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Tote question

garysol
Explorer
Explorer
"Blue" tote question from someone who has never used one. Lets say your rv black tank holds 50 gallons and your blue tote holds 42 gallons. Is there anyway to know ahead of time before the tote is full of poo so that you can close your RV's valve before the tote is over full?
2020 GMC Canyon
2022 NoBo 19.2
21 REPLIES 21

allen8106
Explorer
Explorer
Dick_B wrote:
What could one do with 42 gallons of poo at 8 lbs/gallon!


You tow it to the dump station and dump it just like you would you black tank when you leave the park. This keeps you from having to move your trailer to the dump station in them middle of your stay. For a 5th wheel and likely some travel trailers it's a pain to go dump mid-stay.
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2012Coleman
Explorer
Explorer
garysol wrote:
"Blue" tote question from someone who has never used one. Lets say your rv black tank holds 50 gallons and your blue tote holds 42 gallons. Is there anyway to know ahead of time before the tote is full of poo so that you can close your RV's valve before the tote is over full?
Yes - there is. You can get a Barker Tote Full Indicator which will tell you when the tank is getting full. I have one of these on an older Thetford portable tank and it works well.

Here is another link with more options.

Don't skimp on water when flushing your toilet in an effort to conserve tank space - stuff needs to float.

Good luck!
Experience without good judgment is worthless; good judgment without experience is still good judgment!

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garysol
Explorer
Explorer
Thanks for all of the info guys. I really appreciate it.
2020 GMC Canyon
2022 NoBo 19.2

DutchmenSport
Explorer
Explorer
To attempt to answer the OP's question and not go off on a tangent about full hook up sites....

The only sure solution when the RV tank is bigger than the blue tote is to simply dump more often, before your holding tank reaches or exceeds the capacity of the blue tote. And yes, this may mean one trip for the black tank and one trip for the kitchen galley tank, and one trip for the shower tank. But the surest way to keep from overfilling, is simply to learn by experience how often you should dump your tanks.

First, the gages in the camper that shows the level of your tanks is 100% unreliable. You need to learn your camper, know your own usage, and keep a mental track in your head about your water usage. This is really the best way, and the only way I do it.

First, I never hook up to city water with a hose. I fill my fresh water tank. I know how many gallons this holds and this is usually my first key is tracking my usage. The sensors seem to be a little more reliable on the fresh water tank than any of the holding tanks.

I've had a 32 gallon Barker Blue Tote for about 25 years now. Same one. 3 of my 4 RVs all have had larger than 32 gallon holding tanks (Grey-Grey-Black). And we camp mostly at State Parks that have only electric on site. No full hook-ups and sometime we stay for 2 week at a time. And I've overflowed the blue tote only a couple times in the beginning.

I have found dumping every 2 days is our norm. In 2 days we will use right at 30 gallons of water between all tanks.

I use a Flush King slide valve on my black-grey outlet. In 2 days I dump everything in the black tank. Then I use the shower grey tank and back flush into the the black tank. 2 days equals 4 showers on average. This is enough water to back flush into the black tank and rinse it out.

1. Dump black tank.
2. Back flush shower water 3 times
3. Release the rest of the shower water

every 2 days and this equals about 30 gallons, tanks are now empty.

Of course, if camping on a week-end, we can just wait and dump at the dump station. But longer than 2 days and this is how we do it. Except for the very beginning, I've never overfilled the Blue Tote, and my black tank is always odor free and clean.

On more observation... weight. My 32 gallon, 4 wheeled, side mounted discharge valve IS NOT hard to move around, even on grass. I use it at home all the time and drag it over grass to my septic tank (Yes, we use the camper 24x7 at home and I dump the tanks every 2 days).

We have camped in Florida sand before, and we have camped on some pretty hilly and small mountain ridges where the only thing relatively flat was the actual pad for the camper to sit. The tote was located down hill from the road, and on a couple occasions, actually in mud. How did I get the tote up-hill filled and onto the road? Tie a rope to it and pull the rope from the road with your vehicle. Come right up. Once on pavement or asphalt, very easy to move.

One more thing, about putting the handle over ball of the hitch ... well ... I took care of that years and years ago. And now that I have a 5er, I don't even have a bumper hitch any more. Here's what I came up with a long-long-long time ago when the handle popped off the ball once (and only time)....

No, no, no ... not this this way:



Do it this way. The handle never comes off:

maddog348
Explorer
Explorer
Yes ~~ but it got him to thinking.

JM2ยข ~~ YMMV

BillyBob_Jim
Explorer
Explorer
garysol wrote:
maddog348 wrote:
Dick_B ~~ That is one I hoped the O/P would answer


Im the OP ๐Ÿ™‚ I hadn't really thought about the weight of all that poo yet. Im still in the learning and figuring out stage.



It's not that big of a deal but on RV boards you always have a group that make everything a big deal.

Get a 4 wheel tote with the side dump valve, preferably a Barker. Its about a 20 minute operation to fill it and haul it to the dump station. I've never been anywhere where the dump station was not close.

garysol
Explorer
Explorer
maddog348 wrote:
Dick_B ~~ That is one I hoped the O/P would answer


Im the OP ๐Ÿ™‚ I hadn't really thought about the weight of all that poo yet. Im still in the learning and figuring out stage.
2020 GMC Canyon
2022 NoBo 19.2

BillyBob_Jim
Explorer
Explorer
maddog348 wrote:
SOoooo, Even if you don't run over ~~ now ya got a black tank with 50G of Poo and a Tote of Poo with 42G. What ya gonna do with it, Totes are heavy & hard to move.

JM2ยข ~~ YMMV



SOoooooo. You drop the tote handle on the ball and tow it down to the dump station and dump it, return and put another 42G of poop in it and make another trip. Not hard to move at all if you're smarter than the tote.


Book only FHU sites to your hearts content. The more folks that do that exclusivly means less folks at the parks we frequent where FHUs do not exist and probably never will.

bikendan
Explorer
Explorer
We NEVER use our tote tank for black water. Don't need to, even when we had a 25 gallon black tank on our previous trailer. It would take at least a couple of weeks to come close to filling our black tank.
Our tote is only for gray water since they usually fill WAY faster than a black tank.
We've gone weeks without dumping our black tank. The same isn't possible with the gray tank.
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maddog348
Explorer
Explorer
Dick_B ~~ That is one I hoped the O/P would answer

bpounds
Nomad
Nomad
I'm sure there are exceptions, but for me I would rather pull the trailer to the dump station. It doesn't take me very long to stow stuff away for a dash and dump.
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doxiemom11
Explorer II
Explorer II
For those saying, book a FHU site - there are many many parks that do not even have FHU sites. They are still great parks to camp at, but adjustments must be made. We spent a summer using a tote. Had the biggest 4 wheel one and pulled it slowly to the dump station fastened to the hitch on our jeep. We do try not to use it though and prefer FHU when possible.

Dick_B
Explorer
Explorer
What could one do with 42 gallons of poo at 8 lbs/gallon!
Dick_B
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Retired_JSO
Explorer
Explorer
We stay almost always in state parks most with no sewer. Our trailer has 3 tanks, 2, 42 gallon grey water and one 42 black. We often stay 2 weeks and have never filled up the black tank. I do use the tote for the shower grey tank sometimes but never the galley tank.