Flush or Compost Toilet

[peterbylt]

Flush and Black tank for us.

We considered a composting toilet when building the Bus, a couple advantages.

1. You do not have to position the Toilet directly over the Black tank.
2. You could stay Boondocked longer and not have to look for a dumping station and move the bus when the tank gets full, just take out the bag and store it somewhere (much like we do with the dog).

I would rather connect a hose and drain it all away (My Favorite part of RVing) rather than have to handle a bag full of the stuff (especially after a weekend of Beer and Tacos) and I would still need a Black tank for the urine diverter.

If the Composting toilets gain in popularity and the sewer connection/dump station setup becomes fewer and harder to find, I might have to reconsider.

On a side note, how many of you, like us, pretty much designed your Bus layout around putting the Toilet over the Back Tank?

Peter

[Nova Eona]

I would rather deal with the grossness of a black tank dump intermittently than the grossness of a compacting toilet every time.

[Jim Blackwood]

Flush toilet.
Hey I was just wondering... Since DEF is pig piss can you just piss in your DEF tank?

Jim

[Van]

I have been told before by some that the whole dumping the Black tank thing (along with smoking) is a dirty disgusting habit then I sez "Well so is wiping your @$# and no one's banning that"... I would suggest it is easier to clean up a ceramic bowl after one of those explosive events YMMV.

[Tedsoldbus]

No offense taken Luvrbus. I have a place near home to dump that is never crowded but I hear you. We do a lot of state parks especially in Florida and there is a "dump on the way out" kind of thing. I never linger there out of respect to others and just do the double flush when I get home.

I do NOT have septic at the bus barn so we try to bring it home clean, but I may have to add septic in the coming year. When we did the barn with a long gravel driveway, cement for the slab went up after we decided to build. We started to run out of money before we ran out of barn. I opted for foam insulation in the building (which also went up after the bid) over the septic dump at that time.

But glad every time I walk in there that we did the foam. Cooler in summer and pretty toasty in the winter with minimal heat. I have a farm water bib just out the door of the barn but no inside water. We mostly just store the bus there and bring it the 1/4 mile home to prep for a trip, but looking back it would sure be nice to be able to dump over there when we get home....
With permits it will run us about 6K. Ouch...
"Sell another house Rita...!"

[Jim Blackwood]

I know y'all won't like this but...
Decades ago (and I'm quite sure any applicable statute of limitations has long since run out) when I was living in a travel trailer and moving around a lot, I'd sometimes find a likely spot and simply dump the tanks in the tall weeds. Usually this was done on Dad's farm in the hay field, and often in the presence of rain.

Now say what you like about the nastiness, spreading of disease or whatever you choose, the risks were very minimal. First off, the holding tank had served the function of a septic tank in taking care of the first stages of decomposition and black water was always the only thing to come out. Secondly I was not disease ridden so there was little concern with that, and nobody was eating off the ground there. No pigs grazing so no risk of enabling a triconosis cycle and with harvest time for the hay being weeks away no real issues there. In reality I don't see all that much difference between that and a leach bed. Any smell was dissipated quickly enough as the water soaked into the ground and the grass thought it was kinda nice.

Now if it was out west where the water would flash off and leave the solids I could see where you might want to run the discs over it afterwards and not mention it to your neighbors, but it sure beats spending thousands on a septic tank and drain field.

Another thing I occasionally did when I was going to stay in one spot was to dig a pit that was big enough to hold the contents of the holding tank and when it got full drain it into the pit. In between it would leach out and dry up and when I moved on I would fill it back up. You could fill the pit with limestone gravel if you wanted to, then you have a proper leach bed. Simple solution. You can't do that just anywhere but the less said the better and the neighbors won't mind if they never know about it. Bear in mind the septic tank function is done by the black water tank. The pit then handles the function of the leach bed. As long as you don't run it over it'll do just fine.

Jim

[siberyd]

Personally I prefer a flush toilet for 1 reason. When nature calls it goes down to the black tank period.

With a composting toilet you eventually have to handle what went into my black tank by seperating it (urine gets dumped from here) and removing the solids and adding peat moss or playing with it.

Nope, not.me.skippy.

Siberyd

[luvrbus]

Personally I prefer a flush toilet for 1 reason. When nature calls it goes down to the black tank period.

With a composting toilet you eventually have to handle what went into my black tank by seperating it (urine gets dumped from here) and removing the solids and adding peat moss or playing with it.

Nope, not.me.skippy.

Siberyd

The price of those will floor you too ,plus the size makes for a smaller shower 

[TomC]

There is nothing simpler than a fresh water gravity flush toilet. And you DO NOT have to have the toilet right over the tank. My buses black tank was lengthwise on centerline with a 4ft pipe to the tank-never a problem. My truck conversion has a 3ft drop and 6ft run to my tank, again never a problem. How do you think your toilet at home works sending the water charge all the way to the street?
To combat the wasting water, I have an additional drain from the gray tank to the black tank for rinse out.
Plus on my kitchen sink, bathroom sink, and shower, I have a warm up valve for the hot water that returns the warming water back to the water tank. Good Luck, TomC

[Tedsoldbus]

I was having a sandwich when I read Siberyd's description.
Anybody want the rest of this sandwich???

That cinches it for me. Make mine water.

[bobofthenorth]

I know y'all won't like this but...
Decades ago (and I'm quite sure any applicable statute of limitations has long since run out) when I was living in a travel trailer and moving around a lot, I'd sometimes find a likely spot and simply dump the tanks in the tall weeds. Usually this was done on Dad's farm in the hay field, and often in the presence of rain.
Jim

You and me likewise. The only refinement I'd add is you let 'er fly and then pull ahead before you button things back up so you don't have to wade through the wet stuff.  We lived on an acreage for several years - it was dead simple then. I always like to dump immediately after a move so that the stuff gets well mixed up.  So I'd come home, pull out either into the field if it was cut or not up yet or on the edge if there was crop and then pull the rip cord.  I recall telling the landowner one time what I was doing. He couldn't have cared less. I agreed that I wouldn't charge him for the phosphate if he didn't charge me for access.

At least half the world's population has a much more relaxed relationship with human waste than we do.

[Tedsoldbus]

Emptying Septic tanks in Colorado went way up since I lived there. The trucks used to spray it on crop fields east of town. Now it has to go to a waste water treatment plant.

[dtcerrato]

While we're on the subject of waste some may remember in an earlier post on this post I mentioned my father being a superintendent to a Municiple sewer plant. Well as a younger boy I remember taking some of the tarpon we caught in a canal near the sewer plant to the sewer plant and throwing the tarpon into what was called a sediment tank. Dad said tarpon are scavengers and will eat the sediment. well many years later the sediment tank had malfunctioned, so they had to shut it down. Low & behold it was large tarpon blocking up the piping & getting hung up in the valves. Who would have figured? One more note was the area called the drying beds were overgrown with the biggest tomatoes & watermelons I'd ever put my eyes on. Evidently the seeds move through the human digestive tract without breaking down. I gotta say who would have thought? Lmao

[freds]

While we're on the subject of waste some may remember in an earlier post on this post I mentioned my father being a superintendent to a Municiple sewer plant.  One more note was the area called the drying beds were overgrown with the biggest tomatoes & watermelons I'd ever put my eyes on. Evidently the seeds move through the human digestive tract without breaking down. I gotta say who would have thought? Lmao

I remember as a young kid being told you could drink the water a mile down stream of a sewage treatment plant. I also remember that it was always safe to drink water out of a mountain stream...

[Jim Blackwood]

Well there's "safe" and then there's safe.Our bodies have a miraculous ability to deal with a lot of things, especially when we are younger but some things we don't handle quite as well and much of it depends on the level of contaminants. I expect that drinking diluted sewer water on any kind of a regular basis is a sure road to trouble but chances are you could get by with a small exposure without even noticing it. Depending on the person and a lot of other things of course. Just because you can doesn't mean you should. And as we get older we should be a little more particular about it. A full filtration system? Yeah that's impressive especially at that price. Necessary? Probably not, and that looks like a lot of filters to change, could cost more than the system over time. Best solution is a good water source and yes, I do have a filtered water tap on my sink.

Jim