We have officially spent more weekends in the travel trailer than our home this summer.  Bessie the Jayco trailer has seen five different states and a lot of miles over the six months we have owned her.  We have made some mistakes, had some repairs, and lots of adventures during our first camping season with Bessie.  As the summer is winding down, I thought I would sit down and write out  a few lessons I learned as a new travel trailer owner.  Each day this week I’ll be posting a new lesson learned.

Water is your friend in the black tank.

While the trailer was parked for a couple weeks at our home, the eldest teen decided she wanted to use the trailer as her own space.  She moved in, and took it over.  The trailer had electric hook up, but no water.  I did warn her to use the tanks sparingly, and to make sure she poured water in every time the toilet was used.  We kept an eye on the tank gauges and when they were getting full, we hooked up and headed to our nearest campground with full hookup for a weekend of camping.

I had a late day at work that Friday with a field trip.  Hubby was meeting me at the campground.  He was going to get everything all set up before I got back from taking sixty-three sixth graders on a field trip.  Hubby pulled into the camping spot and went to hook up the sewer pipe, that is when the adventure began.

First thing that was wrong, somehow the valve pull for the black tank was already pulled out. The lid over the pipe was securely in place, but the pull was open.  I can only imagine what my hubby was thinking about that, but I can only imagine it wasn’t very friendly.  Hubby was faced with a very full black tank, with only the lid holding it all back.  He did his best to get the sewer pipe set up and hooked to the trailer as quickly as possible with as little spillage as possible.

Once the hook up was achieved, it should all be good.  The tank would empty and our weekend of camping would commence.  Right?  Right?

Unfortunately, that is not how this story ends.

Come to find out, the eldest had not been using enough water when using the black tank.  It was blocked.  Full.  And blocked.

Thankfully, our trailer has a hook up for a black tank flush.  Hubby hooked in the hose and started running water into the tank, careful to keep an eye on it inside.  No over flowing toilet, please!  After two or three minutes of running water into the tank, it let loose.  It let loose in an amazing fashion.  It took ten to fifteen minutes for the tank to empty.  However, we dealt with issues of false readings on the gauge and problems emptying the tank for the next few times we went out.

I am very thankful that I arrived at the campground as this whole story was finishing up.  We are now VERY careful to make sure enough water is used when dry camping, and we always flush the tank when a hose hook up is available at the dump station.

We went on to enjoy our weekend at the campground.  Some friends of ours were at the spot across from us.  Much music was played, good food was eaten, and the weekend was enjoyed.