Camping in an RV park without full sewer hookup is bound to happen sooner or later. In our case it happened much sooner than expected, as in the second park at which we’ve ever stayed. As luck or fate would have it, while Arthur was having the tank heater blankets installed by the professionals at Southlake RV Center, Southlake, MS, sales personnel introduced us to wastewater collecting and hauling systems made by Rhino. MFI, ever on point with her intuition, suggested and convinced me we should purchase a unit. We agreed on one with a 28-gallon capacity since our grey and black water tanks hold 37 and 39 gallons, respectively. Gray water is collected from the shower and sinks in the kitchen and bathroom. Of course, black water is collected from the toilet.

There is a tank monitoring system attached to the wall of the RV beneath the TV. With the simple push of a button connected to each tank, there is a red analog readout of the tank-level percentage. After two days at the campsite, it dawned on us that the tanks had to be emptied, and we hadn’t yet calculated the number of gallons correlating to various readout percentages. As it turned out, in order to not exceed the capacity of the Rhino, the gray water tank couldn’t exceed 75%. A quick check showed it at 80%, and we momentarily panicked. I began to carefully and fearfully download the gray water tank as MFI monitored the level inside. Luckily, we successfully avoided a fountain of gray water erupting from the Rhino tank vent. Whew!

MFI conveniently had dishes to wash and asked (tasked) me with hauling the Rhino to the lone dump site for the park. I knew the dump procedure, having read the Rhino instructions, but again there was a certain amount of fear of and anxiety over handling this waste. One wrong or forgotten hookup and I could be illegally dumping gray water onto the ground. In fact at one point, I did forget to replace the fill cap on top of the Rhino, and some gray water sloshed out when I pulled the Rhino to the truck hitch. Phew! In hindsight, now that I’ve made two gray water dumps, Arthur’s systems with the compatible design of the Rhino make the process relatively simple and easy.

We checked the level of the black water tank this morning and it surprisingly read only 30% after 7 days. In order to not exceed the capacity of the Rhino, the black water tank can’t exceed 70%. That pending dump experience is fraught with more anxiety over possible spillage and noxious odor. Hopefully there will be no reason to blog about any mishaps.