Sweet Success--First Trip

[la4photo]

Thought I would report back...And as always, ask a few more questions.

The Queen and I enjoyed a relaxing few days at Fort Wilderness. Trailer towed well, nothing broke and the weather even cooperated. Thanks again to all of those that assisted along the way. Especially the guy walking by that assisted me in backing in the site. I am almost sure it prevented the first potential disaster for the weekend as my darling wife was helping me back in. J.K. (if she is reading this)

Anyhow, on to the questions...


Holding tanks seem to fill up quicker than they should. Any way of testing capacity or knowing when they are really full without getting the carpet wet?

I was reading in the owners or service manual that I should run the Fridge on gas every so often, but it doesn't say why...I am curious to know what impact it might have as I have not tested the fridge on gas.

Any reason used coffee grounds can't go in the black tank?

Last...attached is an image of the anode rod in the water heater(not the HOT water heater). PO did not know to change it every year, as you can tell. Should I even attempt to get it out at this point? Appears that the threads on the tank are trashed as well. I have never changed one, so I was not sure of the depth of the threads or the thickness of the tank. Will be replacing water heater when we can afford it, until then?

LA

[mandolindave]

I don't like chemicals so I use an enzyme treatment for my waste tanks.
But I don't think chemicals or enzymes would breakdown coffee grounds.
Theres a good chance that the grounds would cause problems with the seals in the dump valve.

Please send pictures of the coffee grounds ( kidding )

[azflycaster]

Tanks in the 70's were small. You should have a control panel that will give you a reading of the amount in each tank. They are never accurate, but they do exist. Water in the shower and the grey tank is full is what I normally go by.

I would not put coffee grounds in the black tank for the same reason as above.

[DaveFL]

Coffee grounds belong in a compost pile or garbage bag, we have a rule nothing goes into the black tank that hasn't passed thru the body, with exception to minimally needed septic safe toilet paper.
Our first trip out I was also surprised at the speed that the grey water tank filled, two days = two people. When I got home I modified the showerhead by epoxying all the holes shut and reopened about 1/4 with a pin before the epoxy hardened. Also even if we don't have to conserve water we went back to our boating shower technique. Sometimes called a navy shower, wet, soap, rinse.
If you are going to replace tank why bother with, if threads are corroded. hard to come by large diameter thread cutters, I did make one from a pipe with thread but not an easy job.
By the way congrats on the successful trip and camping.

[la4photo]

Thanks for input. The reason for the coffee ground question is that we use a French Press. The easiest way to clean out the grounds is sloshing a little water around and then dump it in the sink(at home). Didn't want to do that outside on the ground, didn't want to clog up the sink and grey tank, so I thought I would ask here.

We used water very sparingly even in the shower. Tank was full in a half day, according to control panel. I will probably use a 5 gallon bucket and fill the tanks one bucket at a time while watching the control panel. Just wanted to be sure that watching for water to surface in the shower drain was the best indicator for a full grey tank.

Thanks again.

[azflycaster]

My grey tank is 12 gallons. Yours should be a little bigger.

[Aage]

Originally Posted by azflycaster

Tanks in the 70's were small.

You're not kidding, AZ. The gray tank in our TT is 10 US gallons! Well, that's ten gallons more than the previous year's version of our model had, so I suppose I should be thankful