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fresh tank

Dumping for Beginners

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Dumping for Beginners
If there are any holding tanks (Grey or Black) within your small travel trailer, you will need to Dump them before they are completely full.  The Fresh tank holds your fresh water supply for your sink, shower (and hot water heater), and toilet – this tank does not need to be dumped because it feeds both the Grey and Black tanks.  The Grey tank holds the run-off water from your sink and shower.  And, the Black tank holds the waste water from the toilet.  Some small travel trailers have tank monitors which tell how full each tank is by pressing a button (we had one of these installed in our Scamp).  If your small travel trailer doesn’t have a tank monitor, then you will need to learn how to tell when it is time to Dump the tanks through other means like visual inspection.

We have learned through experience that the Grey tank is a small travel trailer’s Achilles heel when hookups aren’t available.  For us two people (taking 2 showers each night), our twenty one gallon Grey tank fills up in about three days.  Once the Grey tank is full, water can no longer drain from the shower floor or sink, and water backing up into these areas is highly likely.  The Fresh water tank is much easier to manage because the 12 gallon tank can easily be refilled using a portable water jug and water is usually available at most campgrounds (but not all).  Additionally, water can be stored in portable containers and transported in the tow vehicle.  We’ve found that the 9 gallon Black tank takes much longer to fill than the Grey tank.  Our Black tank usually takes about 6 days (two people) before needing to be dumped.

When it is time to Dump, which will likely be on your very first trip, you will want to make sure you are prepared with some essential supplies and knowledge.  The basic items needed are disposable sanitary gloves (e.g. latex gloves) and a RV sewer hose.  I keep latex gloves in our tow vehicle so they are ready to grab as soon as we pull up to the Dump station.  Side note:  some Dump stations also have potable water (safe to drink) filling stations (like Upper Pines Campground in Yosemite).  If you are pulling in dry and need to fill your Fresh tank, this is usually done first before messing with the dirty stuff.  I like to use my own Fresh hose if possible (for sanitary reasons) and I always attach a water filter to run the water through before it enters our Scamp.

Our Scamp 13’ travel trailer has two separate valves for dumping (both on the Driver’s side) –a Black water valve at the front of the trailer to dump toilet waste (labeled SEWER HOLDING TANK), and a Grey water valve at the back of the trailer to dump all the Grey water (labeled WASTE WATER HOLDING TANK).  We use one RV sewer hose for dumping both Black and Grey tanks (one at a time).  Because the Scamp 13’ has two valves on the opposite ends of the trailer, the first thing I do when pulling up to the Dump drain is to center the trailer on the drain so that the sewer hose will be able to reach the drain when connected to either the Black or Grey valves without having to move the Scamp.  If your small travel trailer only has one valve (e.g. one tank for both Black and Grey waste), then just pull right up so the dump drain and your single valve are aligned.  It’s a good idea if you do have two valves to drain your Black tank first and follow up by draining your Grey tank – this allows the Grey water to wash out the toilet waste water and keeps the RV sewer hose cleaner.

Easy Dump Steps:

  1. Pull your trailer up to the Dump station and align your valve(s) appropriately so your RV sewer hose will easily be able to reach from each valve connection to the Dump drain.
  2. Put on disposable sanitary gloves
  3. Pull your RV sewer hose outside its holding container (on our Scamp 13’, it’s held in a tube attached to the front of the trailer).
  4. Uncap the Black tank valve opening (but do not pull the valve lever yet). Connect bayonet hose fitting onto your Black tank valve (ensure it is securely attached with both bayonet sides engaged).
  5. Stretch out the hose and, with your shoe, open up the Dump cover (usually there is a little metal plate at the hinge that you can press on with your shoe to open up the Dump cover).
  6. Insert your RV sewer hose into the Dump hole at least a few inches into the hole so it won’t pull out while dumping.
  7. Release pressure on the Dump hinge plate with your shoe so that the Dump cover rests on top of the RV sewer hose and securely holds it in place (sometimes there is also a rock nearby that you can place on top of the cover to be extra secure). You definitely don’t want your hose coming out while dumping!
  8. Once you are satisfied that your RV sewer hose is securely attached to your tank valve and also inserted properly into the Dump hole, pull on your trailer’s Black tank valve handle to release the contents of the tank (Black first, and Grey after if you have two separate tanks).
  9. Allow plenty of time for all the contents of the tank to flow out. You may need to lift the center of the RV sewer hose a few times if there isn’t a good downward slope from trailer to Dump hole to ensure waste contents move along into the hole.
  10. After done with the Black tank, close the Black tank valve, and carefully detach the RV sewer hose from the Black tank valve (as you do it, position the hose right under the valve drain so as to catch any remaining residual runoff), recap the Black valve opening, and move over and uncap the Grey tank valve opening and attach the RV sewer hose to the Grey tank valve and repeat the steps above. Make sure all tank valves are recapped when complete.
  11. If there is a dump wash hose nearby, you can rinse out your RV sewer hose before placing it back into its holder.

Our travel strategy thus far has been to carefully arrange stops so that the ones without a Dump are limited to only a few days maximum (or have a Dump station available at a convenient service station).  For example, on our trip to Lake Tahoe last July, we first stopped in Santa Barbara and driveway-camped at our Cousin Jon’s house.  Since our next stop was going to be at an olive oil farm in Paso Robles without hookups followed by street camping at my sister’s house in Oakland, we dumped at a 76 station on the way out of Santa Barbara.  We didn’t want to risk having a full Grey tank and not being able to use any water in our Scamp.  We knew we could dump at DL Bliss State Park at Lake Tahoe after our Oakland stay over, so we would be OK as long as we did this interim Dump.  The following month, we took a trip to Observatory Campground (Palomar Mountain) to view the stars.  There are no hookups there (although water spigots are available), so again we needed to carefully consider our time up on Palomar Mountain to ensure our Grey tank was not filled up (we ended up staying only one night).

Dumping is easy and fun once you get the hang of it.  It’s a great feeling when everything is connected properly and one pulls the lever and the tanks are drained.  And, after a while, you will know how to plan your dump days so that you always have plenty of holding tank space during your trips.  Once you are at that point, which should be fairly quickly, you will likely enjoy singing the featured original song in this demonstration video!

Disclaimer:  You will get the same great Amazon price by clicking on the links here compared to buying directly on Amazon, but by buying here you will also be supporting the continuation of this website as we get a small commission from each sale.  These are products and procedures we use for our own Scamp that we selected and developed from our own research and experiences.  However, we do not endorse any specific product and cannot guarantee that the products we use are exemplary and the procedures we use are complete, accurate, detail the correct recommended procedures, or apply to your model small travel trailer.  It’s always best to double check with your manufacturer or operation manuals to ensure you are doing everything correctly. 

Save Time & Money with a Home Dump!

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Save Time & Money with a Home Dump!

One of the biggest concerns of small travel trailer campers is the status of their Fresh, Grey, and Black water tank levels and the necessity to Dump the tanks before it’s too late.  A small travel trailer with sink, bathroom and shower generally has four tanks [e.g. Fresh tank to hold fresh water, Hot Water tank (usually fed from the Fresh tank), Grey tank (the water that is drained from the sink and shower), and Black tank (holds what is flushed down toilet)].  Our 13’ Scamp travel trailer with bathroom has a 12 gallon Fresh tank, 6 gallon Hot Water tank, 21 gallon Grey tank, and 9 gallon Black tank.

It’s important to monitor tank levels so you don’t run out of water or, possibly worse, have dirty or hazardous water / waste back up into your trailer!  Most campers get an idea fairly quickly how long they can go without dumping their tanks.  When we purchased our Scamp travel trailer, we had a tank monitor sent directly to the factory and had them integrate it into our Scamp when completing our custom build.  We use the SeeLevel II tank monitoring system (we purchased ours on RVupgrades.com because the price was much lower than on Amazon).   This monitor allows one to see the levels of all the tanks as well as the travel trailer voltage (which you want to make sure doesn’t go much lower than 12 volts – around 50% charge).  We rely on the monitor religiously to make sure we are keeping our tanks and voltage at the correct levels.

We have found that with two people each taking a fast shower every day, regularly using the Scamp bathroom, and using the sink sparingly (using paper plates or washing dishes outside if allowed), we need to Dump on about day 3.  If we are at a campsite with full hookups, then it’s no big deal.  However, if we need to move the trailer to Dump, then we try to be very careful in how we use our water so the need to Dump is less frequent.  The Achilles heel for us is the Grey tank which fills up after a couple of days (primarily due to showers).  The Black (toilet) tank usually doesn’t need to be refilled until day 5.  And the Fresh tank is generally not an issue since there usually is a spigot or water hose wherever we camp (even at areas with no hookups).  So, at campsites without hookups, we either have to use a shared Dump in the campground on day 3 if we are staying more than a couple of days or drive to a Dump.  For the future, we are considering using an outdoor shower to extend our time between Dumps since it’s the Grey tank filled quickly by showers which greatly limits our time between Dumps.

A home Dump is similar to the Dump hookup used to dump the Black and Grey tanks at the campsite.  The home Dump just utilizes the sewer cleanouts (for use by plumbers when they need to clear a clog inside the main sewer pipe going from the home to the City sewer system).  This pipe is the conduit which takes all the material flushed down the toilets in the home to the City sewer system.  The sewer cleanout covers can typically be found somewhere in the front of the home.  Our cleanout covers are located in our garage.  There are two covers which both go into the same sewer pipe, but each hole directs the plumber’s auger in a different direction (the cover closest to the road on ours directs the auger toward the house and the cover closest to the house directs the auger toward the street).  It really doesn’t matter which cleanout you use to Dump because material dumped from your trailer will go down into the sewer line either way.

A home Dump is fantastic if feasible and allowed by local laws.  It’s especially useful when arriving home after staying at a campsite with no Dump, or where the Dump had a long wait or wasn’t easily available, or was a bit too expensive (we’ve paid as low as $7.50 to Dump at a Valero station in Santa Barbara up to $15 to Dump at a private location in Mammoth Lakes).  In our area, the closest Dump is about 30 minutes’ drive away!  The home Dump also makes it possible for us to test our systems (shower, sink, toilet), sanitize and flush these systems with Happy Campers, and sanitize and flush our Fresh and Hot Water tanks.  It would be much less convenient and more expensive to do these tasks away from home.

We were very fortunate in that our sewer cleanout access areas happened to be located right in front of where our Scamp travel trailer sits in our garage!  In order to utilize them, we just had to have our plumber cut a few inches of the pipe down into the hole so an enlarged PVC cleanout adapter (available at Home Depot) could be attached to easily accommodate our 3” RV sewer hose with the cement cover still able to sit on top when not in use.

When searching for your cleanout, keep in mind that there is usually a cover (cement) that says “sewer” on it.  The cleanout is likely to be outside your home between the foundation and the street or could be on the side of your home (closest to the bathroom).  Hopefully, it will be located in an area that is convenient for you to place your travel trailer within 6 feet of the opening. It’s also best if the cleanout is either level or below your travel trailer so gravity allows the material being dumped to easily drain into the cleanout.  The cleanout pipe is usually 4 inches in diameter with a screw cap that has a square knob or indentation on the top.  Please let me know if this works for you!

Cleanliness is next to godliness!

Disclaimer:  You will get the same great Amazon price by clicking on the links here compared to buying directly on Amazon, but by buying here you will also be supporting the continuation of this website as we get a small commission from each sale.  These are products and procedures we use for our own Scamp that we selected and developed from our own research and experiences.  However, we do not endorse any specific product and cannot guarantee that the products we use are exemplary and the procedures we use are complete, accurate, detail the correct recommended procedures, or apply to your model small travel trailer.  It’s always best to double check with your manufacturer or operation manuals to ensure you are doing everything correctly.