For all of you who camp in seasonal campgrounds (who have been fortunate enough to have an on-site sewer system), I have a few pointers for you:

1. It is often tempting to connect your trailer sewer system directly to the ground using solid pipe.  (No more messy, flimsy sewer hose to deal with.)  Well although this may seem like a simple hassle free solution it can often cause long-term problems!

Consider this, you are connecting a solid piece of pipe to the hard ground.  In the winter when the ground freezes, that solid piece of pipe has nowhere to go.  This pressure can cause your solid sewer pipe to crack, or worse still, cause pieces of your trailers sewer system to break or crack (ie the slide valves and/or waste tanks).  In the end you can be left with a very big mess.  All it takes to avoid this is about 1 foot of flexible sewer hose between your trailer and the ground.  Or better yet, a product call “soft bore hose” (a length of hard pipe, that has a thick flexible rubber piece at both ends) that is designed for just this occasion. 

2. Another common complaint from campers on a sewer system is the sink. You know that terrible, nauseating odor that emerges from your bathroom.  From what I’ve observed, this complaint is most common in campers that chose to keep their slide valves open all the time, or those who dump their tanks too often.  Because so little liquid is being added to the tank at one time, a build-up begins to form on the inside of the tank.  As this build-up increases, so does the odor inside your trailer.

Solution: close that slide valve.  By allowing your waste tanks to fill with liquid when you dump them, you get lots of water pressure, meaning your tanks are virtually swept clean.  For those of you who like to keep your tanks near empty all of the time, try adding water to your tanks (ie dump water into your toilet) before you empty them. There are lots of specialized tools available for doing this, but a garden hose works fine.

3. Remember that a good toilet chemical is an important part of maintaining your sewer system.  We find chemicals that work best have both a waste digesting component and a deodorizing component.  The waste digester helps to keep your tank clean by breaking down solid waste, while the deodorant covers up that smell.  You should add toilet chemical to your tank (ie pour it down your toilet) after you empty it.  We recommend our house brand, Dealers Choice and ODØRLØS holding tank treatment (available in both dry and liquid).