What size water / waste tanks are you using

[Dlsnow]

I am redoing my plumbing and wonder what everyone is doing for holding tanks.

I currently have a 178 gallon for fresh (from trioniccorp) that fits with only a couple inches clearance in my bay.  It is rectangular and seems to me to be the max Size unless there are "L" shaped tanks.

Anyone have any advice

[eagle19952]

1 ea. 60 gallon grey
1 ea. 60 gallon black
2 ea. 60 gallon fresh

I can divert grey to black

[Iceni John]

It really depends what you will be doing with your bus  -  boondocking or in campgrounds, fulltiming or weekends-only?   Because I'm setting up my bus for extended boondocking, self-sufficiency is the priority, hence I have two 110-gal freshwater tanks, a 115-gal gray and a 65-gal poo, all rotomolded by Ronco from 3/8" polyethylene and with lots of fittings spin-welded in.   Why those sizes?   They're the very largest that fit!   I have less than 1/4" gap between the poo tank and bodyside, so even custom-made tanks wouldn't have been any bigger.   For my bus's intended use I simply have the biggest or most of whatever it is, whether tanks or PV panels, so I can't regret later not putting in more or larger!

John  

[HB of CJ]

Excellent answers already given and thank you.  Just an addition here in that a big fresh water capacity does not necessarily mean that the tanks be kept completely full...or even used.  With full hookups or non boondocking, you can load up on less water and thus save all that weight, center of balance and handling and all that.  HB of CJ (old coot)

[Bill B /bus]

Two tanks. One for fresh water and one for waste. Each at 125 gallons. We go 10-12 days when dry camping. That leaves sufficient room  for plumbing manifolds, Webasto, water heater, aux fuel tank at 50 gallons and storage for all the misc stuff for hoses and lube supplies.

Bill

[bevans6]

I have 100 fresh and 100 grey/black.  I've never had either over 2/3 full.  There is room for larger tanks, but that's what the bus came with and I ain't changing them...

Brian

[gus]

120 and 120. We mostly travel, not camp, but this will last us about a week if needed.

[TomC]

The bus has 130 fresh under the bed. Underneath is 85gal gray, 45gal black. The truck will have 200 fresh, 115 gray, 69 black.
With the bus, the two of us can squeeze a week if we're really careful-that's why I'm going to bigger in the truck so we can easily stay put for a week (we like our daily showers). Good Luck, TomC

[Frank @ TX]

Hi Disnow,
We have 150 fresh and 165 waste.
We do a lot of dry camping at the shore and Q-site type places.
This works for us for between 7 and 10 days.
We go for water and dump when we get down to about 30 gal water.
Frank

[wagwar]

We have 165 gal fresh tank and 165 gal black/gray tank. Usually keep the fresh tank at 50% or less for weight. We can't divert the gray water - very few occasions where that is possible anyway. I have yet to fill the black/gray, but plan to do some boondocking and will probably get there sometime.  I also installed a 42 gal. aux fuel tank for the generator and Aqua Hot. I didn't like pulling fuel out of the main tank for those.

[gumpy]

150 Fresh in 3 tanks
150 Waste in 1 tank


http://www.gumpydog.com/Bus/MC9_WIP/Plumbing/Holding_Tank_Fabrication/holding_tank_fabrication.htm

[white-eagle]

we've got 100 for each, fresh, grey and black.  we can squeeze a little over a week with the fresh, and the separate waste tanks allow us some room to drip a little if we are somewhere without a dump.  if you've got a combined waste, you can't ever drip.  we can go about a month on the black.  we don't spend a lot of time boondocking completely, although we do camp where it's water and electric only.  We also use the pump/tank rather than straight out of the water source many times just because it's too cold, or it takes a while to get the rust out, so we fill the tank with rust free water. The on/off regular use from the spigot caused us to get rusty water in the ice tray, drinking water, etc.

[FloridaCliff]

Disnow,

We have 120 gallons fresh, 100 Gray and 80 Black.  When I bought my bus, the previous owner had acquired the tanks, not exactly what I wanted, but as others have implied, not worth the difference to change them.  The Gray and/or Black are tied together by valving if desired and overflow to allow for additional capacity, only needed on the gray side so far.

As others have stated, how you use it is paramount in the tanks size decision, but planning for a change in use is always easier to do in the planning stages.

I would probably go with a larger fresh tank say 200 gallons, just for capacity to allow for a longer boon-dock if required.  Probably will be easier to manage the water usage when it's just me and the wife....
You will produce a lot more gray water than you think.  I would plan for at least 75% of your fresh.  If your filling the black first, it might be time for a diet adjustment...

Best of luck,

Cliff

[Jerry32]

I designed for RV parks with 60 grey 45 black 25 fresh and it worked well for me. I also have 100 veg oil tank and can carry another 100 if necessary. Jerry

[Dlsnow]

We boondock 100% and travel with 8 children.  So for us capacity and economy of use are critical.

We have found 100 ways we overuse water and can stretch our 178 gallon fresh, 8 gal grey/black.  We can stretch it to about 10 days as is.

My question is if anyone knows of L shaped tank manufacturers.

Thanks all