grey tank, 71 ambassador

[pat pending]

,71 ambassador grey tank,
am thinking about adding a grey tank in my 71 ambassador, anyone have some suggestions? How to, expense, where to find parts. owned this AS for 22 years. any help is greatly appreciated. pat pending

[Aerowood]

I am in the planning process of putting in gray tanks in my 71 GT that will not protrude below the belly pan. I can give you the supplier if you need it. It will be a series of 11.6 gal tanks hooked up to a common manifold.

[pat pending]

the name of your supplier would be appreciated. any info I can gather will will help me decide weather or not to go ahead w/ the installation. It will have to be a clean professional fix, otherwise I won't do it.
Are you going to be able to reuse your belly skin? etc. Thanks, pat pending

[Aerowood]

The Metal Company Inc.

This is the supplier and it is tank #10101 that measures 2 3/4" H X 18 1/4" W X 54 1/2" L. Quoted price was 133.50 per tank.
I plan to install at least 2, and possibly 3, all ganged together to a common dump, and on the opposite side to a common vent. I could go with custom made tanks, but they would only hold a couple of gallons more but cost 3 times as much each. My goal is to keep the entire gray tank system under the belly pan so no modifications to it would be required, while keeping the dump connection in the stock location.

[purman]

I am using my old water tank. it is only 6 1/2 inches tall and will fit between the axels and give me about 30 gals. I can tap into the pipes from the kitchen and bathroom sinks on one side and put in another pipe for the shower. There are welding shops that will plastic weld fitting on for you. This is what I did with my new water tank. It is a 39 gallon tank.

[Aerowood]

Will your dump valve be at a level below the belly pan?

[purman]

Yes it will come out behind the back wheel, with the black tank coming into as well. I'm hoping the wheels will keep it safe. Unless I start taking it off road over big rocks.

The wife might not like that for the dishes. I have been planing it out. and was going to start till the snow fell. Now my AS is surrounded by snow. So I guess it will wait till spring.

[FLYNCLD]

I am currently in the process of installing a gray tank in my 62 Flying Cloud. As of today, the tank is in and I am installing new belly skin. The tank will protrude a bit below the belly, but not any lower than the axle, so I do not believe it will be a problem. With the new belly skin, I think the installation will look pretty nice. You can see my progress so far on my blog, and I will be posting photos of the completed project some time next week.

Link to my blog-

http://www.airforums.com/forums/blog...tallation-144/

Have fun!

Flyncld

[Jim Johnson]

I have installed a 40/45 gal plastic grey water tank in my 73 ambassador. It consisted of two sepearate tanks with a bottom flow through between the tanks - each tank was built to fit between the frame directly behind the rear axle. The two tanks are connected via a flow through which ran below the frame - the support for the tank was exactly like the support for the fresh water tank that is directly in front of the axles(ie a 1 inch piece of plywood sitting in an angle iron frame). The drain from the tank was a 3/4 plastic pipe T'd to a single 3/4 on/off valve(same side as the blank water drain). The only thing I would change would to make the drain larger as it takes a little time to drain a 40 gal tank via a 3/4 pipe. The sink is draining into the back tank. The shower and bathroom sink drain into the front tank(73 has center bath). Tanks were built by a local company that frabricates plastic tanks. Belly pan was modified very similar to what the belly plan looks like around the fresh water tank.
Jim J

[vhord]

I am looking at installing a gray tank in my '70. I located this tank which appears to fit between the crossmembers and not hang down below the belly pan. None of my previous campers had holding tanks so there are a couple of questions that I have.

1. Should the outlet be 1-1/2", 2", or 3"? The smaller sizes would be easiest to plumb in such tight quarters but the larger size could be done if there was a great advantage.

2. Would it be okay to turn the outlet downward through the belly and have the valve open toward the ground or would it be better using an additional elbow to point it toward the street side?

3. My black tank is 20 gal. which should be good for about 100-150 flushes. In order to make better use of my gray tank for showers and etc. is there any reason why I should not run my galley sink into the black tank? I know with my previous campers I ran that water into a 5-gallon bucket and didn't have to empty it more than a couple of times on a 4 day trip.

I would be very thankful for any advice you can give this novice.

[Inland RV Center, In]

Originally Posted by vhord

. is there any reason why I should not run my galley sink into the black tank? I know with my previous campers I ran that water into a 5-gallon bucket and didn't have to empty it more than a couple of times on a 4 day trip.

Yes, you should not for dozens of reasons.

Bad bacteria, love what you suggested.

That bacteria can move, and it will get into your sinks, pronto.

Andy

[vhord]

Originally Posted by Inland RV Center, In

Yes, you should not for dozens of reasons.

Bad bacteria, love what you suggested.

That bacteria can move, and it will get into your sinks, pronto.

Andy

I guess that I am missing something. I suppose that if the p-trap tried out during storage I could see it possible. However I would think that my black tank would have been cleaned before storage. After all, my sinks in my home are connected to the city sewar and I would hope that I didn't have that problem. I can be a little slow thinking though. It may take a little time for this to sink in (no pun intended!).

Anyone have any input about my other questions?

[Inland RV Center, In]

Originally Posted by vhord

I guess that I am missing something. I suppose that if the p-trap tried out during storage I could see it possible. However I would think that my black tank would have been cleaned before storage. After all, my sinks in my home are connected to the city sewar and I would hope that I didn't have that problem. I can be a little slow thinking though. It may take a little time for this to sink in (no pun intended!).

Anyone have any input about my other questions?

The sinks in your home, don't get bounced around like the sinks and holding tanks in a travel trailer.

If you don't think bacteria doesn't get into the P traps, try drinking some of that water, or, in the interest of good health, have a lab check the P trap water for bacteria content.

Andy

[vhord]

Originally Posted by Inland RV Center, In

.........try drinking some of that water..............
Andy

Point well taken. I think I will stick to my 12 oz. beverages however.

[Inland RV Center, In]

Originally Posted by vhord

Point well taken. I think I will stick to my 12 oz. beverages however.

And the plus side is..........you can even choose the flavor.

Andy