I have this idea and it is probably crazy but...

[Cammalu]

Does a bear shit in the woods?


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[Blacktank]

i was born with a pee hose and i am going to use it,just watering the bush

[Motrukdriver]

Does a bear shit in the woods?

Not zoo bears.  Zoo bears have a whole army of keepers and handlers and feeders and poop cleaner uppers.  I wish I was a zoo bear....  Stand up, wave at people, they clap and laugh and throw peanuts at you.  Yeah, I wanna be a zoo bear.

[Optimistic Paranoid]

Donald was talking about being at Burning Man and that is held in California.  I don't know if the laws are different between CA and AZ.  I was reading on how various RV's are plumbed and it seems as though many of them, the kitchen sink drain water goes into the grey water tank.  The only thing that goes in the black water tank is toilet water.

Actually, I think Burning Man is held in Nevada.  Minor point, not important.  Only raised to point out that an "evaporation pond" set up seems to be acceptable to the gov.

On mainstream RVs, the gray water is SUPPOSED to be dumped at the same station the black tanks are emptied into, not dumped in the dessert, so where the kitchen sink drain goes isn't important.

[heron]

Does a bear shit in the woods?


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Nope. It shits in the road and kicks it into the woods. Least that's what I'm told around here.

[heron]

I saw proof of this when I was driving out to the point near Apple River, NS. Long straight dirt road, and just about exactly every 75 feet or so, was a pile of bear shit. It seems that they all came out at once and took a dump, keeping distance between them out of courtesy and a certain modesty. I just happened to come along and scare them back into the bush, so they didn't have time to kick it away.

[TrainChaser]

I've been letting this ferment in what passes for my brain.

What are the nastiest things that are usually put in a black tank? Human shit and toxic things like fluoride. Most soaps don't really affect the soil much, unless they contain borax (mostly in laundry detergents and Boraxo hand scrubber product). Some soap (esp liquid detergents) actually break the surface tension of soils and allow water to be absorbed.

Body waste breaks down, over time. The worst part of it is the bacteria. If you're not infected with the dangerous E. coli O157:H7, you're not going to be spreading E. coli O157:H7, are you?

Fluoride hasn't been proven to help teeth at all, but Alcoa does make money for selling their processing waste to the companies that add it to the drinking water, and Americans can be trained to accept practically anything. Tom's toothpaste (and others) have no-fluoride types. And do you know what? Fluoride is one of the elements in soil -- it's already there, in varying amounts.

If you have a short drain hose in your rig (or can shorten what you've got, dig the hole, place the rig so the drain is over the hole. Cover it with a piece of 1/4" hardware cloth (or two, criss-crossed), held down with a couple of bricks. Liquids will seep out. Fill the hole before it gets too full and dig another one. It is highly unlikely that any of the larger animals are going to spend a lot of time under your rig trying to get in the hole.

I've noticed that most sites of this type, there are some people who obsess about the perfection of everything within the realm of travel and boondocking.

THERE IS NO PERFECTION IN THIS KIND OF LIFE! YOU DO THE BEST THAT YOU CAN DO AND CALL IT GOOD.

In fact, when someone keeps pointing out JUST the drawbacks of stoves, or heaters, or bottled water, or mattress types, or solar panels, or not having a hightop, or roof racks, or the color of your vehicle roof, it really makes me wonder if they are living on the road. Or have EVER lived on the road. Or EVER WILL live on the road. They seem so frightened of every tiny drawback, that I really can't see them 'making do' (as my mom called it) just with what they can afford or scrounge.

"THERE'S SOME DIRT ON THE RV CARPET! DEAR GOD, WHATEVER SHALL WE DO?????"

To tell the truth, I think Motruk's idea (simplified) is a reasonable idea.

[Optimistic Paranoid]

Trainchaser,

I appreciate the fact that you've been thinking about this.  But I don't think you're aware of some information that affects this issue.  Take a look at this website:

https://burningman.org/event/preparation...ray-water/


For the benefit of some of the other people here, who might not bother going to this website, I've extracted two paragraphs:

*Why is it a problem?* It’s hard to make it disappear. Almost anywhere else in the world, a campsite is near absorbent soil (filled with microbial activity, and usually with plants) where it is safe and decent to dump gray water. But it’s different on the playa, on dried clay, striving to avoid contaminating our surroundings.


 *How dangerous is gray water? What can I do about it?* Gray water is inherently unsanitary. It may contain bacteria, fungi, viruses, or other life. Gray water left to stand untreated in the desert warmth eventually becomes black water as microbial populations increase. To disinfect gray water, and suppress funky aromas, mix in Concentrated Clorox Regular Bleach or other chlorine-based bleach periodically. For some antibiotic-resistant pathogens, chlorine bleach is the only reliable killer.

[heron]

Mo's rig still makes sense to me in regular dirt. Certainly not in clay. We have a great plenty of that here, and I can testify to its water-holding characteristics.

[Texjbird]

"THERE'S SOME DIRT ON THE RV CARPET!  DEAR GOD, WHATEVER SHALL WE DO?????"

Why in that case, if you can afford to, do the same thing some folks do when the ashtray in their new car gets full.
  BUY A NEW ONE OF COURSE!

TJB  & Q