WVvan
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Kitchen Cabinet, Post #21
Time to talk about the greywater tank dump valve. The way I usually camp is 2 - 3 days at one spot while I hike or bike then drive to someplace different and set up again. With a running water system I'd need a greywater tank to hold the effluent from the sink till I was ready to move on. Then after leaving the campground either dump the greywater tank in the road, if gravel road, or off on the berm if asphalt. That way I'm not burning extra gas hauling around a load of greywater. Of course this would be easy if I had a motorized dump valve and didn't have to get out of the van or even slow down.
If you price out a motorized valves you'll find them pretty much restricted to industrial use and very expensive. Time for some DIY. Went to Lowe's and wandered through the plumbing section looking for valves. Settled on a 1-1/2" PVC valve for around $11.00. It was either it or the 1" valve but decided on the 1-1/2" because it will dump faster and being as large as the drain size might help prevent clogging.
Got the valve so how to open and close it? I shopped around for a long while until I found a 12 volt automotive seat motor at American Science & Surplus for $14.95. Ordered the motor to check it out.
Here's the motor and the PVC valve.
The reason I picked this particular motor is because of the threaded rod that extends from the gearbox at a 90 degree angle to the motor. Hadn't yet figured out how this was going to work but the gearbox would allow it to be more compact. According to the motor description the rod is a non-standard thread so I won't be able to just bolt something on to it.
How to join the motor to the valve? It's not like I could glue them together. After some more thinking I swung by Advance Auto and bought pair of 2-1/2" muffler clamps. They are around $3 each.
OK that gives me a way of joining something with the PVC valve. Now how to turn the valve? I'll make a cradle that slips over the top of the handle.
Could I weld the cradle to the threaded rod? Disassemble the gearbox to see what kind of gear is on the threaded rod.
It's a plastic gear on the rod so if I'm going to weld I'll have to be careful to not let it get too hot. Shorten the threaded rod with my band saw but wrap the gear in plastic first to prevent any metal shavings from clinging to it.
Create a couple of right angle metal "wings" that I can use to help connect the threaded rod to the cradle. Here I'm using the cut off piece of rod to check the gap between the wings.
With the wings welded to the cradle check the fit of the shortened threaded rod. Before welding I have to try to get the alignment as perfect as I can so the cradle doesn't want to shift on the PVC handle as it turns.
I'm going to welding directly on the threaded rod but can't let it get too hot. Got around this by instead of drawing a long bead using a series of almost like tack welds then allowing everything to cool down after each single weld. Tedious and time consuming but it worked.
If the PVC handle is going to have room to turn I'll have to move the muffler clamps farther away from the center. Another trip to Lowe's to buy the threaded adapters that screw into each end of the valve.
Start welding a framework onto the muffler clamps that will support the turning motor.
I would take the framework off the PVC before welding on it so not to melt anything.
One of the reasons this motor was such a good find for this project is this mounting point on the gearbox.
It's a perfect fit for the inside of a 1" square metal tube.
Typing this up makes me think I should order a couple more to have on hand since it is so easy to mount. Bet I'll find something else to make with them.
1/4" bolt fits the mounting hole.
How it will look when together.
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Open the pod bay doors Hal.
Once I exit Hal, this is what I do.
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WVvan
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Kitchen Cabinet, Post #22
It's hard to tell in this photo but the two uprights are offset from each other.
It's to allow the cradle to turn the valve completely closed then go no farther.
The PVC valve is made to only turn 90 degrees. The motor will spin it 360 degrees and snap off the handle unless I prevent it. When viewed from above, the valve handle turns 90 degrees clockwise to close. The limit switch in the the picture will be part of the electronics for the motor that I'll add later. There are two holes in the uprights for it's mounting.
In the next two pics you can see that I've added a short length of angle iron with an upright that stops the cradle after it has rotated the PVC handle 90 degrees counterclockwise to the open position. The upright section with the two holes is for the mounting of a limit switch.
Place the motorized valve against the side of the greywater tank and figure out the best place for the tank outlet. The motorized valve has to fit in the available space.
I've marked on the side of the tank where to mount the outlet pipe.
The outlet pipe will be 1-1/2" PVC. It has a OD of 1-7/8".
 
I made a 2" hole for the outlet pipe in the side of the tank. Like the hole for the overflow I'm purposely making the hole larger that it needs be. The lid for the tank has been screwed down using pre-drilled pilot holes.
Take the tank and mount it under the van. Use the positioning bolt to fix it in place. Drill a hole through the shield and the angle iron support. Do this for both of the supports.
Then use sheet metal screws to hold the shield in place.
Now going to drill a hole through the floor and into the top of the greywater tank. Use the bolt that goes through the cabinet frame as a measuring point.
Double check there is no conflict with the freshwater tank. I better get this right the first time.
I'm drilling a 1-1/2" hole which is the OD of the drain pipe.
Looks like a hole. Success!
Drain pipe will fit down through the floor into the greywater tank.
Remove the tank from under the van and check the fit of the drain pipe. Probably should have given myself a larger margin of error in the hole drilling but it's fine.
Now that I have all the extra holes that are needed in the tank, next job is to epoxy the inside.
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stevelv
Living on the island
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I am intrigued by your ingenuity but a little confused on the dump valve arrangement.
Why did you choose not to bring the exit pipework of the gray tank to the outside of the van and then use a standard blade style RV dump valve? Cheaper and easier.
Also why is the exit pipe in the side of the tank rather than in the base? Surely even after dumping you will have smelly gray water sloshing around?
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WVvan
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stevelv wrote:Why did you choose not to bring the exit pipework of the gray tank to the outside of the van and then use a standard blade style RV dump valve?
Because you can't operate one of those remotely as you're driving down the road
Quote:Cheaper and easier. True, but you must be new to this thread. 
Quote:Also why is the exit pipe in the side of the tank rather than in the base? I thought about the drain from beneath but I'd have to give up greywater tank capacity in return. It was a question of having enough space for everything I wanted and not going to low below the edge of the van. I want to keep the boring white work van look as much as I can. Vans with running boards have more room to play with underneath.
Quote:Surely even after dumping you will have smelly gray water sloshing around? I really don't know. Never been around a greywater tank before so this is all new to me. There is a water trap for the sink so thought any smells would stay in the tank.
I had been wondering, with the overflow opening in the front of the tank and if I drive with the dump valve open, would that cause enough of an airflow through the tank to dry it out?
One thing for sure. If it doesn't work out, I'll keep after it till it does.
* This post was
edited 06/17/12 08:52pm by WVvan *
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WVvan
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Kitchen Cabinet, Post #23
Ready to epoxy the inside of the greywater tank. I'm a little better prepared than last time.
I've removed all the hardware from the box. From what I've read the trick is to get the epoxy to soak into all the wood surfaces including the sides of holes that have been drilled. That's why I made all the holes for pipes slightly larger than needed. That's so there is room for several layers of epoxy to built up on the hole surfaces but still have room for the pipes that pass through. Anyway that's the plan. Will also be epoxying the lid but not installing it on the tank until later.
The electronic scale worked really well the first time. It allows me to mix up just however much epoxy I want to work with at a time and get the ratios spot on.
Just like the first time I've started epoxying in the morning of a day off so I can work on this uninterrupted until it's done and not worry about adding addition layers after it's cured.
Kept brushing on another epoxy layer after the previous one started setting up.
After so many layers it started dripping off the inside when I rotated the tank.
At that point I stopped adding epoxy and kept rotating the tank until it set up some more.
Now at this point it was a horrible gooey mess so seemed the right time to reinstall all the hardware and start on the pipes.
Cut the fiberglass cloth into a bunch of inch wide strips. I majorly underestimated how many of these I'd need and kept cutting up more and more. I started this project with 2 yards of fiberglass cloth thinking that would be plenty. I almost ran out.
Added the strips one at a time and then painted on more epoxy with a chip brush. The overflow pipe didn't look this messy by the time I was done. As the epoxy starts to set up it will hold shape better.
I've coated the threads of the exposed screws on the outside with vaseline so the epoxy won't stick. On the inside of the tank all the hardware was painted over with epoxy several times. Next up is the drain pipe.
To give the drain pipe some extra hold I've cemented a coupling to the pipe. The coupling is larger than the drain hole so it can be pressed up against the inside tank wall. Then epoxy it all in place.
After the inside of the tank had setup to the point that it wouldn't get fouled I added the high level indicator.
Next was to screw the lid in place and epoxy in place. At the same time I'm adding a section of 1-1/2" PVC pipe to the top of the lid. This is placed so it's directly above the drain hole and will act as a guide to the drain pipe that is slide through the floor into the top of the tank.
I'm worried about the hole in the top of the tank lining up with the through-the-floor drain pipe. There isn't much leeway if they don't line up. That's the purpose of the positioning bolt on the front of the tank. Thought that I could always bevel the inside top edge of the PVC to help if need be. Ends up I didn't have to.
Here's what it looked like when I was finished.
Two days later. Trim off the excess fiberglass threads and smooth off the outside of the drain pipe where there was some epoxy buildup.
Here's the tank ready to go. The flexible rubber coupling on the end was what I was planning on using to join the tank to the dump valve. I ended up using a different coupling.
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Liketoroam
Waterford
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Just a quick thought. Wouldn't you feel guilty dumping gray water on a gravel road or on the berm , when there are lots of places that it is illegal to do so.
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WVvan
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Liketoroam wrote:Just a quick thought. Wouldn't you feel guilty dumping gray water on a gravel road or on the berm , when there are lots of places that it is illegal to do so.
If it was illegal I wouldn't do it but the vast majority of my camping is in places where there are no such restrictions. I honestly can't think of a single place I like to camp where greywater is regulated.
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stevelv
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Hmm, that's going to raise a lot of comments about dumping gray water 
You need to be aware that gray water STINKS - especially in a warm climate and so the inside of your tank is going to get very stinky if you can't flush it out. Water in the P traps will dry out quickly.
I would suggest installing a spray head in the top of the tank so that you can connect a hose to it and at least rinse it out, otherwise you are going to have a smell problem with the residue left inside.
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stevelv
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I know you are not in Arizona (I am) but here is the AZ BLM answer on the subject.
Thank you for your recent questions regarding recreational vehicles (RV) and dispersed camping on BLM lands in Arizona. The answers to your questions are more complicated than originally thought. Although the Code of Federal Regulations (CFR) found at 8365.1-1 (3) generally excludes 'wash water' from BLM's prohibition against draining or dumping, it can be specifically prohibited by Supplemental Rules issued for a specific area. This applies equally to RVers and tent campers.
TITLE 43IC LANDS: INTERIOR
CHAPTER IIAU OF LAND MANAGEMENT, DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR
PART 8360_VISITOR SERVICES
Subpart 8365_Rules of Conduct
Sec. 8365.1-1 Sanitation.
(3) Drain sewage or petroleum products or dump refuse or waste other than wash water from any trailer or other vehicle except in places or receptacles provided for that purpose;
There are two locations in Arizona where draining wash water is specifically prohibited by Supplemental Rules that have been established and were published in the Federal Register. They are the Long Term Visitor Areas outside of Yuma, Arizona, and Hot Well Dunes Recreation Area east of Safford, Arizona.
A note of caution to your audience: Under State laws and regulations in Arizona, 'wash water' or 'gray water' from a kitchen sink or dishwasher is classified as sewage. If discharging it onto the ground from a RV or camper might cause it to enter an aquifer, the visitor could be subject to violation of State of Arizona regulations unrelated to BLM regulations. Even if the gray water is from a clothes washer, bathroom sink, shower, or bathtub, it can only be discharged if done so according the 'General Permit' practices that would apply. The practices are explained at the Arizona Department of Environmental Quality.
In addition, if the gray water creates a hazard or a nuisance a Law Enforcement Officer can cite (or in extreme circumstances arrest) an individual. This would go beyond simple gray water dumping, and the citation would likely be for some other offense related to degradation of resources or public health and safety issues. Law Enforcement Officers in the field have discretion in applying the laws and regulations as necessary and appropriate to protect the natural resources on the ground.
Thank you for your patience, while BLM researched the issue in order to provide accurate answers for your audience,
Carrie Templin
Public Affairs Specialist
Bureau of Land Management
Arizona State Office
(602) 417-9448
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Big Katuna
Deland, FL
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Oh dear, the gray water police are patrolling. Gray water was routinely dumped into waterways and everywhere else for decades. Not without damage. Back when there were phosphates in soaps and detergents, it was a bad idea and that is why laws were passed and it became a no-no. Then phosphates were banned. SO now you have all these regulations and no phosphates.
Then I would point out that there are various grades of gray water. If you pour grease and lots of food particles down your drain, your gray water will indeed smell. If you clean everything off and keep food out of it and only use it for washing your hands or a sponge bath, there isn't much damge going to be dobne to the environment. A little beach (which is a cousin to salt) won't hurt a bit.
I say dump away.
My Kharma ran over my Dogma.
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