the need for a blue boy

[T and C]

Last summer I spent 10 nights at a cabin in the Rockies. There were about 20 of us there with one bathroom, and that on a septic tank. For those that have never had to do it, it costs around $350 to get the honey bucket to come up the mountain and drain it. The cabin does not have a dispersion system for the tank.

At my suggestion, we rented an Andy Gump portable toilet. It really helped. We had it serviced on day 5 so it turned out to be a good idea. (Not all my ideas turn out that well) The DW and I had our TM next to the cabin, and we used the Thetford for liquid wastes only.

At about day 6 it needed draining, so I got the 6 gallon tote out of the truck bed and drained it. Even six gallons weights around 50 pounds, but I had my young adult son put it in the bed of the truck. We drove into town and paid $5 to the local rv park to drain it. Then when we closed up to go down the hill I left the valve at the bottom of the Thetford open, drove through the rv park, paid another $5 and drained it again. Problem solved, very conveniently.

Tom

[scrubjaysnest]

That sounds reasonable for up a mountain. Here in Fl its about $500 and has to be done every 3 years by state law which they may have changed because of the up roar it caused with the voters.

I have a 10 gallon one that fits nicely on the spare tire holder.
Been hauling it around for years.
When charging the toilet you don't have to put 3 complete gallons of water in to charge it if you are looking to maximize capacity, if you get my drift...

[T and C]

Originally Posted by moaboy

I have a 10 gallon one that fits nicely on the spare tire holder.
Been hauling it around for years.
When charging the toilet you don't have to put 3 complete gallons of water in to charge it if you are looking to maximize capacity, if you get my drift...

A couple of years back HarveyRV posted that he puts in 2 gallons. I tried it and found that I have to put in about 2.5 before the pump will circulate the water. That still gives me a little more capacity though.

What I do now is to use the shower hose to add water, then I keep checking if it has enough by hitting the flush button at intervals. As soon as it circulates water, I stop filling. The gauge will still be below the charged mark.

Tom

I use the same method to fill the Thetford, as I suspect most of us do. If I know I need to stretch out the dump time, I will use the minimum amount of water to operate the pump. But if I know I don't need to stretch out the dump time, I put in the recommended amount of water. I feel that the more water the more dilute the waste becomes, the less smell, the more thorough the dump, etc. While I certainly would prefer a cartridge version (having had one in a tent trailer) because of certain advantages - no odor, ease of dumping when there are no hookups - I find the existing Thetford is very serviceable and useful when there are hookups.

[ShrimpBurrito]

Thinking of more creative ways to squeeze more capacity out of the toilet....

Just as you put bricks in the holding tank of a toilet at home (years ago), if you were able to put something in the Thetford to displace enough water to get the pump running initially, and then remove that space filler, you could increase the usable capacity of the toilet.

My initial I'm thinking about something like balloon, which can somehow be deflated by being dissolved after a certain time.....that would be tricky to get down the chute.

Alternatively you could install a bladder in the toilet with a hose that goes through the housing and inflated with a bicycle pump, but I personally wouldn't consider that with the Electra-Magic's other issues.

Dave

[Bill]

A while back, someone on this board had a slightly different idea. Start with a minimum amount of water - maybe half a gallon - and a charge of blue stuff. That's right, it won't flush. Now limit the use of the Thetford to liquid only. Eventually, the level in the toilet will rise to the level where it will flush.

If, before you reach the flush level, you just have to use the Thetford for solid, flush it down with another half-gallon of water poured into the bowl from a pitcher or jug.

Made a lot of sense to me. Yes, it probably works best when you have a campground toilet, even a pit toilet. And I would expect most utility when the temp is not extreme. And you might want to install a vent (see any number of threads on this topic) or turn on the exhaust fan for a few minutes once in a while. But if maximizing your stay before dumping is your prime goal, this should work well. Thanks for that idea - whoever you were.

Bill

[ShrimpBurrito]

An excellent suggestion, Bill. Thanks for passing it along. And best yet, it follows the KISS principle. Sometimes I get carried away with crazy ideas.

Dave

Good idea. I was thinking I would have to go out and buy long rubber gloves so I could reach in and pull out the brick

[MariaG]

*Shyly raises hand*

That may have been me, Bill. This is what we do when we need to be conservative with capacity. We also put TP used only for liquid in a plastic bag in a closed container and empty it daily. If we have to (although we try not to) use the Thetford for solids before it reaches circulation level, we use the shower head to rinse the bowl. This method works for us and with use of the campground facilities, we can get four days out of the Thetford for 2-3 users. I still want to have a tank made for under the TM and I've bookmarked the Inca site, but how to hook it in had DH scratching his head so we've been putting it off. Plus (horrors!) with the extremely busy summer we had last year the TM never left the driveway.