Honey wagon

[wakamicamper]

I just took delivery of a new 8280SS trailer. In the deal with the dealer, a honey wagon or a Tote N Store, model 25608 (25 gal) was thrown in as a gift. I notice that the specs on my trailer are:

Fresh Water 43 gal,
Grey Water 76 gal, and
Black water 38 gal.

I am assuming that this is in US gallons. (I live in Canada and our gallons are larger than the US Gallon)
My question to this board is should I go back to the dealer and trade this one in on a larger capacity tote, or is this one okay?

My thinking is that it should be big enough to cover at least the Black Water tank. I dry camp for at least 3 weeks every summer where the honey wagon would come in handy. As a 2nd thought, do I need a 2nd tank for the Grey water tank as well?

Thanks

[LadyWindrider]

Let's do a little math. If you go in with 43 gallons of fresh water, you have about 35 gallons usable. If this were divided between the holding tanks, about 30 gray to 10 black. 30 gallons of water plus the honey wagon is 250 pounds. Can you pick this up and load it and take and dump it? Also when you have reached 25 gallons of gray, you are out of fresh water. Are you hauling more water in? You mentioned dry camp for 3 weeks, is that at one time? Hope you have a generator to charge the battery or you will not have a water pump after a few days. As for a bigger honey wagon, it is going to get heavy fast, 8 pounds per gallon.

All of the above numbers and examples are for reference only, your usage will be different, but you'll have to figure it out. How far you have to go and dump, haul more water in, battery life, will all come in to play. Good luck. Also, if the honey wagon and the trailer were made in the U.S., then they will be U.S. gallons. Not sure how much bigger a Canadian gallon is, and I thought TEXAS was the only place things were bigger.

[VTX Al]

Imperial gallon (measure formerly used in Canada) = 160 fluid ounces. (Canada now uses metric system of measurement)
U.S. gallon = 133.2 fluid ounces
Texas gallon = great big bottle of whiskey !!!

...VTX-AL

[Radio]

The tanks have gotten bigger in the last year.

On my 8280SS I have 4 30 gallon tanks - galley gray, shower gray, black and fresh. Also they throw in 6 gallons for the water heater. So that makes:

36 gallons fresh
60 gallons gray
30 gallons black.

The galley gray is usually the first to fill up. I guess if I were you I'd trade the tote for a larger one. I got my dealer to throw in a second gel battery.

One of these days I'll get a tote. I've drained down the grays with a five gallon bucket. Time consuming, but I had nothing better to do.

On Edit: I just looked at the Forest River web site and it seems the 8280SS is no longer offered, Just the 8280WS with the wardrobe slide in the bedroom. If you want a non-WS version, you best hurry up and find a dealer that's got one!!

[wakamicamper]

Thanks for the replies.
If you convert US gallons to Imperial (Can) gallons to litres,

Fresh Water of 43 US gal. = 35 Can. gal. = 162 litres
Grey Water of 76 US gal. = 63 Can. gal. = 287 litres
Black Water 38 US gal. = 31 Can gal. = 143 litres

My tot n store has 2 large rubber wheels on the rear only, and can be towed behind my pickup. We only use the water pump for showers while dry camping, we use a 5 gal water container which I fill daily which has to be filtered before using. It will sit on the counter. The filter in the trailer will not filter ecoli or giardia which is required where I dry camp.

The 8280SS is still available as a special order, ours was built on Dec 4/09, as a 2010 model. It has everything that the 8280WS has except the wardrobe slide. I was worried when I couldn't find it on the Forest River web pages and got confirmation from the dealer.

I have done more research elsewhere on various RV forums and most have said to use the honey wagon only on the grey tank, (less of a mess) as the black water tank has the inside sprayer for easier cleaning. As to the weight of the tank, I think the one I have now will be fine.

[Radio]

My only problem with a tote is where am I going to store it? I guess it would go between the hitch and the tailgate? It sure would stretch the time we could stay in state parks.

[dezolen]

What do you mean our gallons are larger in Canada? Try to find any container that holds the larger quantity.
First they screwed us when we went to metric as 4 liters is less than 1 CDN gallon but the price stayed the same.
Now we get everything in US gallons I assume as paint is sold as 3.7 liters which is equal to a US gallon but again the price never dropped.
All this for what??

[Big bird]

You folks up north are crazy; don't let your politicians act like ours. If they see California you are really in trouble.


Big Bird

[Herk7769]

I checked and this is the best photo I have of the bumper mount I made.

Rear of Camper pictures from travel photos on webshots

In the process of adding a generator deck there as well. I will post photos when finished.