Holding tanks

[southpaw821]

I am looking at a TT but it has very small tanks. Has anyone swapped out small tanks for larger ones?  Is it even possible

[Vic Mackey]

Most of the time it's not possible due to the area where the factory tanks are placed. A better solution might be a portable holding tank. Another option might be to add a tank in another location. Most people don't have an issue with small black tanks. The grey water is the biggest issue.

[Oz and Us]

How small is "small"?

If given a choice most trailer owners would probably like as large a fresh water tank as they can get, just for the convenience.  However, there are practical limits as to how large the tank can be so in many cases you'd still likely have to on load fresh water periodically during your camping stay.  The trick then is to have a method of conveniently doing so ... I collect mine using six 7 gal Aquatainers sitting in the back of my TV and use a pump to transfer water into the trailer's 40 gal FW tank.  Even over just a long weekend stay my FW tank would have to be 3 times that size if I wanted to avoid having having to go get more water ... not practical at all.

Grey water tank size I don't care about much as there's not a tank in the world large enough to even get us through a couple of days of camping as we always use our camper's shower and never use the bath house facilities.  I have to off load my trailer's 32 gal GW tank anyway so a larger tank would only delay the inevitable but since I can easily off load GW by simply pumping it into a set of GW Aquatainers sitting in the back of my TV  having a larger GW tank wouldn't offer me much advantage.

Black water tank size is the most important to me as I have no interest at all in servicing the tank while camping nor ever having to visit a dump station to do so as I always service it at home using my Poop Cannon.  My travel trailer has a 32 gal BW tank which will easily get our family of four through at least 10 days of continuous camping.  We rarely camp in one location that long so the only time I might have to deal with the tank is when we're on a long multi week trip, in which case I simply macerate and off load the BW into a set of Aquatainers sitting in the back of my TV for a trip to the dump station.

The importance of tank size is all in how you manage them and unless this trailer you're interested in has awfully small tanks I'd not consider it worth the time and effort to try to fit larger tanks.  If this is a smaller trailer then the manufacturer has likely installed the largest size that will fit and that with content won't overtax the trailer's suspension system or force the trailer's GVW to exceed it's GVWR.

[Oz and Us]

The grey water is the biggest issue.

For you perhaps ... personally I don't care much at all as I always have to off load GW at one time or another during our stay.

[southpaw821]

Thanks for the input. My currrent TT has 30gal tanks. I want at least 40 especially for GW. The TT I found and liked only has 26 gallon tanks. Way too small

[vjm1639]

Southpaw, if you are looking at new....the Cougar Xlite we just ordered has 41 fresh, 28 black, and 56 grey.   The tanks on many of the new TTs we've looked at seem to be getting larger. 

[Wild Wild Qwest]

the Cougar Xlite we just ordered has 56 grey. 

That's cra-zeeeee!

30 gallon capacity is very common for most travel trailers. I would also recommend bringing along a tote or like Oz mentioned, use some Aquatainers to off load the gray when necessary. We use our water sparingly and very rarely have any problems.

Another option is to always get a sewer site! 

[Outbound]

Our RP171 has a 36 gallon grey tank and the two of us fill it in a 3-day weekend.  Our 36 gallon black tank is an extravagant luxury that seems to last forever.  I've been giving serious thought to rigging up a transfer system so that we can move the contents of the grey tank into the more than ample black for a few days' more grey capacity.  My solution may end up being as simple as buying a poop cannon (I haven't been able to justify one yet, but I want one), hooking it up to the valterra fitting, opening the grey valve and running the output hose down the toilet.

My question to the OP: how many days would your family get from 40 gallon tanks vs 26?  Would a 40 gallon tank last you through a typical camping trip?  Or, will you have to bring a barker tote (or aquatainers or other container) to offload grey water anyway?  If you're going to have to offload grey water anyway, then the size of your TT's grey tank doesn't really matter.  You can offload grey water at your leisure and take the tote to the dump station when its full.