Newbie ? Home sewer clean out

[Bigcgar]

Okay last weekend we made our maiden voyage in our 2011 International 23' AS and following the initial 3 day boondocking experience I needed a place to dump our waste waters. Since I didn't have a convenient dump station on my travels home I opened the sewer clean out tube at my house in the front yard by unscrewing the cap and connected the slinky to it and did the initial dump of my waste water. I had a neighbor who said it was okay to do, so I went ahead and dumped my load. So this is my question, is this an acceptable practice or did I break some law. I live in an unincorporated section of Douglas County Colorado, however I have city sewer service. It worked extremely well and was convenient with no messes. Comment welcome.

Bigcgar

[eubank]

Go for it! The cleanout is just another lead down to the main that takes away the same stuff. (Before we moved here, we dumped into the clean-out all the time. And it happened to be conveniently located just a couple of feet from our driveway.)

Oh, and welcome to the forums!


Lynn

[Splitrock]

In Sioux Falls it'd be legal to put sewage in the sewer but illegal to have the travel trailer in the driveway.

[moosetags]

We do exactly that at our house in the Panhandle and at SuEllyn's Dad's house in Jacksonville. All you are doing is putting the same stuff in the sewer from your Airstream as you do from the house.

I don't really know if it is against some regulation to do this, but I don't really care, and will continue doing it.

Brian

[Bigcgar]

That's great feedback folks. It saves the stop on the way home. Plus we are planning on Boondocking on weekends. And I have a hot and cold water outdoor faucet to do additional wash out for black water tank. Makes dumping my load all that much better. If that makes sense.

Bigcgar

[FreshAir]

Our home cleanout is about 35' from where we sometimes park our trailer. I bought 20' of 1 1/2" pvc and connected them with slipon connectors (so that I can disassemble it when not in use). Since the cleanout is a little up hill from the trailer I use the "Sewer Connection" with 10' of it's 1" hose connected on each end of the pvc and a sewer 'gasket' at the cleanout. Works like a charm. No leakage or odors.
Neil

[moosetags]

The sewer clean-out at SuEllyn's Dad's house is about 70 feet from where we park Lucy. It is also a slight uphill run to the clean-out. We use a Sewer Solution with 4 ten foot lengths of flexible SS hose and 3 ten foot lengths of 1" PVC. I originally did this dump with a whole bunch of slinky. It was quite aq job. I originally bought the Sewer Solution for this job. It worked so great, I dumped the slinky and never looked back. That was 4 years ago.

Brian

[Bigcgar]

My run is 8' from street and is about 1 ft below the AS which offers good flow. I just have a standard 12' length slinky. Very efficient for the clean out process. with warm water it also seems to offer good clean tank. Another question? Do you generally dump all of your leftover fresh water when leaving AS for week or two. I dumped it this time but look for your experience and recommendations also emptied water heater tank. Thoughts?

Bigcgar

[ScottWeb]

It is okay to do that in Colorado, but make sure you check regulations in other locations.

[InsideOut]

Our clean out tube is on one end of our lot and the trailers park on the other. So we trenched across the grass and put in a "T" to the side where we park the trailers. Works great...just like what most campgrounds have. We actually have two connections - one for each trailer which works great for using them as guest houses when we need to. Also have electrical & water hookups nearby...like our own mini-(really mini!) campground right in our own backyard. Now if we could just get our neightbor to move their garage, we'd be able to use them for courtesy parking - as it is now, we have to use our lawn tractor to manipulate them into the spaces and I doubt anything much bigger than our 22' & 19' would fit.

Shari

[cojer]

it makes perfect sense to me...i do it too...but remember this is taxarado and there's a good chance there's some government agency out there that will want to charge you for it!..... that's why i only do it in the middle of the night on moonless nights...lol

[sandlapper]

BigC, good idea to dump any remaining fresh water also. Putting "new" water in regulary helps keep things fresh & healthy. Also a good idea to fill the fresh water tank with city water occasionaly to get the benefits of the chlorine not found in well water. Just leave the hot water tank full, should be fine except when its time to winterize (another story, another time). Safe & happy travels. John

[jrudd1968]

Yep, I do it too. When I built our current home 5 years ago, I specified that I wanted the plumber to install the clean out right next to the rear of the car port where we store our Airstream. He fixed it where it lines up with the trailer outlet perfectly. He put me a water faucet there also and the electrician put me a 30 amp trailer circuit and receptacle. When I come back from a trip, I have everthing I need to dump, wash out, or run the AC while unloading. I live in an un restricted area so this was probably easier for me than some. That is why I bought the property where I did. So I could accomodate the Airstream. What we do for our hobby!

[Bigcgar]

Thanks everyone for the feedback, it's nice to leverage everyone's knowledge and experience on the AS life. Let's roll!!!

Bigcgar

[Cap-N-Red]

It is OK to do that in Port O'Connor Texas. Knowing the regulations of our Municple Utility District (since I am the V.P. of the distect) , I had a clean out placed on my sewer line. I might add that that was done at my personal expense. And not at the expense of the district. The district does allow one RV to be hooked up on a temp. basis

[CanoeStream]

Thoughtful tank management applies to a guesthouse situation just as it does to an RV parked in one spot long-term. You can leave a slinky inserted in the drain but leave your dump valve closed while the parked Airstream is being used. The objective is to avoid solids accumulating below the toilet (the brown mountain effect). Probably put 5-10 gallons of water in the black tank first; I use 10 because it's a 40 gallon tank. Dump the tank when needed so that there's plenty of liquid in there. The outrush will take everything with it.