What goes in, must go out. As mentioned last week, sometimes we stay at rustic campgrounds or rallies where there are no sewer hookups. No big deal for up to about a week. But if we’re staying longer, we have a tote tank that can be used to empty our black and gray tanks, enabling us to camp as long as we want.
We bought a Camco Rhino 36-Gallon Portable Camper/RV Tote Tank from Amazon:
They (and RVers generally) recommend getting a tank big enough to fit the capacity of the RV’s waste tanks, but that advice is geared towards smaller RVs — our motorhome has a 70 gallon gray tank and 50 gallon black tank, so we need to take two trips to fully empty each.
The instructions that came with the tank:
I also got a Tote Tank Gauge for it, that indicates when the tank is getting full; important since the capacity is smaller than the tanks in our coach:
I didn’t bother installing the ladder hook, since we don’t have a ladder on our coach. In the future I might add a bar to our towbar to mount a rack onto. But for now I store the tank in the bed of our truck, wrapped in a cover:
Here’s the tote tank (when it was brand new):
It has wheels at the back and front; the front wheels can be steered; I normally don’t attach the handle, though:
There is a valve on the side to dump the contents:
And a second valve on top for filling, though this can also be used for dumping by tilting the tank vertically:
I also purchased a macerator pump:
Normally one would position the tote tank next to the wet bay, and use gravity to fill it from the RV’s tanks, then hook the tank to a tow bar or wheel it manually to the campground dump station.
But I wanted to keep it in the bed of our truck, so I could easily drive it to the dump station. So I use the macerator pump to chop up any solids and pump it all uphill into the truck:
Another time, I attached the macerator directly to the port (with a clear tube); the downside was getting a little water in the wet bay when disconnecting (if the tank isn’t completely drained):
The tank in the back of the truck:
The hose (only used for this purpose) goes from the macerator to the fill valve on top:
Both the water bladder and the sewer tote fit quite nicely together in the bed of the truck:
Water flowing into the tank:
Fill gauge:
The fill gauge rising up as it nears capacity:
Once the tote is full (or the RV’s tanks are empty), I drive the truck to the campground’s dump station, hook up a sewer hose to the side valve, and empty the tank:
Much more convenient than dragging the tote behind the truck. And like the water bladder, lets us stay indefinitely even in a campground without a sewer hookup.
