Sewer hose hook-up

[Randy123]

Hello All, I have been a member of this forum for all of 5 minutes. I am hoping I am posting this question in the correct location ?? We bought a 29' trailer late last fall. The plan is to make many short trips this summer in preparation for a 6-8 week trip to Alaska next summer - we have a lot to learn !!!
My very first question:

We have grey and black water tank outlets approx. 15' apart. I want to use a clear elbow directly at the black water tank to see when it is clean, obviously I need a wye in the line also. So - - - a clear elbow at the tank, a short hose, 3' ??, a wye, a 20' hose from the wye to the campground sewage and another 18' hose from the wye to the grey water tank ??

Is 20' of hose to the campground septic long enough ? Can I get a hose with 1/4 turn locks on both ends for the grey water hose to the wye ? Do I need the short 3' hose at all ?
I am a great believer in constructive criticism so fire away please. If I am not asking the right questions correct me. I realize I have a lot to learn !!

I am subscribed to and have been religiously reading daily posts from RVGeeks . They have helped a lot but there is so muccccchhh stufff !!!
Thank you for your time and expertise

 

[Laura & Charles]

Don’t worry much about where you post, the moderators here are great and will move things around if they see they’ll get a better response on some other forum.

You’ve likely already read this somewhere, but don’t EVER leave your black tank drain open. It’s ok to leave the gray drain open.. many of us do and close it the day before we’re going to drain the black tank so we can use the gray water to flush out the sewer hose after draining the black tank.

I don’t worry about getting the black tank flushed and rinsed to running clear. It’s never going to be be all that clean anyway. Our gray and black converge inside the coach’s wet bay, so I have no experience with having the two 15’ apart. Others with such experience will be along shortly.

(Also, don’t get too hung up on the tank level indicators. They’re notoriously unreliable. You’ll soon get a feel for how long you can go between dumps. And don’t dump too soon… you want a good enough volume to get a good flush action.)

 

[IBTripping]

Welcome to the Forum. A 20 foot hose should work just fine for any RV campground I've ever seen. Most of the time you'll only need a 10 foot hose.

 

[Mark_K5LXP]

I carry two 10 footers. I can count on one hand with fingers left over the number of times I've joined them together to reach the drain. But then again, I don't stay a lot of places with hookups, I tend to dump at dump stations where distances are predictable. You want 2 ten footers though, if for no other reason than in case one fails. They're not heavy or expensive, and the nicer ones compress pretty compactly so no reason not to carry a spare/extra. You can usually get by with just one by moving the trailer, but you don't want to suffer a failure or damage and have none.

Mark B.
Albuquerque, NM

 

[Kirk]

Welcome to the forums. As to hose lengths, 20' is normally long enough. I have always carried 2 hose lengths of 10' and I generally keep a new, unused 10' hose just in case, and as a replacement for the two that I do use. There is really no need for the wye as you can just move the hose from one connection to the other. Using a wye as you describe would make a lot more to store and could be a major pain in the rear!

You may want to tell us more about the make & model of your RV as it is very possible that someone here has or has had the same RV that you have now. Feel free to ask as many questions as you wish as that is what we are here for.

 

[Rene T]

You may want to tell us more about the make & model of your RV as it is very possible that someone here has or has had the same RV that you have now.

And one picture showing both outlets would also help

 

[DonTom]

Is 20' of hose to the campground septic long enough ?

Varies like crazy. No all campgrounds are the same. My hoses are three in series, I can use one, two or all three of them as necessary. And each of those stretch out from short to long.

I want to use a clear elbow directly at the black water tank to see when it is clean,

I use one of these thingies. It's the only thing I use on my Y2K RV to flush the black tank. After several minutes of use, I get clear water from my black tank.

-Don- Reno, NV

 

[DonTom]

Do I need the short 3' hose at all ?

It can become handy at times. Another issue is not all RV park drain openings are the same size. In fact, in ABQ, NM the RV park I stayed at had a unique one that I never saw before anywhere before or after. But they sell the adapters right there in the RV Park and they were cheap, so it was NBD.

-Don- Reno, NV

 

[Rene T]

Varies like crazy. No all campgrounds are the same. My hoses are three in series, I can use one, two or all three of them as necessary. And each of those stretch out from short to long

I use one of these thingies. It's the only thing I use on my Y2K RV to flush the black tank. After several minutes of use, I get clear water from my black tank.

-Don- Reno, NV

One of those thingies would not work in my case with my last rv. The water would have to go through 4 elbows before the water entered the tank so there would not have been any pressure at all. All it would do would make it easy to just fill the tank.

 

[Rene T]

It can become handy at times. Another issue is not all RV park drain openings are the same size. In fact, in ABQ, NM the RV park I stayed at had a unique one that I never saw before anywhere before or after. But the sell the adapters right there in the RV Park and they were cheap, so it was NBD.

-Don- Reno, NV

I use to have a 4’ hose just used for dumping into a dump station. So if you end up with a hose with a pinhole leak, just cut it in half and use it just for dumping at a dump station

 

[DonTom]

One of those thingies would not work in my case with my last rv. The water would have to go through 4 elbows before the water entered the tank so there would not have been any pressure at all. All it would do would make it easy to just fill the tank.

Yep, there are a lot of variables. What works well for one RV and one RV park may not work at all for the next RV or the next RV park.

Not much is all that standard. It takes some experience to know what will work best with each RV and RV park.

-Don- Reno, NV

 

[Gary RV_Wizard]

We have grey and black water tank outlets approx. 15' apart. I want to use a clear elbow directly at the black water tank to see when it is clean, obviously I need a wye in the line also. So - - - a clear elbow at the tank, a short hose, 3' ??, a wye, a 20' hose from the wye to the campground sewage and another 18' hose from the wye to the grey water tank ??

Is 20' of hose to the campground septic long enough ? Can I get a hose with 1/4 turn locks on both ends for the grey water hose to the wye ? Do I need the short 3' hose at all ?

The standard 3" diameter RV sewer hose has bayonet-style connectors at both ends, one male and one female. They are available in various lengths, typically 3, 10, & 20 ft. Also fittings (Wye, Elbow, etc) with 3" bayonet connectors (here's a sample).
You will probably want to offset the Wye from both the Black & Gray drains, so yes you will probably want the 3 ft extension. Or maybe even a 10 ft. Many owners with waste tanks like yours locate the Wye midway between the two tanks and then another hose from Wye to sewer inlet. 3 x 10 ft hoses is a common set-up. This YouTube video shows a couple different ways to utilize the hoses & Wye.

 

[8Muddypaws]

There's one place I go often that requires more than 30 feet of hose.

 

[Larry N.]

Welcome to the Forum. A 20 foot hose should work just fine for any RV campground I've ever seen. Most of the time you'll only need a 10 foot hose.

I've had places where I needed more than 20 ft, so I always carried 3 10 ft sections. My Beaver was 45' and sewer connections were mid-ship, while the Ventana was 38' also with mid-ship connections. My 34' Bounder had the sewer connections at the rear.

And I've seen sites with the sewer access several feet in front of the Beaver, several feet behind the Beaver and several variations in between, in addition to one place that the connection was at the rear of the passenger side.

So 30' normally worked, but a couple of places were tight with that, so just be prepared to move your RV or purchase one or more additional sections if it doesn't reach with what you have. As Muddy and Don say, there are lots of variations.

 

[Rene T]

Yep, there are a lot of variables. What works well for one RV and one RV park may not work at all for the next RV or the next RV park.

Not much is all that standard. It takes some experience to know what will work best with each RV and RV park.

-Don- Reno, NV

You are right Don. I just wanted the OP to know that depending on what his layout is it may or may not work for flushing the tank. Also the water could tun out and down the sewer hose before it gets to the tank so it may not be useful for trying to just add water to the tank.