Black Water Holding Capacity

SunBurnedWitch

We're thinking of becoming land cruisers after almost 15 years of live-aboard, ocean sailing. Among other things, we weren't concerned about black water discharge during off-shore passage making. Now, as we consider a small trailer (we really like the T@B, since our sailboat's below deck storage and activity was also rather confining) there are a number of housekeeping issues we need to consider. While residing in a marina slip (the equivalent of a campground) our boat's 32 gallon BW holding tank could accommodate the weekly pump-out that marinas included in their fee. Bear in mind that a marine head flushes with raw water, so you could fill the the holding tank pretty quickly if you were unusually "fastidious" and flushed to your heart's content. Then you simply paid for an unscheduled pump-out.

Which brings me to our current question about trailer camping: I don't expect most pristine campgrounds to have convenient BW discharge sites, certainly not if camping in the boonies. So tell me, how do you accommodate an extended stay in such places? Do you limit your use of the head to those nightly calls?  That assumes the daytime availability of public restrooms. Do you heed the call of nature's surroundings, e.g., a latrine? Do you find a practical way to collect BW in excess of the T@B's 6 gallon capacity? Some small trailers have removable, transportable black water tanks (ugh!). Are most stays limited for that reason? Some or all of the above? I guess the easy answer is that you may expect to run out of food or water before the BW tank becomes an issue. I must admit at this point that I know nothing about the flushing procedure in the T@B. Perhaps it is very water frugal. I understand that some campers have re-plumbed their waste water system to divert grey water for head flushing, but that doesn't address the immediate BW capacity question. Your thoughts, please?

Mike & Mary





 

jkjenn

I spent the summer in the T@b, usually 2 weeks at a time in one location, boondocking. It was just me and I found I could get pretty close to 2 weeks from the black tank, if I took advantage of public restrooms when out and about. I worked in the t2b during the day, so I spent a lot of time at the T@b. When the tank did fill, I used WAG bags in the toilet.
You don't want to be too frugal with water in the black tank or else it will be difficult to get clean. I tended to use a separate water jug for flushing and used the freshwater tank for bathing.

The grey tank (mine is only 11 gal) filled quicker. I picked up 2, 5 gallon portable waste tanks to help with that.

I could go about 2 weeks between dump station trips with this pattern. When traveling and not staying at one location for a couple of weeks, I emptied when I could, which was fairly frequently.

Nomad

There's two kinds of pristine camping - campgrounds and boondocking.
Campgounds almost always have some type of bathroom facilities, at least vault toilets. And many have central water. At those, you can extend your stay and not fill your blackwater as fast by only using it at night or whatever.
With boondocking, you're on your own. Some areas allow one to dig a hole. Others not. Some I know use a urnal and dump that outside and reserve the tank only for solids.
Usually I'm running short on fresh water before my black water is full.