Tank capacity?

[porkchopsandwiches]

I am currently figuring out tank capacities for water. I am using a flush toilet so I will need blackwater storage.

I was wondering what typical water storage capacities are that everyone does. I was thinking ~100 gallons fresh water storage and then 80 gal grey tank and 30 gal black tank? This is for 3-5 people on board. I found a bunch of 55 gallon HDPE food-grade barrels for sale for cheap, and I was thinking these would be an alright (though not 100% ideal due to it being circular) storage medium for everything.

So what if I bought 5 of these, and used 2 for fresh storage joined together (110 gal, they each have two 2" npt fittings on the top, on opposite sides) 2 for grey storage joined together, and one for black? I have a TON of room under my bus that I was originally going to use to build out storage, however I am not sure of this.

HDPE is hard to work with, so getting a 3" fitting for the drain on the grey and black might be tough. However, they sell plastic welding kits and if I can get HDPE "welding rod" I might be able to manage.

Thoughts?

[bansil]

here is some reading
http://slate.wvu.edu/r/download/26534

[porkchopsandwiches]

Thank you for that link. I know Harbor Freight sells a decent plastic welder for like $50 and I would like to buy it and try it out. I have also been thinking about making a shower pan out of plastic sheet so that may come in handy.

Thanks.

What do you think about the capacities?

[bansil]

This is from 1/2 way down the page:

Originally Posted by bansil

That is what I started with, 2 solar showers and a shower/pottie tent

I plan to use a regular toilet "de-tuned" for water use, so I figured high at 5 gallons of toilet waste for 2 people and a couple inches/gallons of water; so paper and stuff doesn't just ...ugh... stick and harden, so that's about 50 gallons a week(I know it's high better than low)

after dump I plan to add water (fresh would be best, no proteins from grey cooking, washing etc water to stink up the black tank), and this will coat bottom of black tack to help control "stacking")

and for grey, it depends a lot on what we doing? I figure a gallon per night to cook with (pasta, steamed veggies and shell fish etc)

and dish washing 3 or 5 gallons (pure guess) so 50 gallons plus showers etc.

Now so far 90% of our camping has been at FHU sites with bath houses (that is why bath area is so low on the list) I know a lot of folks just pour out strained cooking water so...no discussion on that )

So it will depends on how you dispose of water, dry camping with a crate under your shower tent is fine in a lot of places...others it is frowned on


So figure out what you think you will need and go a little bigger

Until I test water usage for a shower I can guess 10 gallons per day (2 showers) so 150 gallon grey maybe?

and 200 gallon clean maybe

Still more thinking to do on it this winter, after some experiments