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My tips on black tank use and maintenance after 3 years of full-time boondocking without a sewer connection
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Been full timing, often without sewer connection for three years now. Summer, winter, all of it. I dump tanks once full, sometimes when overfull.
- Happy Camper is a lifesaver to keep the smell down, especially in warmer months. Only thing that we have found to work. If you have found something else that works, chime in! Those little tabs and stuff at Walmart just never did anything for me.
- RV specific TP is actually harder to break down than normal TP. Search Youtube for a test on that. Waste of money. Go with a cheap single/dual ply, the crappier your fingers will poke through stuff, the better. Happy Camper also helps break it down a bit. Do your own research and confirm, of course.
- Biggest thing is to get a Bidet. Less TP usage and more water will end up going down as your bowl will be about midway full after a good number two. You're supposed to hold down the foot pedal for some time to get a good amount of water down, or slightly to "prime" the bowl with extra water as you want more water than TP in your black tank. When the tank stinks, you don't want to do this, and you don't want to stand there for 2-3 minutes filling the bowl every single time. Just get a Bidet, it's a life changer for more than just preventing the poo pyramid.
- Get a poop stick. Sometimes you'll need to shove it down in the tank and give it a good stir to break things up (hold down the foot valve, shove it down the devil's anus). Some black tanks are shallower than others. Again, the bidet helps here as you'll be putting more water into the black tank leading to more water than TP accumulation.
- When at a campsite, DO NOT keep your black tank valve just open. Let it accumulate/fill so when you open the valve, there's enough water to SWOOSH the TP and solids out. Trust me, learned this the hard way.
- Macerators and a portable honey wagon is great when parked somewhere for a long time without sewer access. Put the tote in the bed of your truck, pump waste into the tote, go drive it to a dumping station. Easier to just take the rig if drivable to a station, however, but hitching up a trailer and moving is a pain weekly, especially during the winter. Be damn sure to get one at least as big as your black tank, there really isn't a sanitary way to stop halfway through without a water flush. Get a macerator with a water inlet port so you can flush the garden hose after.
- Regardless of everything, you'll want to give it a good flush about once a month, no more than two as a rule of thumb. Dump it, close valve, IGNORE THE WARNING about using the cleanout connection without the value open and let it fill 10-15 min. Don't trust your often incorrect "tank sensor", open the devil's anus and LOOK down there with a flashlight to gauge actual water level. Once decently full NOT OVERFULL, dump the valve. This loosens up solids and TP stuck in the tank. Repeat a time or two. If you overfill, it's gonna go up the roof vent and you'll have a POOVOLCANO, don't do this incorrectly.
- I don't trust my sensors, other than the fresh water one.
- And by all means, don't let your poo freeze up, it'll be the biggest pain in the ass to try and dump when you are camping/fulltiming through the winter. Tank heaters, elbow heaters, etc are lifesavers and worth the investment (and not that hard to install). Remember to PROPERLY FUSE YOUR CIRCUITS if you don't like fires.
To the people who don't poop in your RV, you guys are weird. I guess if you are always somewhere you can easily go in somewhere, but it's a major reason why I love my RV, a private bathroom!
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