Black water tank flushing

[Old_Stevenick]

New to having a black water tank, have read what I can find.

After a few days of camping and draining the black water, it seems that I should flush out the tank between trips.

If I wait until I come home to do it, I'll be flushing it out in my yard?

Do the spray hoses at dump stations have threadings so I can bring a long hose to run inside and put down the toilet to flush? Even use a wand thing?

Should i just dump a few gallons of water down from jugs?

What are best practices?

Should i have an inlet valve installed?

[Old_Stevenick]

How about using this?

https://www.amazon.com/Camco-Holding...37&sr=8-5&th=1

Dual Flush Pro Holding Tank Rinser. Pushes water up through the drain pipe.

[gearhead]

Likely that everyone has different practices. So...what I do..have a shorter length of hose for the dump stations with threaded water valve. I only use this hose for connecting to the trailer backflush connection, assuming you have a newer trailer with a backflush connection. Use a backflow preventer as well. You probably have one in the trailer plumbing though.
If there is no threaded water outlet at the dump I will put maybe 3-5 gallons of water, plenty of Dawn liquid soap, and Downey liquid fabric softener down the toilet and hope the black tank cleans itself going down the road.
I store my trailer at home close to some woods. I have been known to dump that "wash water" in my back yard.

[chuckster57]

Don’t flush your tank in your yard, the neighbors might not like the “yard art” that piles up. This will work much better:

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0006IX7YC...9-ad8c3ee21a81

I don’t use dump stations so I don’t know what hoses they have c

[Old_Stevenick]

If you don't use dump stations, how do you dump?

[Old_Stevenick]

I cannot locate an inlet valve or backflush opening on my black water tank, doesn't seem to have one.

[B-O-B'03]

I have a Flojet Macerator pump that I use to dump at home.

It will chop up and pump whatever is in the black tank through a 100 foot garden hose that I shove into the guest bathroom toilet.

It also has a place to connect a fresh water hose, for flushing the black tank, but our camper has a flush system built in, so I use that.

The pump will move water/waste a little faster than the flush system puts it in.

Any time I am going to dump, at the campground or home, I make sure both tanks are as full as possible, dump the black, rinse it a couple of times and dump the gray tank last.

-Brian

[flybouy]

Originally Posted by Old_Stevenick

If you don't use dump stations, how do you dump?

Folks that stay at campgrounds with full hook ups drain their tanks at the campsite.

[Old_Stevenick]

Originally Posted by flybouy

Folks that stay at campgrounds with full hook ups drain their tanks at the campsite.

But of course. Been camping for a lot of years in the pop-up, but still a newbie in so many ways.

Really interested in people's opinion of the Camco backflush hookup thing I posted above.

[travelin texans]

Originally Posted by Old_Stevenick

How about using this?

https://www.amazon.com/Camco-Holding...37&sr=8-5&th=1

Dual Flush Pro Holding Tank Rinser. Pushes water up through the drain pipe.

This device works fairly well provided there's not too many bends in the piping before reaching the tank, otherwise it just rinses to the 1st bend never reaching into the tank.
I would never use the dump stations if at all possible! They rank #2 to using a port a potty at a construction site as far a grossness (is that a real word?). It's worth the nightly rate at a park with full hookups for a night to use the sewer dump for the tank rinsing in my opinion rather than use or have to touch anything at a public dump site.

[JRTJH]

Originally Posted by Old_Stevenick

If you don't use dump stations, how do you dump?

Originally Posted by Old_Stevenick

I cannot locate an inlet valve or backflush opening on my black water tank, doesn't seem to have one.

Second question first: According to the 2018 Bullet <east> brochure, the Crossfire Hybrid does not come standard with a black tank flush. That would explain why you can't find it.

First question, second: Most dump stations in public locations, at least around here, do not have threaded ends on the "non-potable water hose" at the dump site. The reason why water is there is to "hose down any spills". It's not there so someone can spend "precious minutes (or hours)" cleaning their black tank while other campers are trying to simply "dump and run" in an effort to get home on Sunday morning.... So, many state parks, some private campgrounds and nearly all public dumps at Gander Mountain, etc, just "cut the ends off the hose" so you can't "tie up the dump station while others are waiting"....

In your trailer, unless you or a previous owner has installed an aftermarket black tank flush system, you don't have one.

As for "where do you dump" ?? We stay the last night (when we plan to not use the trailer for a while) in a full hookup site. The morning that we leave, I spend an hour or so filling the black tank, dumping it (at the campsite), filling the black tank a second time, dumping it again, then using the flush system to further rinse the tank. Then I dump both gray tanks and disconnect the sewer hose and store it under the trailer. That way we not only avoid the busy dump station but we also have "as much time as we want to spend" to leisurely do a thorough dump and tank rinse procedure without worrying about whether we're impacting someone else who might be trying to get home for some more urgent reason.

Pretty much, the "generally accepted" good camper rules for courteous camping suggest that if there's anybody in line at the dump station, don't spend any extra time "doing things that waste time for all the other campers idling behind you..... In other words, "dilly at home, not in line at a busy dump station".....