Visit our Popular Forums

Safari Tim · 10-04-2006, 05:26 PM

OK Guys,

Getting ready to order. Here is the plan I came up with.

The top of the tank will be where the kitchen sink drains to and will also tie into a roof top vent.

The tank inlet on the side toward the left will be where the tub drains into and the fitting on the side on the right is going to be the drain.

This whole tank will just fit within the cross members with about an inch to spare. My plan is to drill two 2" holes in the cross member for the side fittings.

So, before I actually order it, does it look OK?

markdoane · 10-04-2006, 05:38 PM

Tim,

You'll be very happy with that size. My tank is also 52", and that leaves enough space to run an underfloor electrical conduit.

Safari Tim · 10-05-2006, 10:28 AM

Thanks Don,

The electical was something I had not even considered, but mysterously planned for :-)

Probably try and get this thing ordered today....

60's Iron · 10-09-2006, 01:11 AM

Hi Folks, Great tread! I'm doing all the research I can on black and grey tanks. I have neither in my 58 Traveler. I hope to add them in the near future. One question, is it "normal" to have the black tank above the floor as in your drawings? I thought the idea was to drain the black tank and then flush it with the contents of the grey tank. I only will be plumbing one toilet and one sink.
Thanks in Advance for the Responds
Greg

scottanlily · 10-09-2006, 01:57 AM

Hello Greg ,yeah im waiting on SafariTims setup to be done so I can get the grey in our 60 trdwnd .The black tank is suppose to be on the top of the floor
in the early trailers ,the dump valve drained the black thru a slide type brass
valve and the shower and sink went into the lower part of the valve as just an exit point to one sewer hose connection outside of the trailer .You can leave the black where it is as Tim and others have done and install a grey in between the frame rails ,or reconfigure the whole thing to a different setup.

Scott of scottanlily

Chuck · 10-09-2006, 07:53 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by 60's Iron

... One question, is it "normal" to have the black tank above the floor as in your drawings? I thought the idea was to drain the black tank and then flush it with the contents of the grey tank.

yep.."normal". they put the tanks ON the floor on some models to this very day.

the idea of flushing the gray tank second is to rinse out the slinky hose, not to flush the black tank. Not that there wouldn't be anything wrong with flushing the black tank with grey water...just that there isn't generally enough room to have so many tanks stacked on top of each other so that gravity can do this. Some people have installed a complex system of pumps and so forth that allow grey water to be tranferred to the black tank. I like the idea of letting gravity do this very important task. it almost always works.

Safari Tim · 10-09-2006, 09:30 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by scottanlily

Hello Greg ,yeah im waiting on SafariTims setup to be done so I can get the grey in our 60 trdwnd .Scott of scottanlily

Got the tanks ordered. They should be here in the next few days. I'll get a photo up when it does!

Safari Tim · 10-10-2006, 10:51 AM

Hey guys, while I'm waiting for my tanks to arrive, I've been thinking about a tank monitor.

I did not have a usable one on the '71 Safari I had, so I figured they did not work too well and probably not worth drilling holes in a new tank for.

However I came across this Snake River system that does not need holes in the tank. It uses capacitve measurment with sensors on the outside of the tank. Pricing is not too bad either.

Any one fimilar with this system or have a different one to recommend?

Also, giving thoughts to a black tank flush system that you drill into the tank and have an external water inlet for it. Pros - Cons?

Chuck · 10-10-2006, 11:02 AM

Tim -- Questions:

where did you get the tanks?
size?
cost?
custom, or "stock"?
how are you going to mount them?

Safari Tim · 10-10-2006, 11:42 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by chuck

Tim -- Questions:

where did you get the tanks?
size?
cost?
custom, or "stock"?
how are you going to mount them?

Chuck,

I ended up ordering them custom made from All-Rite. The measurements are shown earlier in the thread, but the grey tank is about 28 gallons.

I'm also having a new black tank made it will be around 20 gallons.

The regular cost is around $380 each plus $70 shipping for both.

The black tank sits on the floor so that's an easy one. The grey will be under the trailer between cross memebers. I'm still devising a mounting plan now, but so far I'm going to bolt some angle brackets to the lower part of the crossmembers then after the tank is in place run some straps across the bottom to hold it up.

markdoane · 10-10-2006, 01:26 PM

Tim,

Check the location of the outlet! I'm not sure that All-Rite can get the outlet that close to the bottom edge. Usually the fittings are spun welded, and they need a little more shoulder to work with.

Call All-Rite and see how comfortable they are with the 7/8" dimension. Every 1/8" they miss loses you a gallon of capacity.

I didn't bring this up earlier because on a stainless steel tank they can weld the outlet right on the edge of the bottom.

Safari Tim · 10-10-2006, 01:40 PM

I'm sure the tanks are made by now. They said that the tanks would ship on 10/9.

They did not mention a problem with the measurements I gave. It will be interesting what shows up.

Safari Tim · 10-10-2006, 09:06 PM

The tanks showed up today!

And you were right Don, the drain is sitting at around 5/8" instead of 1/8" from the bottom.

They did not mention any problem with the drawing. I imagine it's too late to do anything about it. Guess the drains have to come off the bottom?

The black tank looks good so far.

Here are a couple of photos.

Safari Tim · 10-10-2006, 10:03 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Safari Tim

The black tank looks good so far.

Bet thats the last time I say that

Safari Tim · 04-20-2007, 12:46 AM

Well I thought I would close out this thread.

I finally finished the plumbing installation enough to test the grey water system.

The tank I had made ended up being around 27 gallons. I mounted it below the floor just aft of the rear axle. It's 4" deep so it will be hidden in the bellypan.

The tub and bath sink drains tie in together below the floor in the rear and run back into the side of the tank.

The kitchen sink drain runs to a tee, where it goes to a roof vent, and the other part of the tee goes into the top of the tank under the street side bed.

I was able to dump at least 25 gallons of water into the kitchen sink until it backed up into the tub. The tubs drain/trap always has water visible a couple of inches below the top of the drain. Never rises out of it unless the tank is over filled.

I started draining the tank and when the water in the tub went down, I used the shower to rise out the tub. The drain kept up with the shower water just fine, even though the tank was so full, the side inlet was under water. So it still drained.

I'm pleased this has all seemed to work out so well. Of course it has not hit the road yet with the sloshing and bouncing.

Here is a photo of the grey tank. The two rubber couplers were used to allow some flexing. One is the inlet from the tub/sink, and the other is the outlet to the dump valve.

Thanks to everyone for the help with this unusual science of grey-tank-ology!