We Did it!! and now a question

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Night Nurse

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Sep 23, 2011
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Well, we took our FIRST trip in the (new to us) camper! We went from Kent Island Md to Tuckahoe state park 37 miles away. I know that is very close by BUT I wanted to "try" things out before we put ourselves hundreds of miles out. Anyhow, we set up camp and all was fine eventhough it rained 80% of the time. The camper was warm at night and slept like a baby.
    The next day we hiked around a bit till it was time to go. Although we were very close to home it could have been 300 miles out as the park was quite and peaceful.
    The only BAD part was waiting in line at the dump station. Since this was my first time I did not know how long it would take. Eventually a lady came up to us and told me the wait was because of her, she locked the keys in the truck at the dump station. Oh well. we came home with our "POOP"

OK the question.  Since we came home with our poop in the tank. I stopped by a marina dump station and emptied the tank. a lot of Gray water came out. then the Black tank had some stinky brown water but no solids nor tissue. I checked the tank meter when I got home and it says the Gray tank is empty but the black is 1/3 full. why???  If I have a plug or block do I fill the tank with clean water through the potty and flush again?

 
For a starter, read our Library article on tank dumping by clicking HERE.


The indicators in RV tanks tend to the inaccurate at best.  This is largely due the sensors getting fouled by sewage solids like toilet paper.  They can be cleaned by using a water wand designed for the purpose, see HERE.  Note that this is not a great expense. 

You could eliminate the problem by simply allowing the black tank to fill to 2/3 or more before dumping.  The turbulence of the dumping of the  greater volume  will surge out most of the solids and prevent them from accumulating and giving you major problems  Fill the black tank with water to bring it up to 2/3 full, if you need to dump before the tank fills in the normal course of events. 

If you will camp again with a day or so, you could simply wait until then.
 
And the key in Carl's' comments is that you need to use loads of water.  Dumping after a weekend of use is going to be a problem.  You can help that by intentionally using plenty of water each time you flush or adding a lot of extra before you flush.  Many people have a spot to dump at their homes, or nearby.  That way you can make the drive back with the water sloshing around n the tank on the way home, getting everything ready to flow out.
 
If you have a laptop and an Internet connection with you then there are thousands of place around the country you can dump. There are several websites listing dump stations, like this one:

http://www.rvdumps.com/dumpstations/

When you dump then you will want to put about 10 gallons of fresh water into the black tank to begin with and every time you flush hold down the lever and count to five before releasing it so that it will function properly. If you put no water in the tank then everything just collects at the bottom in a big mess and it is hard to remove. If there is lots of water in the tank then every thing will decompose like it should and when you dump the tank will empty.
 
No solids is normal, they break down in the tank into "Sludge" (the sticky or stinky brown stuff)

The 1/3 full on the indicator is also rather normal.. In fact 2/3 is even more normal.  The indicators work properly ONLY if they are power cleaned or if they are replaced with special ones that work better,  Design of the "Sensor" which by the way is basically, a nail.
 
;)  Thanks Guys for the information. It realy helps having this forum here to help the newbies.
 
One additional comment.  Drain the black tank first, then the gray.  This allows the gray water to flush the black water out of the hose so it's easier to clean with fresh water.  Maybe you did it that way but I'm mentioning it because you mentioned gray first and black second.

ArdraF
 
We don't dump our black water unless it's 2/3 full.  If its been a short trip, I add water to fill it up before dumping.  I always make sure I have a FULL tank of gray water to flush with after dumping the black water, which is generally not a problem.
 
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