Black Water Tank-how long till full Boondocking?

[Jerapais69]

All,

Wife and i sold the house and will be staying on property where house will be built in our 5w in 2 weeks. We have an 88 gallon black water tank (and 88 gray). Having tough time getting someone to come on site to drain. How long on average, will it take to fill up black tank? And can we dump gray water tank on site? We have a 10 acre horse farm.
THANKS IN ADVANCE!!

[Notanlines]

Paul, your question about the grey water dumping is a firm 'yes.' You cannot dump grey water as far as I know on any public lands such as national forests or RV parks, etc. Very few areas, if any, would regulate shower water on a ten acre site. You are dumping shower water or dish water on your own land. Blackwater doesn't enter into this same situation. You are building a house; surely you have a septic tank you can pump into or your public sewer line has been set up in advance? This a little article that may be of interest:

https://greywateraction.org/greywater-codes-and-policy/

And as far as how often to dump an 88 gallon black tank;
that depends. Are you going to have people in for a drink? Maybe for lunch? Are you going to require the men to go behind a bush? Who will be in the RV who realizes how little capacity you have? If it is just the two of you then maybe four days on the outside.

[Jerapais69]

Thx notanlines for the reply! Just me and the wife and I work all day but we’ll be living full time. If I had a septic tank or public sewer I would hook up but I won’t till house is built. And don’t call me Surely! Lol!!

[fjr vfr]

When camping our 40 gal black tank lasts about a week. But it all depends on how full of it you are...:p lol.
A friend of ours had a big tank in his pickup truck. He used a maserator pump and pumped from the trailer into the truck tank. He then drove to an rv dump and drained and flushed the truck tank. With 88 gal you might need 2 tanks or drums in the truck. Good luck

[Jerapais69]

When camping our 40 gal black tank lasts about a week. But it all depends on how full of it you are...:p lol.
A friend of ours had a big tank in his pickup truck. He used a maserator pump and pumped from the trailer into the truck tank. He then drove to an rv dump and drained and flushed the truck tank. With 88 gal you might need 2 tanks or drums in the truck. Good luck
Thx fjr. I now have two very divergent time frames. 4 days and 2 weeks. Not sure where to go with this....???

[Stripit]

Well, if you kind of guess a flush on my toilet is just about 1 gallon of water, if you use the sprayer a bit more, so from empty to full waste tank will take about 80 or so flushes. Maybe a few less, or a few more? So how often it gets used should give you a how many days it will last. At least how I would guess. Your mileage may vary.

[Notanlines]

I already sent the OP a PM to point out a few things. There is a Dometic commode that advertises slightly more than a pint per flush. No matter, urine will NOT rinse clean with less than 2 quarts per flush. Solids left behind because of too little water per flush will result in a massive poo pyramid in a very short period of time. This guy is up against a tough problem, and west Pennsylvania weather won’t help come November.

[Suite Sweets]

Jerapais,
1. I concur with the 2 weeks
2. Regarding the poo pyramid - holding the flush valve open with your foot, stir the pyramid up every 3-4 days. it will not get hard, because it will be sitting in the midst of the urine and flush water that you've sent down the toilet each time you flush.
3. Gray water begins to stink after 2-3 days. Get a sewer cap that that has a hose connection. Leaving your gray water tank open, fun a hose 10-15 feet away from your rig and let the water run into the ground. Caution would dictate you run the hose into a screen, or sock, that you can remove and clean periodically. Food scraps, washed down with sink water, may attract rats.
4. Consider a hole 3 feet deep and about 3 feet across. Line the hole with landscape fabric and drop a washing machine drum into the center. Then line the cavity around the washing machine drum with washed gravel. Take a piece of plywood the same dimensions as the hole in the ground (plus 6" on each edge) and cut a whole just the right diameter for the sewer hose. Dump your sewage periodically (weekly ? every 2 weeks ?). If soil is sandy, within a day, all of the water has dissipated. With less frequency than dumping, shovel out the sewage. You may need to use a hoe, or a trench shovel - depending on how clean you want to shovel out the drum. Shovel (or hoist) the sewage directly into a wheelbarrow and carry it to different points on your property, where to bury in just below the surface. It'll work just fine. If what I describe sounds gross, it'll only be bad the first time. After that, it's just another job that falls to the men in the household.

[Jerapais69]

Thx SS! Love the dryer drum idea. All this helps so much. Thx to all

[wingnut60]

SS, that is a great idea, would never have thought of it.

Grey water on your own land, not a problem. But get a 100'+ hose to drain it far away from the trailer.

We can routinely make it 8-12 days on the black tank when boondocking, longer if necessary.

[Hanr3]

I'm with SS, well along the same idea. Dig a trench and drain your tanks periodically. As the trench fills with solids, cover and dig another trench or extend your current one. If you are installing a septic system, have you had a perk test yet? That will give you a guide on frequency of draining the tanks. Planning on a garden, perfect location for the trench.
Just remember, poo runs downhill.
As for the trench, buy a trench shovel form your local hardware or big box store. They are about 6" wide and 18" deep. Yep, you guessed it. Designed to dig a trench. Mostly for services, electrical, plumbing, cable, phone, etc. You can dig a 25' long 24" deep trench in a couple of hours. Lay the dirt next to the trench and as it fills with solids, shovel the dirt back over the top. Might be able to get the contractor to dig it for you?
Or you could do the wash tub option, but I would prefer not to dig it up.

[RRman]

You should be able to find a Porta Potty "Honey Wagon" servicer to come dump your Black tank.
Call around
Presumably your Contractor will have one for the onsite Laborers eventually...
Perhaps they can recommend one.

[Jerapais69]

Yes, but concerned black Rv tank may not withstand pressure from truck vacuum as a septic tank can.

[Suite Sweets]

When the truck shows to pump, hold the toilet valve open with a stick. The wider the better. This is what all the Airstreams do at their big rallys, and never a tank collapse.

[smplatt19]

For our 50gal we can go about 8-10 days, but that's just living life, not really being careful abour how often we flush or use it. I don't see why you can't use the gray water to water the grass. They advise doing just that for water conservation so what's the difference. I hope your septic is the first thing to be put it, sure will make waiting a hell of alot easier.

[Jerapais69]

Good points.

[Manyroads]

All,

Wife and i sold the house and will be staying on property where house will be built in our 5w in 2 weeks. We have an 88 gallon black water tank (and 88 gray). Having tough time getting someone to come on site to drain. How long on average, will it take to fill up black tank? And can we dump gray water tank on site? We have a 10 acre horse farm.
THANKS IN ADVANCE!!

We live in our 30 ft 5th wheel and boondocks most of the time we have 52 gal fresh water 1 30 gal black water and 2 30 gal grey water tanks we have to go dump about every 13 to 14 days we do what they call quick flush of the camped saves water and do bird baths 🛀

[Jerapais69]

Very helpful. Thx.