Motorhome Waste & Water- what to do if you're not on a campsite (Motorhome Wild Camping tips)
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- čas přidán 5. 08. 2024
- NOTE: There are extra links and tips in the blog post about finding fresh water and grey waste disposal points for motorhomes and campervans here: www.wandering-bird.com/motorh...
One of the hardest things about wild camping or staying off-grid with a motorhome or campervan is knowing how to find fresh, safe drinking water and appropriate grey and black waste disposal points whilst you're on the road, especially in the UK which is a lot harder than motorhoming in Europe.
In this video, we're sharing some tips for finding water points (without upsetting the locals!) and disposing of waste hygienically and responsibly. Please please PLEASE don't just empty your tanks or toilet cassettes anywhere.
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Kat
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Thanks for checking out the video. Don't forget to check out the link in the notes to get places to empty properly. And if you have any other questions, feel free to ask!
I am thinking of living in a motorhome full time so I did find your video. Very helpful and very enlightening. Keep up the good work. This is about the third video I've seen from you and will point out that most of the videos I have seen you do of the three was really ideal for somebody who is thinking of getting a motor home or living in one full time. So thank you ever so much
Once again great advice. Thanks Kat.👍❤️
Really good advice!
Really useful, thanks.
You're welcome. Glad it was helpful!
Brilliant love watching you
Awww. Thank you 😊
Considering buying my first camper. Very informative
Glad it was helpful! Let me know how it goes!
Thanks great vlog 👍
Glad you enjoyed it :)
This is what we do...Toilet waste: we carry a spare cassette so that when one is full just substitute the other. Then we empty both when we get the opportunity at a suitable location. Pee bottles are really good in saving cassette volume, the man about the van uses a 5 litre water container sold in all supermarkets. For fresh water, we carry 8 by 5 litre containers as well as the main tank. Never had a problem.
You can get the radar keys for disabled toilets from ebay very cheaply, obviously use them at quiet times when nobody is likely to need them.
We bought a second cassette, has helped us out of trouble many rimes…our Hymer 524 has the perfect storage place just inside the garage, on the right of the door.
Agree with the car park drains are rainwater only but yes in a street they are full of car washing detergent so when needs must .
Like you we use a CL etc every four days when we need services . Tip upon leaving in the morning fill again and re empty the toilet as that is another night before needed again ( use half the fluid night prior ) The public toilet thing can be a bit of a social poobar thing. I personally think putting paper ( especially as you mentioned the cheap stuff ) makes no difference to the fullness of the cassette and if is just nice not having a bag of
Just watched this, thank you, agree re the toilet paper, as boaters/hope to to be campervaners we do the same!
Hi Kat, great video very informative as always. Just to let you know Kat we have bought our very first motorhome, we won’t be getting it until November but so worth the wait. Three years of researching and finally it’s happening xx
Woooohooo! That's awesome news Julie. What did you decide on in the end?? So excited for you.
@@WanderingBird we bought an Eldis Evolution 105 Brownhills special edition. Got lots of extras with it everything we need, it has 2 settees nice side kitchen and bathroom across the back with separate shower and it’s only 6 metres. Very roomy and light. We looked at older vans but they were nearly as much as this new one without what comes with this one. We are so excited. Looking into accessories we need now. Although I bought melomine dining set and kettle about 3 years ago. Ha ha xx
The dodo got you a thumbs up😊
As an American RV camper. Thats often lost in Europe. Good advice.
For drinking water we always use bottled water,and will fill where we can for water to wash with and never have had a problem.
And that’s an option but personally we’re trying to reduce our plastic usage.
Hi thanks for another good video. On another site I read that some people who do lot of wild camping have bought a second cassette and just when full put it in a good quality refuge bag and put-in the garage that is if you have one.
Yet another great tip and wonderfully presented. Love your posts!!! Did I read somewhere you once worked at LATCC?
Thanks very much. :) And yep, I sure did. Was there for 13 years. You know it?
@@WanderingBird yes, was stationed there 1986/87. Now retired. Planning on buying our camper next year and have pretty much been doing loads of research on what camper to buy and where we intend to travel. Scotland to bed us into our new camper followed by A 5-6 week tour of Spain and Portugal. Keep these brilliant hints/tips vids coming!. By the very content...You are smashing them 👏
We disposed of toilet paper the same way when we lived in Spain so we are used to putting it in a bag. Thanks for reminding me.
To us, it's perfectly normal after all these years but it still icks some people out. To each his own I guess! :)
waste disposal in my case is fairly easy: I only have a grey water tank which is a shopping bag on wheels style tank which is set underneath the van when I expect to produce water which is fairly nasty: like when I am doing dishes or a small laundry washing session by hand. For the rest of the cases it just runs out onto the pavement of ground (no point in being anal about clean water (used to rinse something in the galley leaving the van and entering the ground) When I shower in the van I also put the roll away tank under the outflow pipe.
Garbage is as much as possible seperated and disposed of in the usual manor everybody is used to by now. Every town in Europe has some form of separated garbage bins which are mostly free to use.
My van does not produce black water since I use a dry/waterless/composting toilet setup. The number one waste is either poured into a waste water disposal facility at a rv park up (most countries in europe have these in many towns) or I do the shopping bag camo trick and take the pee jug into a public toilet and do my business there. The solid waste (which is dried and mixed with sawdust) is disposed of in a larger garbage container at gas stations, rest areas or the rv park up. No smells emanate from the bag and why should I worry about a few turds in a bag with sawdust when large groups dump there one time use nappies full of baby duty left right and centre?
Te get water is not difficult: I have this little bag of tricks which contains all sorts of interesting connecter and adapters which allows me to get a hose connected to just about any tap out there, even the ones which are ridiculously close to the washbowl you can not even get a cup underneath... I use 2 19L jugs to keep my water in and I am able to take the jugs to the tap and fill tem using a drag along shopping bag cart without the bag to transport the 20kg jugs back to the van. I also use a set of two 5L jugs as a backup water source so I am able to have roughly 50 L of water in the van when fully stocked.
When I distrust the water from the municipal tap I will buy drinking water in bottles or larger jugs to drink,make tea of coffee and cook with.
I am contemplating getting some kind of water filter but as yet I have not seen the need for one since I have been traveling the more civilised parts of western europe where lead pipes, heavily chlorinated tap water and legionella are not really an issue.
When I take water from any publicly accessible tap (campgrounds, rv park ups, parks, public toilets, restrooms at the gas stations) I bring along a piece of paper towel which I put a little disinfecting soap on to clean the spout and tap thoroughly with, just in case some horses pattoot has decided to stick his freshly emptied cassette toilet thing under said tap contaminating the spout with his misery... People, especially French people are masters of being a-holes like that....
Good video. We use a pee bottle, don't put paper in the toilet and also use the tablets that dissolves the solids. Helps emptying but don't use to early as they do increases the smell.
I've heard about not putting the toilet paper in the cassette but what bin would you dispose of the soiled paper in? I'm assuming not a regular bin?
ive got one of those plastic pee bottles like you get in hospitals the one i have has a lid very handy you can even keep one in the car for long journey emergancies
So like the drain on the side of a road can you park over one of them dump your grey waste
I know it but it's still really useful THANK YOU! ☺
You're welcome. :)
At home, water from shower, washing machine, sink etc. ie grey water, goes to the sewage system. So, why is it OK to put grey water from a motorhome into the rainwater system? For example a road side drain. Am I missing something?
Nope, you're not missing anything. You are correct that they are two different systems, and it's often difficult to tell which drain goes to which one. Using a grey waste drain is always preferable- that's why drains at parking places like aires are better as you know where they're going. However, don't forget how many people wash their cars etc at home and all that soapy water also goes into the roadside drains. As a very VERY last resort, better to use a drain than spill it all over the road. But try campsites first- much better for everyone that way.
They very often run into each other especially in built up areas that are quite old.
Hi,
The grey water can also be dropped on self car wash station while we give our motorhome an nice outside wash.
Best regards,
Carlos Araújo (Portugal)
Great tip Carlos! Thanks for sharing. Yes- we use the drains at car washes regularly- so useful.
Hi, is there any apps specifically for finding dump sits??
In Europe yes- use Park 4Night. In the UK, search for sites is pretty good. If you head to the blog post linked in the video notes, I've also added links to some maps
Hi Kat
We are looking at a new Moho with a large 'black water' tank - any thoughts on the practicalities of this??
Hi Steve. My initial concern would be emptying this. I've got no experience with them, but most campsites don't have 'pump out' facilities like they do for boats, or in American RVs. So unless there's some sort of portable tank I'm not sure how you'd empty it?? Also, large tank might sound great, but think of the smell if 'things' sit there too long. Smaller might be better...
Thanks Kat
I think they have a pump and a flexible hose so I suppose we could pump into standard black waste disposal points
@@stevebailey2990 had a 12 ton, 11 metre rv with a huge black tank - only had to empty once a month fulltiming, had a macerator and 1 inch lay flat hose, black first then switchover valve to put grey to rinse through. You have to rinse it well after!! Ok, but in the uk the cassette dumps are not ground level So you are pumping uphill With a kink in the pipe... takes a lot of time too. When macerator blocks you will need a bucket, long gloves, stick and a very, very strong stomach. I would avoid in uk. All the best.
We have a spare toilet cassette - don’t know why nobody else seems to do this... no full cassette anxiety, extends off site stays etc etc. Sub £100 it’s a no brailer.
Only good if you have storage for the full cassette. No all vans have that option! We certainly don't!
We have done the same, gives us a good 4 or 5 days of wild camping with water and grey waste too. We also have a Waste Master so we can empty some of the grey waste, then we just empty that when we empty our grey waste tank at a designated empty & fill site.
the thought of carrying (and properly securing) one anywhere other than in the toilet cassette compartment is enough of a reason for me!
Liked your video but re cassette toilet waste I think you need to mention that you can only dispose in all public toilets with green chemicals as some, especially in the Scottish Highlands, may only be connected to septic tanks - not mains sewage systems.
Morrisons garages usually have a tap in the petrol station
They do, but do test the water
Don't find that paper fills up the cassette any quicker, it's defo too much peeing and over flushing.
I'm in the UK and thought it wasn't legal to wild park or camp in the UK
It's not legal in England or Wales!
Wild camping in Scotland isn’t illegal 👍
It is NOT illegal to wild camp in Wales or England.
@@kevinbarber9509 so what is legal in England and Wales??
Christine, Oh the joy of the internet. Ask a simple question and get contradictory answers and several unconnected responses.
Graveyard taps. I spent years maintaining graveyards for the local council. We had no qualms about filling up the containers for mixing herbicides (or for any other purpose) from graveyard taps. It's mains water, not holy water.
The only caveat would be isolated graveyards where there's no mains water, but there's maybe a water butt full of rainwater. Don't drink that. It's nasty. Also it's a very limited resource, for, shall we say, the more usual users of graveyards.
I was under the impression that grey waste should not be emptied in drains which are for rainwater only. In the UK rain and grey water drains are seperate things I believed. You definitely can't do that in France where we live, but we do have plentiful Aires. Also I am horrified at the amount of people converting Vans into campers but not putting a toilet in there, and then just doing their business all over the countryside and not just leaving their waste on the ground, but also their used toilet paper! If you have to pick up after your dog you definitely should after yourself.
I think that you can’t always mix rain water with any waste as a householder, unless your house has consent from the water authority. Some houses were built that way. So, tricky.
Except in urban areas (and sometimes there too) road gullies / drains will be connected to the surface water drainage system and will discharge into the nearest watercourse. In terms of discharging without causing pollution, I would always handle grey waste as black waste.
Absolutely agree that van conversion should consider toilet and wastewater even if it is very basic. The days of taking a shovel are over even if you try to bury it properly there is just too many people. I have seen brilliant wastewater systems that evaporate the wastewater leaving just a black rubber mat to clean.
One little tip we have, if you’re going to use public toilets and you use chemicals in your cassette, check the public toilet doesn’t work on a septic tank or something similar as the chemicals in your cassette kill off the bacteria in the septic tank and subsequently put them out of use, which nobody wants ☺️
Great tips otherwise though 😁
That's an excellent point! Thanks for the reminder :)
There is a Thethford toilet chemical that is septic tank friendly. It is green colour. I use it specially on the last day on my way back home. That way I can empty the toilet at home in my toilet. I do that for years and no trouble occurs with the septic tank.
Take one very long Motorhome, park at a angle by a Sainsbury Air & Water service point and spend about 40 minutes trying to fill your water with the trickle from the windscreen water hose. OK you will have a queue of angry motorists behind you and you will get in an argument with a Sainsbury worker but what the hell, you pay your VED and insurance. True
Sorry Kat but greywater is classed as waste so is not allowed in Rainwater system, this often goes straight into sea, rivers, water courses etc. Not to treatment plants. I use eco wu liquid, soaps etc in case we need to drop grey ‘in the wild’ but we are very careful where we do this, def not a gully in tesco car park etc.
Obviously never the black... great vid, important message, thanks.
It depends where you are. There is no real way to know when travelling. That said, a bit of soapy water is unlikely to cause any problems.
Hello Bird. Are you taller than your husband ?
🤣😂 ha- yes. By about 3 inches. 7 if I wear pretty heels 👠
Ehm, so where do you get water from - if not a campsite?
If you head to the blog post in the video notes, you’ll find links to places where you can fill up
I will never ever piss in a bottle, are you mad?
Neither do we- but many people do.
It’s easier to empty the cassette than pissing in bottles and putting toilet paper in bags. Peoples lack of hygiene is worrying, that is why I always use our facilities in the Motorhome rather than use campsite facilities, no matter how clean they appear to be.
Why on earth would your black waste cassette contents block a toilet? Bizarre thought, just pour it in and flush, simple as that.
quantity.