black tank clean and odor free.

Again, I back flush every single time I dump my black tank. I never miss.

Advantages: Tank is always clean , no smells, no poop pyramids. Conserves water / recycles the grey water for another purpose and don't have to refill the black tank to flush it out with even more fresh water. It is a great way to clean your black tank, especially if boon docking with limited fresh water.

Disadvantages: You need to attach a 3rd valve (Flush King) or something similar to the discharge pipe. It takes a few extra minutes of time to accomplish the back flush. You have to be aware of how much water remains in your grey tank each time you back flush, so there is enough at the end to do a final rinse of your sewer hose. Remember to close off the grey water tank valve before releasing the black tank. This way, no black tank "stuff" will back-feed into the grey tank.

[Creeker]

Originally Posted by DutchmenSport

Because I have used my Barker Blue Tote so much, I can honestly say the heaviest water usage in our camper is the kitchen sink as I've tracked the amount of water this way, multiple times. Now, when washing dishes outside there is no water going into the gray tank, agree... the tank can go for days. But the actual water usage is still highest for our kitchen sink.

Same for us. We are seasoned dry campers/boondockers. About twenty five years worth in various 5ers, TT's and a Truck camper. Beware of the kitchen sink usage!

[bigred715]

The one state park on the Oregon coast that we stay at doesn't have sewer hookups. We use the parks showers and restrooms when I can convince my wife. To dump the kitchen tank we sometimes use the dishwater drains located around the park to dump about 10 gallons of sink water. We stay at this park for 5 days and then dump everything at our next stop. This park has a dump station, but is much too busy to wait in line for. Don't know why they don't put in 2 more dump stations for this large park. They have full hookups for the camp hosts. This is South Beach in Newport Oregon which is a state park.