Black Water Tank

A black water tank does you absolutely no good unless you have the fresh water to make use of it. Just because you do not dry camp there are many other TM owners who do. If you really have concerns about the toilet do a search. One user replaced the TM toilet with a normal RV toilet. As long as you camp at places with hookups, you will be fine. He said for the rare times he camped where they did not have hookups, he would use a blue tote. I have not use my TM to dry camping yet, but I have done it many times both tent and popup camping and you have to carry water. True dry camping mean there is no water, electricity or dumps available.

We use hookups one a year.

I wish the 40 gallon tank was bigger. It only lasts us about 4 days.

Because we are usually in a forest service campground there is usually a water faucet within 150 feet of the TM, so I can add water without too much effort. But it would be very rude to leave 150 feet of water hose running down the road permanently.

Replacing the TM toilet with a more traditional RV toilet would more than double our fresh water consumption. I really don't want to be running a long hose out every other day to refill the 40 gallon water tank.

I guess we are in a different camp than most who own trailmanors. Basically, we are three point hook-up campers. We've done the more rustic camping in years past and now basically use our rv for as a home base as we travel. I have done extensive searches to see if anybody else feels as I and has had successfully done (or had done) a conversion to a standard rv blackwater toilet setup.. Searched both on this forum and RV Net and turned up nothing. Anyway, thanks for all your input.

ed

I have replaced the recirculating toilet with a regular toilet and 95% of our camping is with full facilities. The other 5% is in national campgrounds that have at least pit "peeuuw" toilets and most likely no potable water except a stream.
The way we worked it one time is to grab a bucket of water and put it in the shower stall. After using the regular toilet, press the valve and pour a little water in to flush.
After about 8 gallons of blackwater in a 10 gallon blackwater container, I would close the container, carry it to the pit toilet and dump it.
That may sound like a lot of work, but it isn't and I don't like searching for the pit toilet in the middle of the night.
I go by the motto -- "whatever works", and it works for me.

Missouri has what I consider to be an outstanding National Park, National Scenic Waterways. The park is composed of parts of three spring feed rivers, The Jacks Fork, Current and Eleven Point rivers. My mother's parents grew up around the Jacks Fork and Current rivers and we still have family down there. I spent many summer vacations and weekends enjoying these wonderful rivers. Now anybody can enjoy these wonderful rivers, that I was fortunate enough to enjoy because of family connections. Camping at many of the places I have enjoyed over the years can only be described as rustic at best. There is no electricity or running water. You are luck at some and have pit toilets and trash cans. Mom has retired down there, so we normally stay with her now, but I have a hankering to spend several days camping down on the river. At some of my favorite places the TM is not an option. In fact anything with less ground clearance than my full size van is not an option. That said, there are some places that getting the TM into is not a problem, but they will have to wait until I can carry more than 20 gallons of water. Oh and thank goodness for the recirculating toilet. We will have to use the pit toilets during the day to stay more than a couple days, but it will be nice not to have to do that for the middle of the night bathroom breaks you start needing as you get older.

Originally Posted by ddnavar

I have replaced the recirculating toilet with a regular toilet and 95% of our camping is with full facilities. The other 5% is in national campgrounds that have at least pit "peeuuw" toilets and most likely no potable water except a stream.
The way we worked it one time is to grab a bucket of water and put it in the shower stall. After using the regular toilet, press the valve and pour a little water in to flush.
After about 8 gallons of blackwater in a 10 gallon blackwater container, I would close the container, carry it to the pit toilet and dump it.
That may sound like a lot of work, but it isn't and I don't like searching for the pit toilet in the middle of the night.
I go by the motto -- "whatever works", and it works for me.

Dave:

You mentioned that you replaced your toilet with a regular toilet. Do you mean a residential toilet or to a standard rv toilet system? If residential, was the conversion difficult? Does this cause you any drainage problems in instances where you need 20-25 feet of sewer hose to connect to a campground sewer outlet? Also, if it is residential, do you do any special preparation for travel like insulating the tank top to prevent breakage?

ed

A standard house toilet would be disasterous in an RV.
I bought the china bowl rv toilet -- see link..
http://www.campingworld.com/browse/s...e/skunum=27880

I installed the High one -- Plenty of room to close the TM -- but the back fits snug to the wall--
Installation:
1. remove old toilet by driving back the plastic wedges on hold down bolts. "need to take off 3" cover around base.
2. remove old rubber flange and clean off old silicone sealer from mounting plate.
3. Use new bolts and apply new silicone sealer abundantly on new toilet.
4. New bolts tighten like home toilet...
5. Hardest part was installing the T under the kitchen sink and connecting the cold water.

Originally Posted by ddnavar

A standard house toilet would be disasterous in an RV.
I bought the china bowl rv toilet -- see link..
http://www.campingworld.com/browse/s...e/skunum=27880

I installed the High one -- Plenty of room to close the TM -- but the back fits snug to the wall--
Installation:
1. remove old toilet by driving back the plastic wedges on hold down bolts. "need to take off 3" cover around base.
2. remove old rubber flange and clean off old silicone sealer from mounting plate.
3. Use new bolts and apply new silicone sealer abundantly on new toilet.
4. New bolts tighten like home toilet...
5. Hardest part was installing the T under the kitchen sink and connecting the cold water.

Interesting. I guess you got specs of the china bowl before attempting to install to insure it would fit. We have a china bowl in our 5th-wheel. Seeing how little water is used when flushing, how do you remedy the drainage situation in the sewer hose? Do solids tend to build up? Do you let you gray water tank fill and flush the sewer hose? We have encountered situations when camping when the sewer outlet was 20-25 feet from our RV. Have you encountered a similar situation and did you have any problems?

ed


Does this cause you any drainage problems in instances where you need 20-25 feet of sewer hose to connect to a campground sewer outlet?

I have had only 1 problem with stuck solids in the partially open black water valve. "Didn't pull it open all the way."
It backed up solids into the grey water tank which is a bear to clean. With my trusty rubber gloves, I closed the valves, cleared the blockage using a bucket, reconnected the sewer hose and opened the valves. Shut the grey water valve, filled it about half full and then opened the valve to flush any solids out. This was with the recirculating toilet.
Have not had any plugging on the new toilet.. I have been lucky in having the sewer outlet close in the rv parks I have been to.

Having just returned from our initial vacation with our 3124KB, we discovered that 3 days is about what we can do with the recirculating toilet before needing to dump it. Also noticed that opening the inside valve with the outside valve closed does not empty the toilet, so a temporary holding pipe would possibly allow a complete dumping of the toilet so we could get another 3 days before needing to dump. Fortunately, our vacation consisted of three days each at 3 different parks and this worked right into the time or days between dumps. In the future, a temporary black water pipe would allow us to stay at one site longer than 3 days before having move the TM to dump station. Would be interested in seeing the plans for a temporary black water holding pipe.