Increasing grey water capacity

cabranch47 · Apr 1, 2016

Hi,
I have a 12 gal. grey water tank on my HW27SC which is too small. I wish to increase my capacity. Has anyone used some type of pump to transfer the grey water to another type of tank in their pickup bed? The black water tank is also 12 gal, but doable and I am trying to avoid the totes.
Thanks for any input.

MMW · Apr 1, 2016

I rented a HW27KS last month...it had a hose fitting for the grey water drain. Is yours the same? If so, I should be pretty easy to rig up a pump for that application...pretty much any self priming pump that will lift a column of water 8' or so would do. Just make sure to not use it for fresh water later!

John From Detroit · Apr 1, 2016

Many have "Blue boy" totes.. which work great for that, They come in 5,10,15,20 and larger sizes (30,40 and more as I recall)

The 5 is luggable, the 10 has wheels and you can drag it th 15 has an optional hitch adapter (Which I modified to fit the 10) I think the adapter is also used on the 20 (kind of a fork thing) and larger than that the hitch adapter (fits a ball hitch) is built in.

Fill it, Hook up, drive to the dump station and waste away.

Rene T · Apr 1, 2016

MMW said:
I rented a HW27KS last month...it had a hose fitting for the grey water drain. Is yours the same? If so, I should be pretty easy to rig up a pump for that application...pretty much any self priming pump that will lift a column of water 8' or so would do. Just make sure to not use it for fresh water later!

Or you could get one of these to put on the end of your sewer pipe then use the pump as stated above. What would you have in the truck? A 50 gallon drum?

http://hardwareonlinestore.com/index.php?option=com_virtuemart&view=productdetails&virtuemart_product_id=78802&virtuemart_category_id=88002&gclid=CPnb25Tl7csCFdgYgQodThsJgQ&ppcsclkid=N6henxuBXzlF&ppcstrkid=1411601677&ppcsu=xhg7f5djqitnahs

HappyWanderer · Apr 1, 2016

When we had a pop-up, I carried two 5 gallon jugs and used them to empty the gray water tank. It had a garden hose fitting, so I used a 90 degree elbow to fill the jugs.

It may not sound like much, but 10 gallons is a lot of gray water in a pop-up.

NickB · Apr 1, 2016

I agree that a tote tank is the logical route, but you could pump it if you feel so inclined. I would use a transfer pump like this one from Home Depot , tied to the adapter that Rene linked to.

Rene T · Apr 1, 2016

NickB said:
I agree that a tote tank is the logical route, but you could pump it if you feel so inclined. I would use a transfer pump like this one from Home Depot , tied to the adapter that Rene linked to.

Or find a water pump out of a junked RV. There are plenty around. Give the guy $5.00 if it works.

cabranch47 · Apr 1, 2016

Thanks for the suggestions. I have the 3" to garden hose adapter, and will have a 25 gallon drum in the truck. Trying to find the best kind of 12V pump, thinking that a diaphram pump as opposed to a impeller type would be better due to particulate matter in the grey water. Anyone have any experience with this or suggestions?
Thanks,

Rene T · Apr 1, 2016

cabranch47 said:
Thanks for the suggestions. I have the 3" to garden hose adapter, and will have a 25 gallon drum in the truck. Trying to find the best kind of 12V pump, thinking that a diaphram pump as opposed to a impeller type would be better due to particulate matter in the grey water. Anyone have any experience with this or suggestions?
Thanks,

Before you make up the hose to the end cap, install one of these. It will stop any particles from entering the pump.

http://www.amazon.com/Hose-Thread-Filter-Washer-Screen/dp/B008K35ZK4

NickB · Apr 1, 2016

cabranch47 said:
Thanks for the suggestions. I have the 3" to garden hose adapter, and will have a 25 gallon drum in the truck. Trying to find the best kind of 12V pump, thinking that a diaphram pump as opposed to a impeller type would be better due to particulate matter in the grey water. Anyone have any experience with this or suggestions?
Thanks,

I would still recommend a transfer pump, but a normal RV demand pump such as the common shurflo would work as well. I think I'd go with a larger strainer basket like this over a hose washer screen.

MMW · Apr 1, 2016

NickB said:
I would still recommend a transfer pump, but a normal RV demand pump such as the common shurflo would work as well. I think I'd go with a larger strainer basket like this over a hose washer screen.

Most certainly easier to clean...

blw2 · Apr 1, 2016

when we were popping up, I used an aquatainer, approx 5 gallons.

Usually it was pretty much hand washing with a bit of tooth brushing waste, and since we were in the wood (state park) I would usually take it out to some bushes off path, and distribute it.... yeah, I know, not supposed to. Hopefully I've crossed teh statute of limitations...

before the aquatainer, I used a 5 gallon bucket that had some mysterious weep holes in the bottom...???

Over on a popup forum I used to frequent this was often discussed. One guy came up with a way of venting one aquatainer into a second one, so that when teh first one filled it would overflow into the second. He had a small 12VDC pump rigged up to transfer water up into his truck, etc...

On another note, i have considered adding a second grey tank under my MH, by teeing into the drain pipe and hanging the tank in an open area the drain pipe runs through. The only thing I never sufficiently figured out was how to vent it. Eventually I dismissed it as too much work.

John From Detroit · Apr 1, 2016

Rene T said:
Or find a water pump out of a junked RV. There are plenty around. Give the guy $5.00 if it works.

I do not think that type of pump woudl work well in that application

Drill pumps (Simple rotary pumps that you drive with a hand power drill) might work better.

For a 12 gallon Gray tank, and no black tank, I say a 15 Gallon Blue Boy tote with towing fork is the way to go.. Bigger get kind of pricy.

cabranch47 · Apr 16, 2016

Well I started my project. Would like to post photos but not sure how to do it but I'll try. Attachments limited to 350KB. Anybody know how that equates to megapixels for photos?

Lou Schneider · Apr 17, 2016

1 megapixel is a bit less than 1Mb file size.

640x400 pixels equals (wait for it ...) 256,000 pixels or 250 KB (1024 pixels per KB). That's a good size to display on almost everyone's screen and should upload OK, especially if they're saved in JPEG format.

Try selecting email if your camera has that option, or load the image into Paint and use it's Resize function to reduce it's size.

Gary RV_Wizard · Apr 17, 2016

Since most picture files are compressed, e.g. JPG or PNG format, the actual file size will typically be much less than what Lou describes. A typical 640x480 picture is often only 30-40 KB in size. I have photos with resolutions in the 2000 x 1500 range that are only about 275 kb in size. though most are somewhat larger.

2048 x 1536 = 3.1 megapixels. Depending on the subject matter and degree of compression, the resulting file could be anywhere from 200 KB to almost 20 MB. There are numerous free tools available for compressing files to any desired degree and some even let you specify the target file size. The compression tools can either be installed on your computer or run via a website such as http://compressjpeg.com/

cabranch47 · Apr 17, 2016

This is a photo test. I got this barrel from a car wash, it was used for soap. Made a cradle for it from 3/4" plywood and lattice strips.

Lou Schneider · Apr 17, 2016

Nice! I did something similar with a couple of 50 gallon barrels and some pallet wood.

If you want to use a barrel to transport waste, the fine thread bung is standard 2" pipe thread. You can use standard PVC fittings to bring this up to 3" PVC and mate to a standard RV dump valve and sewer hose connector.

I used a macerator and hose to fill the barrel through the coarse thread bung on top, then transported it to the dump station and dumped it like an RV tank using the dump valve and hose on the fine thread outlet.

cabranch47 · Apr 18, 2016

Been working on my project. I have tried to post some photos, not sure how they will come out, first time. I will post some more shortly.

Happy Prospector · May 1, 2016

I use a macerator like this one to pump my waste water into a blue boy in my truck bed. It's been working great for 9 years now.

The information is out there, all you have to do is let it in.

Increasing grey water capacity

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