Grey water tank question.

[timfromma]

Our grey fill up fast. We usually have to dump the grey 3 times before the black fills.

[popbreed]

Before using the last 2 coaches we bought new, I filled each of the gray and black tanks with water by dumping premeasured buckets in the shower drainjh and in the toilet. I recorded the amount of water added to turn each light "on". Should have noted I leveled coach first. My tanks are 35 gallons each. Both tanks had all 4 lights 'on" with only 15 gallons in them. I keep a copy of what my readings were near the control panel. The accuracy of leveling is important and depends how the tanks are mounted in the coach. My tanks are NS and therefore my leveling is critical front to back. Some coaches have the tanks running EW which results in critical leveling side to side. Shapes of the tanks also affect the accuracy of the lights. My tanks are narrow but others are wide and not very tall.

Also, some coaches (mine included) use a one way flapper valve on the shower drain which results in my "low point" for a overfull gray is the 2 sinks.

[sask]

I have thought about the idea of putting in a composting toilet and then bridging the grey and black tanks. There are many RVers out there that have done this but I really do not need an annoyed wife if it goes wrong.

[Wood2Cook]

My Forrest River Micro 20CB claims 28 Gal of grey. They didn't tell me that there were two Grey tanks; 14 and 14 Gallons each. The first catches the Kitchen and Bathroom sinks and the second catches the shower.

[mnoland30]

We camped in a campground near Yellowstone for a week, with no water or sewage connectons, and no dump station. I had a 30 gallon tank for water in the back of the truck, and another 30 gallon tank for gray water. I would fill the 30 gallon tank at the one campground spigot, and use it to fill the trailer tank. I hooked a pump to the grey water outlet and pumped it into the truck grey tank. I would drive somewhere away from water sources and dump the grey water. My darling sister-in-law would use almost 30 gallons for a shower.

I know I'll get people telling me that dumping gray water iis unacceptable, but I've had State EPA employees tell me it was o.k. I just didn't want to dump it near a lake or stream. When I worked for the Forest Service in AZ, we got a permit to spray sewage effluent out in the forest. In third world countries, they call human waste "fertilizer". Detergents contain phosphates, which are also fertilizer. That is sometimes a problem in lakes and streams because it causes algae blooms. In Lake Powell, all of the houseboats dump their grey water into the lake. Desert lakes tend to have a lack of nutrients. The fishing got much better once the number of houseboats increased. At Lake Mead, the fishing club used to dump fertilizer into the lake to make the fishing better.

At one campground in Montana, they had a hookup for the grey water that watered the trees.

All that said, hundreds of campers dumping in the same place all the time, can be a problem, so I don't add to that.