The Grey Area of Sewers

May 21

When we bought the rig we were given a tiny bit of coaching from the dealership on how to run the various systems.  Most of the advice was based on the assumption that we knew something about RVing – which we didn’t.

So the advice we were given about the sewers was that if you are without hook-ups, when you go to dump, you just drain the black water first, then you drain the grey water, and it will flush out the black water tank.  We mistakenly took this to mean that the grey water actually physically ran through the black tank and flushed it out.

I discovered over the last couple days of hook-up and disconnect, that it actually has a separate pipe that although it outlets in the same spot, it is more of a T junction.  Therefore, you can drain the grey without draining the black.  Also, the black tank can and due to Murphy input, will drain into the output pipe if you forget to reseal the black water valve even though the grey made the waters flow relatively clear.  (We had an apologetic cleanup to do, but lesson learned.)  To properly flush the black tank, you must physically pour water into the toilet or use the flush valve that some rigs have on the outside where your standard hoop-ups are found.

Growing up, most of us at one point or another have heard the famous “Momism” of, “Be sure to put on clean underwear in case you are in an accident!.....”  From that colourful imagery, you can move forward to a similar vein, one can draw a parallel wise suggestion, “Always dump your black water before you set out on any journey.”  You may ask why be so fussy? Well....

My parents’ misfortune was to take their motorhome down to the Baja in Mexico.  They were on a narrow winding road where their side was a sheer cliff up, and the other side was a slightly less sheer cliff down.  As they were rounding the bend, a vehicle in the oncoming lane crossed to their side (cutting the corner) and forced them into the wrong lane as well.  In so doing, they tipped, and rolled down the bank (fortunately they were unharmed).  As Dad put it, it turned a motorhome into a flatdeck in 5 seconds flat. .....When recovering their possessions to take back home, the state of said posessions accentuated the reasons for this given wisdom.  (and they crowd let out a resounding EEEWWWWWW!!!)

And so endeth the lesson, which will bring me to bidding you

Adieu