water tank help!

[turnipgirl]

We have a little 17' bus with a huge ac condenser underneath. The condenser is hooked to the rear ac and the only option we are seeing is taking out the ac and condenser to make room for the black water tank. What did you all do and where did you place your grey water tank? Can I use one tank for both? I'm so lost

[Robin97396]

It's easily possible for you to remove your AC system to make room a wastewater tank under your bus. If the AC system is still charged you should have the refrigerant removed first. There are some AC guys here that could give better advice than I can.

So you're set on installing a black water tank? That means you're putting in a toilet? Kind of a small bus for a toilet, but it's your bus. Make it what you want it to be, but I'd take a shortcut and get a composting toilet for a bus that size.

Most of us bought bigger buses so there's room for all those tanks and things. A 17' bus? I'm trying to imagine that. Have you got pictures?

[yellowxj]

17' behind the drivers seat? If I had that much room my wife would want a little half bathroom. We only have 10' i think.

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[Mooseknuckle]

Robin its 17' behind the driver seat flatspace not total length. Were tryn to figure out how to mount the tank and what fittings are needed pipe wise like can we have a few inches of straight pvc pipe between the toilet and tank going straight down?

[Robin97396]

Ok, that's making more sense now. I was having trouble envisioning a very small bus with a bathroom.

[turnipgirl]

Sorry! Wrong number! It's 14 not 17

[Robin97396]

Either way I'd recommend a really good exhaust fan. I'd also like to have a bathroom but I keep changing my floor plan around.

[turf]

imo
setting the toilet is the first step in the entire layout of your bus.

you can have a combination grey/black tank. back in the day, gray water was allowed to be disposed of on the ground. not so now. familiarity of the 2 tank system just stuck. i have a single waste tank on my bus, and i only dump at waste dumps.

the toilet is going to go where ever you can have a straight drop to the tank, as close to the tank outlet as you can. solids don't want to move very far, best to have lots of liquid behind it. the tank outlet is going to be where you make room for it.

my waste tank holder is made from angle iron. others use struts and threaded rods to hang them.

most waste dumps are set to have the valve on driver side rear. i put mine on the passenger side, so i have to drive through waste dumps backwards. usually easy enough except sunday morning when everyone is leaving a campground.

figure out what size space you'll have, where you want to mount the tank and get the biggest one that will fit. best to have about 20-30% more waste capacity than your water holding capacity.

find the spot for the tank, remove what you need to, get the biggest tank you can get under there, locate the toilet inside, and build the rest of the inside around that.

good luck!

[2kool4skool]

I hung the tank(s) under the AC condenser(s), they still pull enough air through the grills.

[Mooseknuckle]

Were also tossing around the toilet draining into one of those rolling portable waste tanks instead of a reg black tank. Reson being is that were planning on building a larger full size bus and the short bus is kind of temporary maybe a year max and where we're going to be parked for most the time is not an area where we can drive in and out to go dump but there is a septic clean out we can roll the portable over too.

[Robin97396]

Have you ever seen a septic tank made from plastic barrels?

[Mooseknuckle]

Not that ive seen

[Robin97396]

It was common years ago to use up to four barrels for a family. Back then the barrels would rust out pretty quickly. Now they don't rust.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qgCBevCRLvw