First time full hookups..

[ColoradoRick]

Yep, already great advise. A lot of the answer is "it depends"


I never, ever, leave the black tank open and rarely leave the gray unless it was getting full and we both wanted to take showers. (With ours, we know the gray tank is full when the water won't drain while taking a shower...which isn't usually the best time to have to run outside to open it!)


We do have a gray tank just for the kitchen sink and I leave that open but I got an adaptor for the hookup to have a fitting for a garden hose and I connect that to the discharge hose. (I had to buy an adaptor with a garden hose connection which is where it connects to.)


It's also smart to have an extra garden hose and extra sewer drain hose...I've seen some campsites where one or both aren't very close to where the trailer parks. (And heading out to find a hardware store when you just want to BBQ isn't very fun...been there, done that)

[JohnD10]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q4A-41EdBBc

[HAPP]

Originally Posted by walaby

Leave both closed.


Dump when they get close to full, or you are preparing to leave.

Black tank especially. Full tank helps the solids flow better. Remember, water is your friend. I use even more water than normal when Im at a full hook up site.. why? because I can and I can dump whenever I need to.


In fact, even at a FHU site, I may not hook up my hose until it's time to leave. Unless Im bored, which usually is not the case.


By doing it this way, you can also get a better understanding of how long you can go before your tanks are full. That way when you are not at a FHU site, you will know when you are getting close. I can generally go 3 days, almost 4 full days before dumping.


Mike

X2. With a nearly full tank you get the best flow to clear it out.

[NJKris]

Originally Posted by amblt

The opaque elbow?

I was wondering how you see through an opaque pipe!!! The following post about watching shadows of chunks go by made me laugh! I'm new to this, can't wait to play Randy Quaid on Vacation! Yes, I will wear that robe and hat!

[Greg in michigan]

Originally Posted by Rugman59

First time w sewer hook ups. I was told to not open the black tank but to just dump daily? Should I leave the Grey open? Thoughts and advise....

Keep black tank close and Gray open, that way you can use as much water for showers and sinks as you want. the day before you dump the black close the Gray to have enough water to rinse the hose after dumping the black
Greg in Michigan

[tosh99]

Originally Posted by walaby

Leave both closed.


Dump when they get close to full, or you are preparing to leave.

In fact, even at a FHU site, I may not hook up my hose until it's time to leave. Unless Im bored, which usually is not the case.


By doing it this way, you can also get a better understanding of how long you can go before your tanks are full. That way when you are not at a FHU site, you will know when you are getting close. I can generally go 3 days, almost 4 full days before dumping.



Mike

You must be a youngster! Just wait till you get to my age.

[Cabinfever97]

This is my way. Leave both closed. First dump black. Flush black tank with two or three full 5 gallon buckets of water. IMO the 5 gallon at once pushes any solids out. Close black then open grey. I usually do one 5 gallon full of water in each grey tank. This procedure goes very quickly since I am filling buckets, we carry 2, while things are draining. I take no longer, if not less, time than most at dump stations. Of course I take my time a little more at full hook ups. WE have a tank flush in this TT but I think the 5 gallons of water all at once does a better job.

[walaby]

Originally Posted by tosh99

You must be a youngster! Just wait till you get to my age.

Ha! Good one

[wrvond]

I keep both closed until ready to dump whichever one needs it at the time. I don't flush either tank until I am ready to pull out.
Many years ago I got the bright idea to leave my slinky stowed away until ready to dump. Of course it waited until I was standing in the shower at 9 PM to fill up! Plus, now that I have a camper with a slide, I find it easier to hook the hose up before I run the slide out.

[mlsncma]

I use the gray water to help flush out my sewer hose after dumping black tank

[Lighting546]

Like others have said I leave black and grey tanks closed until they need to be emptied.



Since it's just me and 2 dogs it takes a week or longer for me to fill up the grey tank for the shower and bedroom sink, that's mainly because I use the campground showers. The grey tank for the kitchen sink takes about a week to fill as well, because it's just me dirtying up dishes and whatever I use to cook my meals, I don't have to use a lot of water to wash those items.


When I bought my 5er (2016) the people that sold it to me had always kept the black tank valve wide open, as a result I'm still trying to get it cleaned out properly, as a general rule I don't empty it until the morning of my departure day as part of breaking camp and getting everything stowed where it belongs. I'm wondering if I can use the Ridex septic tank cleaner in the black tank to speed things up, it also has an external flush fitting that I have a dedicated hose connected to until after I've emptied the tanks, flushed the hoses, shut the corresponding valves and installed the pipe cap.


A week before I departed on my last camping trip I filled the black tank with water and a bottle of tank sensor cleaner, once I got to the campground and had everything hooked up, I emptied the black tank, sadly, what I tried to use as a fix for the tank sensor issue didn't work, so now it's back to the drawing board.


What might be a good thing for you to do is to come up with a checklist for trip departure and a checklist for arriving at the campground or back home at the end of your trip. If you have pets, one of the list items should be having a copy of their medical records and proof of their rabies vaccination either in the rv or your tow vehicle. When you've arrived at your destination and are checking in at the camp ground office is not the time to find out you don't have these records with you, if they ask to see them.


The more times you're out enjoying your RV, the easier it gets to remember everything you have to do upon arrival and prior to departure, enjoy the freedom of the open road and exploring this wonderful country.

[NHHorseman]

Leave black closed. Leave grey open. Black getting to 2/3 full? Close grey. Shower next day and use grey water. Then, dump black, wash out with grey, close black again until it's time to repeat.

[katkt]

I’m with walaby. Keep em all closed, so you have plenty of water to flush the slinky.
As mentioned, plenty of water lets the solids break down a bit in the black tank.

One thing I do, is add a few gallons of water(I fill the toilet twice with fresh water)and a new toilet tablet ‘after’ dumping the black tank, before hitting the road. This lets the treated water slosh around in the black tank while I drive. Scrubbing bubbles, kinda.

[17 Oaks]

Originally Posted by Greg in michigan

Keep black tank close and Gray open, that way you can use as much water for showers and sinks as you want. the day before you dump the black close the Gray to have enough water to rinse the hose after dumping the black
Greg in Michigan

Lot of good answers on here and more ways to skin a cat than there are cats.

IMO

Open vs drained etc is really a set of procedures that I follow depending upon my circumstances at a given point in time.

We travel often, last year about 35 outings, from 2 over nights to 9 over nights, all this impacts what I do.

Generally speaking: Black valve is left closed till I get ready to leave, the galley valve is closed until full and the gray water is left open until I have 3 or 4 showers left, then its closed.

I flush with a lot of water, my goal is to have at least a ¼ full black tank before I drain.

My SOP is to drain the black first, always watching the clear elbow at the dump point, when it slows down to a small stream I open my galley tank and leave the black open, using the galley water to flush the hose, again always watching the elbow for color of effluent, as that slows down to a small stream I now open the grey, again watching and as it turns clear I close off the black and galley tanks.

Sometimes we are just over night: Closed black, open grey and galley. Travel with a partial black tank is not a bad idea (anything over ½ full I will drain). Tavel with less than a half black tank will do a good job of cleaning the insides of that tank and I do that when ever my travel schedule dictates. I will also follow the same procedure with my galley tank if we do a lot of meals aboard. This sloshing around on the road does a great job of cleaning the galley tank from food stuffs and my coffee grounds.

NOTE: Not all units have a galley (3rd) tank, some just have a larger grey.


On a final note:

Latex or other gloves when draining tanks:

I don't use them and suggest to all you don't either, save your money.

But I will get my hands dirty from crap! Not likely.

I was just a kid and stepped off that plane from the US onto the sands of Cam Rah Bay Vietnam and escorted to the Replacement unit. Its a long line to get in-processed and while waiting outside to get in I meet a guy who is leaving out the next morning to his unit assignment. He gives me a piece of advice for my about 5 day or so stay there. He tells me they ask for various volunteers and and they are going to ask for some guys "who can pick up a turd and not get their hands dirty". He told me to volunteer for that duty. What is was, every morning at 0800 you and a couple of other guys follow a truck around the units latrines and under each 'hole' is the bottom ⅓ of a 55 gal drum which is full of ____ you guessed it. One guy on each side, lift and set in the back of the truck, where the other 2 guys will move it to the front and place a empty under the hole. Repeat this a 6 pm, each run takes about 1 hr and that is all you will do for the day. Yea is a crappy stink, but its easy and you're are off the rest of the time.

I volunteered and there were 4 of us. Turned out to a great job. We assembled at the truck the next morning and one guy asked the Sgt, do we get any rubber gloves. Sgt said NO to which the Sgt replied: Gloves only make you sloppy and if you wear gloves you will not be careful to get crap all over you.

He was right and to this day I don't and I never get my hands dirty.

[youroo]

Originally Posted by CedarCreekWoody

I leave them both closed and dump only as needed. The more time water is in the black tank the more the contents dissolve. You need some grey water to flush out the hose after draining the black tank. Also leaving the grey open can sometimes allow fumes from the campground sewer to find their way into your RV via your sink drains.

With liquid in the "Traps" No Fumes can enter into the RV, even the HEPVO traps! Youroo! !

[JohnD10]

Ever smell that 'sewer' smell around the RV park in the early morning hours or in the evening just after dark?

Guess where that smell is coming from...

It is coming from the roof vents of those RV's that leave their gray tanks open all the time they are hooked up.

If only there was a way to get that smell to stay at your campsites...

5 minutes of info that all RV'ers should be required to watch:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q4A-41EdBBc

[17 Oaks]

In all the years, never have noticed any stink lingering in an RV camp. Most of the RV camps I have been across the US, if they have a cap on the sewer connection its not or barely on and the others may or may not even have a cap.

MOST if not all the stink comes from CIGARETTES, especially when you got about 10 folks sitting in a circle in lawn chairs all smoking creating a fog.

[JohnD10]

I live in a 55+ RV park in a park model home and the summer here is the off season...maybe only 20-25 of us here and the rest of the park models are all closed up.

Now that fall is upon us, the snowbirds are slowing starting to flock in from the north and I've noticed lately that sewer smell here.

I had a plumber at my place a couple of weeks ago to fix a pipe leak that the repair was above my pay grade and I told him my theory (which I'll get to in a minute) of what is causing it in this park...and he confirmed it!

My theory of what is going on in my park:

Over 300 park models have been sitting closed up all winter long (most with water and electric shut off) and many of the P-traps in the sinks, showers and wherever else they may be, have dried up with no water in many of them, thus allowing the gasses to escape inside of the park model homes and escaping through bathroom vents, ceiling vents, cracked open windows or when the occupants arrive and open the doors for the first time in months!

The plumber I had here does a lot of work in this park and he confirmed my thinking about why we have been smelling the sewer gasses here as he opens up a lot of these models a few days before the snowbirds arrive.

I just bought my place in May of this year and it had only been closed up about a month before I moved in, so it didn't have time for this to happen to me.

I pulled my 5'ver up to Sedona, AZ last month (two days after John McCain died there) and the very expensive (and only) RV park in town had this very thing going on every early morning and just before dusk every day we were there (four nights total).

[eastvanrv]

I have the black valve closed until we are about to leave or it's near full. I leave the grey valve open. I create a p-trap with the sewer hose; this prevents the smells and any critters from coming up into the camper. The night before we are going to leave or if the black tank is starting to get full, I close the grey valve and after we've taken our showers we have enough water to clean out the hose after dumping the black tank.

[JohnD10]

Originally Posted by eastvanrv

I have the black valve closed until we are about to leave or it's near full. I leave the grey valve open. I create a p-trap with the sewer hose; this prevents the smells and any critters from coming up into the camper. The night before we are going to leave or if the black tank is starting to get full, I close the grey valve and after we've taken our showers we have enough water to clean out the hose after dumping the black tank.

Man-made 'P' trap in the sewer hose is not always effective...

Mostly makeshift at best.