How long can you make your water last?

Most RVs run out of space in the gray waste tank before they run out of fresh water to use.

We manage 7-10 days on 100 gallons of fresh, making judicious use of other bathroom facilities when we can

JFNM said:

My opinion does not change.  One property is owned by you and you alone, you can do what you choose with it.  The other is owned by all American citizens and should be treated kindly so all can enjoy it.

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It was just a thought I had but I don't see where it would hurt anything. It would just percolate into the ground. Any remaining chunks of food would then be covered over.

In Kansas state parks and COE parks, all of which are operated by the state, they inform you that the discharge of any water can result in a hefty fine and could result in charging you with the reclamation of the land and/or stream or lake.

With that in mind, I overheard a permanent, year round, camphost telling a 5er to simply run a garden hose from his grey tank to the "crick" behind his lot and to let the kitchen faucet trickle water all night as a way to deal with the expected overnight 20 degree temperature.

Go figure.

I think a week is a reasonable guesstimate.  Like others have eluded to it really does depend on so many factors.  A few I can think of:
- Is their a bathroom facility nearby that you can use on occasion?
- Will you use the water for cooking and drinking too or have bottled water for that?
- How long can each of you go with out showering?
- Are you capable of taking a quick Navy type shower?

5 Adult men fishing every year and we make it with my 100 gal tank for 7 days.  They all use the restrooms nearby.

For refilling--Most places here in AK that you can dump at also have a freshwater refill site.

JFNM said:

I can stretch my DS tanks one full month. Three weeks is pretty normal.
Finding water to fill varies from area to area.  Most times, an overnight at a state park or full hookup site is the easiest. Typically, $25-$30 gets me a dump, fill, really LONG HOT shower, and I'm able to run 3-4 loads of laundry whilst hooked up.  That said, most places that have a dump, have fresh water. 

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Wow JD, not bad. I'd be happy with a couple of weeks with two of us but pretty sure that will take a bladder to do it.

JFNM said:

Purely my opinion but I find dumping gray water in the wild to be very inconsiderate.  It really does stink and leaves a mess.  Many folks don't care.

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Ya, been looking at portable gray/black water tanks so now's probably the time to pick one up

I have a 40 gal water tank in my camper. Last a weekend no problem as long as we are cautious when cleaning dishes and limit ourselves to just two showers with a family of 5.    100/gals of water should.last a weekend no.problem.

Reading this thread with interest.  I just took my first weekend trip in my 21 ft TT with my wife and 2 dogs a couple weekends ago.  We filled up our grey the last night and were surprised.  I had taken a shower each night, not Navy but probably less than 2 mins.  We had water and elect there, and our tanks are 30/30/30. 

Arguably we weren't trying that hard to conserve, and I still think that the tanks might not have been fully empty when I bought the 3 year old trailer (Eeeew).  I caught my wife letting the water run when rinsing dishes, once.

My goal is for us to learn how to do 2-4 days boondocking on 30 gallons.  We want to do lots of state park camping this summer.  I do need my showers most nights before bed, but can Navy no problem.  I kind of like the challenge of learning how to do this. 

We did a class C trip in 2006 with 2 kids and the dog, but did very little boondocking on that trip.

So my 2 questions for the hardcore boondockers are (and one was asked by the OP):

Where do you get fresh water?  I read about keeping a 5 gallon jug handy, but what kind of places would you find to fill it?  Are the rinse hose at dump stations always a no-no even if you use your own hose? (probably).

And what about offloading grey water into the black tank?  We only use our black when there are no other options or it is the middle of the night.  We will fill the grey first always I'd guess.  Not sure how you'd transfer, are there any hardware plumbing mods that can be done (I'm an engineer with a shop and tools, I *love* mods).

Also, I love the idea of the "slosh rinse" on the trip home by filling the tanks half full after dumping and rinsing... but then I have to dump at home?  I own a lot of acreage but don't like the idea of dumping on the ground.  Thoughts about dumping grey or black on the ground after a few fresh water rinses at the dump station??

Thanks for any tips.  We are doing a 6-7 day trip in July, two 2 night state park visits with dump stations avail on the way out, then at the end, a friend's front yard... ;-_

Most dump places also have a fresh water re-fill place for fresh water.

If you are on a septic, you could just put about 5 gallons of water in for the slosh rinse.  At home empty into bucket and dump it into your septic.

As noted, most dump sites have a potable water hose as well.  The rinse hoses are usually always marked as "not potable."

There is a mod that is simply adding another gate valve to the black/grey dump line that allows both the black and grey valves to be open allowing the water to flow from one to the other without dumping on the ground.

Many will argue the legality of dumping black/grey on the ground, I just think it is gross.  You probably already have a sewer/septic access port that you could dump into.

When tent camping or car camping....is a gray water catchment system required in established camp sites?

Don't boondock much, but black easily goes three week's.  I'm sure we could extend the fresh & grey that long as well taking Navy/sponge baths. This is  purely individual thing and very variable (at Yellowstone in May or Ft Myers in July).

Ernie

We once went two weeks on 80 gallons of water. Taking military showers (I was in the army and my keyboard won't type n-a-v-y) every few day, using dish water to flush with, recycling pre shower cold water and dumping extra dish water down the black tank.

I've found that we use about 4 gallons of fresh water a day per person if we do the navy shower thing.  We eat off of paper plates so dishwashing is limited to a frying pan or one pot.  The two of us have no problem going 5 days on a 40 gallon gray water tank and a 25 gallon black water tank.

If I recall correctly,when Girl Scout camping,the grey water was run though a trash bag filled with some leaves and punctured in the bottom.  I assume this filtered out food residue.  Just a thought for tent/car campers.

Drink beer or wine, pee in the woods and cook over the campfire. Nobody showers so everybody smells the same. Water lasts indefinitely.  8)

until about 2:30 am  :

Gary RV Roamer said:

Drink beer or wine, pee in the woods and cook over the campfire. Nobody showers so everybody smells the same. Water lasts indefinitely.  8)

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I love your sense of humor.  Actually, that's the way we did it when I was a kid camping in the High Sierras at Huntington Lake.  Water lasted until someone went down to the creek and filled the buckets.  We were pretty refined, though, because we had an outhouse within hiking distance (in the middle of the night!).  No wonder we appreciated our motorhome as retirees.

Heck, Margi, we were still doing it in our late 20's, when we had a pop-up trailer and went camping for long weekends in NY's Adirondack Mtns. Sometimes an outhouse was available, and sometimes not. Now people seem to be terrified of even the water that comes out of the campground faucet, let along what's in the RV tank.  :