Expedition truck...

[RAYZER]

What about toilet facilities in your expedition truck,what are your plans?

 

[oldMan99]

What about toilet facilities in your expedition truck,what are your plans?

His plans parallel my pretty closely. I know I'm going to have a good size shower and toilet. I'm pretty sure he is planning on both as well.

Mine will be an installed holding tank type toilet (not the portable kind) in a sectioned off room also holding the shower and maybe a sink (room permitting) with a "Fantastic" roof vent/fan in the room. Black water holding will be about 75g and grey will be 150g. (Fresh 300g)

I don't think he is planning on tanks quite that large though.

I'm sure he will be along shortly to answer for himself though...

 

[RAYZER]

I'm with you there on those plans, I was planning a bathroom 4.5'x5' with all the comforts of home. The bathroom is what I miss most when I'm out ruffing it for any length of time.

 

[Bighurt]

What about toilet facilities in your expedition truck,what are your plans?

I was actually thinking along the lines of a composting toilet.

Nature's Head Composting Toilets - The Ideal Waterless Toilet for Your Boat, RV, Cabin, Big Rig or Yurt!

As my intention is to camp where others are not I have to be self sufficient. Which means collecting rain water and disposing of my waste without the aid of a filling station/dump facility.

I've been doing a fair amount of research over at;

Expo: Passionate about Expedition

So I will say nothing is firm or decided upon as of yet. I will have to have a water tank as it never rains every day.

 

[Bighurt]

I'm with you there on those plans, I was planning a bathroom 4.5'x5' with all the comforts of home. The bathroom is what I miss most when I'm out ruffing it for any length of time.

My Heartland Sundance has a full shower, pretty nice too. And to tell you the truth having only 8 gal of hot water limits the showers. Most of the campgrounds we've used have shower facilities. So it hardly gets used.

But I agree it's nice to have a toilet and sink.

 

[oldMan99]

I'm with you there on those plans, I was planning a bathroom 4.5'x5' with all the comforts of home. The bathroom is what I miss most when I'm out ruffing it for any length of time.

I feel exactly the same way. After a day of doing... whatever outside noting feels better than a nice warm shower.

One of the many things I hate about commercial built RV's is the TINY showers thy put in them. I'll have a "normal size" shower stall. Just guessing but about 3'x3'?

So I will say nothing is firm or decided upon as of yet. I will have to have a water tank as it never rains every day.

LOL.. Good thing. It would old pretty quickly if it did!

 

[RAYZER]

I was thinking about the the five days I spent at the Ga rally sleeping in the back of my friends m109 freezing my a$$ off and having to walk a country mile across the street for a shower and ,using those portilets in the middle of the night,ugh. Next Ga rally I should be all set to be comfortable.

 

[oldMan99]

I was thinking about the the five days I spent at the Ga rally sleeping in the back of my friends m109 freezing my a$$ off and having to walk a country mile across the street for a shower and ,using those portilets in the middle of the night,ugh. Next Ga rally I should be all set to be comfortable.

And that my friend is EXACTLY why I am buinding what I'm building...

No more freezing sleeping

No more freezing midnight walks to take a leak

No more having to hover over a toilet seat covered in all sort of human liquid waste because the last 50 guys did not bother to lift the lid.

No more trudging through the mud to wait in line to stand in a moldy dirty community shower and try to get clean

Satellite TV, A/C Heat, Stove, oven, fridge.... Gonna be rough...

 

[RAYZER]

Amen brother! I think a full size tub with shower might be a good option,lowes sells a fiberglass one with encloser that would work just fine. That way if push comes to shove,you could heat water over a fire and take a hot bath,like they did in the old west before electricity.the lady's would like it too!

 

[RAYZER]

I was actually thinking along the lines of a composting toilet.

Nature's Head Composting Toilets - The Ideal Waterless Toilet for Your Boat, RV, Cabin, Big Rig or Yurt!

As my intention is to camp where others are not I have to be self sufficient. Which means collecting rain water and disposing of my waste without the aid of a filling station/dump facility.

I've been doing a fair amount of research over at;



Expo: Passionate about Expedition

So I will say nothing is firm or decided upon as of yet. I will have to have a water tank as it never rains every day.

That composting toilet seems to be a great idea. No need for a black water tank. What do these cost?

 

[Bighurt]

That composting toilet seems to be a great idea. No need for a black water tank. What do these cost?

$850 and they are made in the US

They are not as easy to use as a regular toilet but you can go weeks without dumping the main tank. The liquid waste tank only holds 2.2 gallons that's about a nights worth of beer...

My only concern is disposing of the liquid waste.

Most customers just walk the container to the CG's provided facilities and dump it there.

 

[ACBMWM#]

Not always I can think of a few people that are the problem because they lack understanding of the system. Without them the system would work perfectly...

I was making a funny

 

[oldMan99]

Amen brother! I think a full size tub with shower might be a good option,lowes sells a fiberglass one with encloser that would work just fine. That way if push comes to shove,you could heat water over a fire and take a hot bath,like they did in the old west before electricity.the lady's would like it too!

Actually I had thought about the pre-made tub/shower enclosure with walls, it sounds like a really great idea... Except....

A standard tub will hold between 40-60 gallons of water. A 10 minute shower with a 1.5 gpm flow shower head is only 15 gallons. Less than 1/2 the lowest tub average and only 25% of the high number.

Yes, I know that I can make a rule; "Showers only when not at a place with water/drain (Like a campground)" And you know as well as I do that with women that rule is just not going to cut it. No tub = no need to have a rule to argue about = happy camping.

Also, the shower only will take up less room but still be large enough to provide a good shower experience.

=========
Composting toilet:

I really do like the environmentally friendly aspect of them but they are way more work per person/per day than the conventional built in holding tank type. I want more of a "Set it and forget it" system than the composting system can provide. I do applaud those that go the extra mile and put out the extra effort to go that route though.

("Set it and forget it" - You have seen the commercials for that oven, haven't you? (Great oven by the way, it works just as well as on TV!) - but I digress, we are talking about the other end of the food cycle here)

If your making a camper in a M109 or other similar space restricted area/vehicle it makes a LOT of sense because finding room for fresh, grey and black tanks and making all the plumbing work properly can get pretty hard to do.

They are also portable so if you wanted to you could get a small tent, (or other privacy providing "structure") outside the RV and put the toilet in the tent and eliminate the inevitable "during use" odors from inside the RV. This is sort of hard to do with an installed holding tank type unit...lol.

The final big advantage i can see is that you can relatively easily transport the "messy part" to a proper dumping area while leaving the RV/camper stationary where you can not really do that with an installed system. Of course you have to dump it a lot more often (more or less depending on the size of your holding tanks) but even with the largest capacity composting unit compared to a small installed black tanks your still talking dumping more frequently. This is one reason I want a huge installed black tank. I want 2-3 people/7-10 days without worry.

 

[Unforgiven]

Recycle your grey water.

If you're building an RV out of a military vehicle then chances are you won't do much camping at a fully-equipped campground.

Build your "outback" RV to recycle the grey water as much as possible. Use it to flush the toilet. Recirculate the shower water per user. They only need fresh water for the final rinse. Set it up so the next user has clean, fresh water to begin. You'll get many, many more showers out of your water supply.

Make sure your black tank is sized appropriately if you flush grey water into it.

 

[Unforgiven]

RV Boondocking News: Fresh and waste water recycling extends boondocking days

The approach takes your gray water (typically shower and sink water), filters it, pressurizes it, then uses it to flush your toilet thereby saving fresh water and removing water from your gray tank. The end result is each toilet flush empties your gray tank a little leaving more space for showers.

This summer I'm building my own Big-Dumb-camper-trailer out of an M36 bed.

I plan to run fresh water to a float-controlled tank for the shower. I'm not sure how big yet. But definitely WAY less than 15 gallons for the shower. This will be fresh water for each new shower user.

Once activated, the shower will recirculate its own water for soap/shampoo. Then a final rinse with fresh water will be used. The combined grey water will then be used to feed the toilet. Obviously after that it will end up in the black tank. I'm hoping to use 5 gallons or less per shower & slim to none for the toilet. 10 gallons of shower water (me & the missus) daily should be enough water for the toilet as well assuming normal toilet use.

If you use grey water straight from the grey tank you have to be careful. It's going to have coffee, spoiled milk, & whatever else your wife, family, or buddies dumped down the kitchen sink. In that case it should be pre-filtered before use in the toilet.

 

[stampy]

I think a hybrid of the black water system above is a good idea. Have a 15/20 gal black water tank with a 15/20 gal portable unit that can connect to it. That way you can have your crap and haul it too (so to speak). Anyone looked at rainwater tanks for showers? I think you should have the sink go to black water as it is too easy to screw up and put something down the sink you don't want ending up in the shower. To see how much water you need buy a low flow shower head and a 5 gal bucket. Plug the tub and after install of the low flow head take your shower. 5 gal is not a lot of water. Not to mention are you camping where there is water available? If you plan on weekend trips only then 10gal may suit your needs but you may also want hand washing and drinking/ cooking water which cuts into your supply for bathing. Personally I wanted 20 to 40 gal of fresh water and a 15 gal grey water tank and a 25 gal black water tank. This would give you extended time out on your campsite as well as some fudge factor for using water for other things. Just my 2Cents

 

[Unforgiven]

Yes Stampy, that's a good idea about piping the poo to it's own sealed container if needed.

I plan on using more than 10 gallons of water a day. That's just a working figure for the shower/toilet sub-system based on two people.

Definitely the bathroom & kitchen sinks require more.

My grey-water toilet will only be connected to the shower water + supplemental fresh, not the grey tank from the sink. That way I can avoid the whole filter/spoiled milk scenario. In fact, I'm not even sure I'm going to have a grey tank. I might just recycle what I can then send the rest to the black tank. Two tanks makes designing it easier.

My problem is that I like to off-road.

I'm skeptical about using plastic RV tanks for my camper trailer. I might have to weld up my own & shell out the bucks for some stainless. But, I guess that gives me a good excuse for a TIG welder.

If I have my fresh & black tanks the same size then I won't have to worry about overfilling the black tank.

Plus, it's mainly for the wife. I don't have a problem laying some logs in nature. Likewise number-one should really not be done in an RV in the boondocks.

But a daily shower would be nice. And the missus likes to take long showers. A recycling system with a point-of-use propane water heater will allow this.

If I use 20-25 gallons a day for 4-5 days that's about 100 gallons or 800 pounds of water that I have to manage. Doubling that number is also doable with the converted Deuce M36 bed & suspension. That either gives me 10 days of comfort camping or 5 days of water freedom camping.

The weak link is the RV storage tank market. They're all plastic & I don't trust that for an off-road expedition vehicle.

 

[srodocker]

The weak link is the RV storage tank market. They're all plastic & I don't trust that for an off-road expedition vehicle.

yea dont want those to break that would be a crappy situation

 

[Bighurt]

I'm skeptical about using plastic RV tanks for my camper trailer. I might have to weld up my own & shell out the bucks for some stainless. But, I guess that gives me a good excuse for a TIG welder.

If I have my fresh & black tanks the same size then I won't have to worry about overfilling the black tank.

Plastic can be far superior to steel and aluminum given the fact that it's flexible. It's all about the correct kind of plastic. For example High-Density Cross-Linked Polyethylene tanks are 20 times stronger than steel. They have no welds or seams thus they will not split/crack when twisted or stressed they are also 5 times more resistant to punctures. HDCLP is what Titan fuel tanks are made out of.

I did my research on this one, if you don't believe me that's fine, but I suggest you google stress/drop tests for HDCLP.

Also if you have equal tanks for black and fresh you will still have to worry about over filling your black as you are adding waste not only liquid but solids as well. Remember we drink more than water yet we still output urine...

Lastly the reason for separate gray/black tanks are there are different dump requirements for each. Yes at dump stations they go in the same hole. However in some areas it's perfectly legal to dump your grey water on the ground. Just a thought not a recommendation... best to look up state/park requirements first. Although at work we have the premise better to ask for forgiveness than permission.

 

[stampy]

I agree that plastic tanks HDPE are the best solution long term. I was planning on mounting them between the ribs on the bottom of my m109 as there is plenty of road clearance there and it doesn't take away from space inside the major drawback is freezing though. I guess you could put drain plugs in so you could drain them every fall. Another benefit is all of the water would drain down to the tank and there would be no low spot in the line to freeze. Also don't forget you need separate pumps for the freshwater lines and the grey water lines lest you contaminate your fresh water, and don't forget those check valves either.