Black and Gray Tanks

[Kafn8td]

So my 2011 XT276 has a smaller black tank (38 gal) than gray tank (43 gal). This doesn't make a lot of sense to me knowing that the shower drains into the black tank.

My question is, has anyone re-plumbed the shower to flow to the gray? What would be really cool is to plumb it to the gray and somehow have an overflow with a back flow preventer that goes to the black.

[Mark S]

Showers drain into grey tank. Only toilet goes in to black. Grey tanks fill much quicker because of the shower and sinks.

If dry camping you can always drain the grey water if you have to. Not so good to drain black water at camp site.

[Kafn8td]

Maybe in yours Mark, but Cruiser confirmed that this is the way they were made when I inquired. They stated this was to assist in the water to solids ratio. I didn't ask if they changed it later, but they referenced something that said it is approved by the RVIA and something else.

I'm going to drop the tank this weekend and check it out.

[JeepGuy]

my shower and toilet both go to the same tank, but i have a little one. we just learned to take super quick showers

[Kafn8td]

Yeah that's what we do also. If you're out long enough though, you eventually run out of room.

[Mark S]

I have not had a chance to physically check it out but I "believe" my shower drains into grey tank. I will have check on that.

For the same unit the specs sure have changed in 3 model years. On my 2014, according to the literature, the specs are:

Fresh Water Tank (gallons) 63
Gray Water Tank (gallons) 63
Black Water Tank (gallons) 38

I hope you get to change you set up without too much trouble. Good luck and keep us posted.

[Kafn8td]

Yeah I noticed the bigger tanks also. I'm good with what I have and am going to test something tomorrow.

[Mark S]

I confirmed that my shower does go in to the grey tank.

How did your re-plumb work out?

[Mark S]

Kafn8td: Curious as to how your re-plumb project worked out.

[Kafn8td]

I decided not to replumb. Instead I'm doing something that will make some of your heads spin. I bought an equalizer (twist on waste gate) and I use both the black and gray for everything. So far so good.

[Mark S]

I never heard of that but sounds like a good solution. So you no longer have a black and grey tank, you have a waste water tank? Glad it worked out for you.

[M&M]

On many campers, if the grey tank gets full, the overflow goes into the bathtub. Will this happen with the black and grey tanks connected together?

[Kafn8td]

Yes, but it would have happened anyway if the black tank got full. I just doubled the capacity. We've never even come close on the gray tank.

[securityman]

I think mixing the tanks isn't too smart , one the gray tank could be drained on the ground if you had to just water and soap . But not the black tank , also there is no pee trap on the shower drain , there is a rubber flap , once after a year old that flap will not seal completely , so the smell will start to come threw your shower drain , from the tank of crap !!! Good luck

Also you may want to add a gray tank flush also to clean your tank !!

[Kafn8td]

Thanks for your opinion. I would never drain the Gray on the ground. There's no reason to.
If you had read my first post, you would know that my shower dumps into the black tank. BTW, there is a P trap on my shower.

I almost didn't post what I did because I knew it would make some peoples head spin.

[securityman]

Did you take the access door off to make sure there was a p trap under there ? Just saying because it is a tight fit under that tub , but since it came from them dumping into the black tank they were smart enough to put the p trap under there . I know on mine it was a long tube with a rubber flapper in it. Because it looked like a pee trap wouldn't fit under there , I had to reinforce under my tub since the 2 by 4 they put under it were to short and fix the tub from leaking also . My gray tank fills up quick , be cool to put a overflow into the black tank with a back flow preventer from the gray tank , like you said earlier!!