Adding Grey Tanks to 1964 Safari

[64Lincoln]

Has anyone added a grey tank or tanks to a '64 while still using the original black tank? I can see how to add the tanks ahead of the black tank, but I can't figure out how to get the drain out to the back to mate up with the black drain. I've considered just having a second dump on the side of the trailer but it would be nice to do it right. My Airstream is pretty nice and very original so I won't be taking it off the frame or anything like that. I'm hoping to just drop the belly pan where I need to. Any pictures or suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

[Bystickel]

I'm doing this right now, and asked the same question, but have gotten no response either.

If you have the original black tank and valve, I don't see a way to tie the two together. Our '60 has an aftermarket tank with Valterra (vertical) for the black, and below that valve, the 1.5" gray line tees in. It has its own valve just 2" upstream, placed horizontally. This valve set-up is taller, so more of it will have to stick through the belly pan. Two separate valves could be done with less exposed hardware, and would look cleaner, but be messier to use.

For the tank, I looked at a tank like this: https://www.wish.com/product/5d40fbf...true&share=web

It's the exact 4" thick that's needed to fit within the rails. Vintage Trailer Supply lists tanks, but they seem to be out of stock (9/20).

I am constructing a tank from 3" PVC tubing. Tubing isn't very space efficient, but going from no gray tank to about 5 gallons will be a big improvement for us. I will try to post images at some point.

...

[Upsndwns]

I just purchased a 1964 Airstream Safari. Am i to understand from ur post there is no grey tank? That explains why the bathtub fills when the faucet is on. Without a grey tank, does it just run onto the ground? Please help me to understand. Thank you in advance.

[57Vintage]

Not sure if this will help. I changed out the BW tank and added 2 GW tanks to my 58. I believe you'll have to change out the dump valve. I put in 2 paths for the GW: into the BW to 'rinse' and bypass the BW to drain only GW. It's a little complicated but I kept it all inside the belly pan and exited out the rear crossmember. There's a little more detail in my thread, page 1 post 14.



The portion circled in green is in the access bay. In the upper right (purple circle) is the discharge from the rear grey water tank. It connects to the macerating pump (pink circle) The pumps sends water to the wye pipe which splits the flow to two valves (blue circles). The top valve directs water into the curb side of the black water tank. The bottom valve directs water to the bypass, around the black water tank, to the discharge line at the rear crossmember. There are several rubber connectors in the 1-1/2" lines to allow for misalignment and any movement of the tanks/lines while traveling. The easiest ones to spot are on the bypass line at the bottom of the picture: a straight connector at the bottom left corner of the black water tank, and a 90 elbow at the other end of the bypass line at the lower right corner of the picture.

The area in orange is in the black water tank bay. The two blue rectangles represent the access door in the black water tank support plate. A picture of the support plate is in the 'skinning the frame' entry.



Instead of building supports for the tanks I used 1/4" aluminum plate to support and cover the tanks. It bolts into the frame rails and crossmembers. To help with removal of the tanks I made a strap out of .032 alclad 6" wide and the width of the frame rails to hold the tanks (hopefully empty) when the support plate is removed and you can disconnect pipes before dropping the tank.

I spaced out the tanks to give me room to run plumbing and other items. Back to front BW-access-GW-access-GW-access-FW bays.



Yellow represents the tanks (rear of trailer is to the right). Green is where the plumbing shown above is. Red is about pvc electrical conduit run to hide wiring.

Hope this gives you some ideas for your changes.

[InsideOut]

Originally Posted by Upsndwns

I just purchased a 1964 Airstream Safari. Am i to understand from ur post there is no grey tank? That explains why the bathtub fills when the faucet is on. Without a grey tank, does it just run onto the ground? Please help me to understand. Thank you in advance.

Correct, Airstreams before 1973 did not have gray tanks - just black tanks.

In the day, it was okay to drain gray on the ground - not any more. We used to have a '64 Globetrotter, and in the owner's manual there were instructions on how to back-up the gray into the black tank by leaving the water-tight cap on and opening the valve - but we never did that. It was such a small black tank - that would have been pretty useless. The "normal" thing to do (we did it for 10+ years) is to either camp in a campground with full hook-ups or capture the gray water in a portable grey water tote (available on Amazon) - and take it with you to dump appropriately. Just keep in mind the size, if you have to lift it into your truck to haul off.

As far as adding a gray tank to a '64, you can do so and just tie into the gray by-pass upstream of the black tank. You can add another valve, to release gray separately from black, but you don't need a whole secon hook-up point for dumping. We did something similar on our '56 when we added tanks (it had none when we got it!). It could be done solely from underneath the trailer, but it would be tough.

Shari

[Globie64]

We have a '64 Globetrotter, too, and the rare time camping without full hookups, we closed the valve empty the black tank and just let the gray water back up into the tank. This was only for dish washing, the places we went had showers and we have a composting toilet. The trick with the valve worked okay, using the black tank for gray water. I'm now thinking of adding a gray tank, but wondering about weight and location.