17' storage tank questions
 

Our camper is just a bare bones frame at the moment, so we get to design our water and waste system from scratch. What capacity water storage tanks to do most folks with the smaller campers have? Also, what is the capacity of your gray and black water storage? Figuring out what kind of capacity we should be planning for will give us an idea of how much space we should be finding for the tanks.

Thanks!

Have you thought of a composting toilet? You could go a " month" without emptying and save a lot of weight! I think you would be greener and no chemicals!
If you just went camping on a few weekends and a week or so during the summer you could possibly only need to empty once a season!

Current size tanks I had on my last standard box style camper was 30 gal. freshwater, 30 gal.each grey and black. That was for a 16' unit.

Lori:

Look on the forum's main page, near the bottom for the red bar that has the word "Library" inside. Under that header you'll find a collection of information, including "Hi Lo Brochure" and "Hi Lo Owners Manual". The brochures feature a lot of info on trailer specs, including holding tank sizes. There is probably a lot of other info that you might find useful as you work through your project.

Thank you for the information and suggestions. I'll definitely check into a composting toilet and make use of the library.

I just looked at composting toilets. Wow. They are a bit cost prohibitive. But I ran across cassette toilets, also called porta potties. I think that may be the way to go. A little more work, but as often as we'll actually get to use it, nothing that we couldn't handle.

Lori, my 17 ft trailer has 30 gal fresh and grey water tanks. The black water tank is 17 gals. We only use the toilet for night time peeing.

Personally, I find the porta-pottie toilet idea to be somewhat unpleasant. We had one when we were tent camping and it worked, but I'm glad we don't use it anymore.

We also had the misfortune of having a composting toilet at a Nature Conservancy house we helped to maintain for many years. That thing NEVER worked right and it smelled bad. I know some people have had good luck with them, but not us.

- Jack

Bravada, what type of composting toilet do you use. I want to pull he blank tank one out of my Classic. Thanks!

I don't have one in this HiLo. Check boating, off grid cabins etc. it is a very green option. Check YouTube videos for reviews. Rather than trying to find a new black tank or having a new one built I would seriously consider installing one.

Jack and Janet, did that composting toilet have a vent fan that ran 24 hrs?

Phylana; When I was up at J&R Repair shop in OH they had quite a supply of the tanks for HiLos. The part# for the tanks are also painted on the tanks so I think you should be able to find them online.

Yes, it did! It was a very expensive unit. One of my less fond memories is how the tray underneath "overfilled" and the contents ran out onto the floor. It got even worse when I removed the tray which was somewhat flexible and a lot more ran out.

It had been emptied regularly before that, but the stuff simply did not break down like it should and there was too much "liquid" in it.

When the Nature Conservancy decided to install a full-time caretaker in the house, they decided it was time to replace the composting failure with a real toilet.

- Jack