I didn’t know I was afraid of it …
… until I had to empty it for the first time.
To say I was inexperienced and naive when I started living in an RV was an understatement of large proportions. Honestly, when Gwen and I got started, we didn’t really know anything about living on the road. The first time I towed our 5th wheel was the first time I’d towed a trailer that long.
The first time I backed up our trailer into an RV site in Portland, OR was the first time I’d ever backed up a trailer.
A few minutes later, after I’d finally managed to park the thing, and say some things I’d rather not repeat, I hooked up our sewer hoses and plugged in our 50 amp plug for the first time.
I had no clue what I was doing, so I watched several Youtube videos and got the general idea. Then I hooked them up and let gravity do its job. That was over two years ago, and I’ve learned a couple of tricks since then.
Tip #1: Don’t keep your sewer line open
If you do one thing right the first time you deal with your sewer hoses it’s this. Done leave the line open until the tank is full. Sure, it may seem like a good idea, especially since that’s how sewage in a sticks-and-bricks home works. It won’t work in your rig, though, and you’ll quickly find out why.
But before I get into that, you need to know the difference between your black and gray water tanks. The gray water tank is your shower, washer, and sink tank. There is no human waste in this tank, and some places will allow you to let some of your gray water out, even if there’s no sewer around.
The black tank is another word for poop tank. I’ll let you guess what’s in here.
Don’t mix them up …
… your neighbors will hate you.
Now, back to keeping your black tank line closed until you dump it. The black tank has both liquid and solid waste, and if you leave the drainage valve open, only one of those kinds of wast is going to flow down into your sewage hoses; it’s not you solid waste.
Solid waste has a tendency to float, as many a person has discovered when they step into a stadium bathroom near the end of regulation, but if all the liquid waste is gone, the solid waste is going to sit at the bottom of the tank, cover the open valve, and eventually, nothing will get out of there. Trust me when I say you don’t want to have that happen.
To get over this, all you have to do is make sure you dump your tank when it gets full.
Tip #2: Have a clear Sewer fitting
Have you ever seen the movie “Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs”? If not, you’re not missing too much. Needless to say, your black water tank, if you’re dumping it the way you’re supposed to, should be cloudy with a chance of meatballs. But, when you dump it, you want to make sure you get rid of all the meatballs. To do that, having a clear sewer fitting will help immensely.
Simply put, you’ll be able to see what’s coming out of the tank.
As a result, you’ll be able to see when the water is all cleared up.
Here is my favorite fitting on Amazon:
You can have one at the front of your hose, right where it connects to your home, and you have one at the end of your hose, where it enters the ground port. Either way, you’ll want something that will allow you to see.
Tip #3: Use your Gray Water Wisely
After you dump the gross stuff from your black tank, you’re going to want to flush out your sewer hoses. There are a couple of ways to do this, but the easiest, and most “hands-off” method, is to use your gray water tank.
In lots of rigs, even though the black water tank and the gray water tank are separate, they use the same exit point on your rig. If this is the case, and I’d wager a lot of money that it is, then this tip will serve you nicely …
… but it will only work if you have water in your gray tank at the time you’re dumping your black tank. If not, you’ll have to use the “hands-on” method, and that means you’re probably going to get your hands a little dirty.
All you need to do is close off your black tank and then pull the gray tank valve. All that water stored up in the gray tank will come belting down the sewage hose and it will clean up any chunks or stragglers that were left behind in those pesky hoses.
Tip #4: Pay Attention to the Ends of your Sewer Hoses
At least when you’re hooking them up to your rig. If you look at each end, there is a little bit of plastic sticking out towards the center of the hose. This is there because of how the hose is manufactured, and this little piece of plastic has a nasty little habit.
It likes to grab things like hair and gross, old toilet paper, even after you’ve done a proper gray-tank flush; in fact, you might even have trouble taking care of that stuff with a high-pressure nozzle. But there’s a trick to keeping that little plastic piece out of the way–and it has everything to do with gravity.
If that plastic piece is sticking up from the bottom, it’s guaranteed to latch onto something it has no business latching on to. But, if you can twist the hose and attach it so that plastic piece is at the top of the hose, then you won’t have any problems at all.
Tip #5: Beware of those Pesky Sewer Flies
These pesky flies are also called drain flies, and they live in the sewer tanks at the various RV parks you may find yourself at. Their favorite stuff to munch just so happens to be the same stuff you’re trying to flush out of your rig, so if you get them, you’ll probably experience some pain trying to get rid of them.
So the best course of action is to keep them from coming in altogether …
… lucky for you, there’s a simple way to do that.
It might seem a little weird, but trust me when I say that you are going to want to do this. Normally, when you look at someone’s sewer hose, you’ll see that it gradually makes its way from the rig to the sewer entry point in a manner that lets gravity do its job. However, since there aren’t always gallons of water running through the hose, and since your hose is connected to the sewer, those flies will have a nice runway to get right into your rig.
To make sure they stay out, all you need to do is set a portion of your sewer hose on the ground, with the hose suspended on either side of it. Then, fill that section with water. This will create a “natural” roadblock for those flies that will keep them from getting into your rig.
Let’s face it, you’re never going to be fully prepared to dump your tanks for the first time. You are still going to have to smell the black water for the first time; you’re going get poop on your hands for the first time; you’re going to get black water on your pants for the first time; you’re going to have a black water spill all over the ground for the first time.
It’s just part of living the life.
But, it’s also a small price to pay for the freedom and adventure you get to experience.
If you’re curious what we sewer items we use on our rig, here are some links.