Dump Stations and Potable Water

[Gaucho]

I just started full time life in my PW Ascent 10 days ago. I’ve stealth camped, stayed at Harvest Hosts, and did 1 night at an RV park. Given my inclinations and early experiences, I expect to do a lot of dry camping while avoiding RV parks.

I’ve been looking at various sources to locate dump stations (All Stays, Campendium, RVShare), but I wonder if better resources exist.

Also, a dump station is of little use to me if I can’t also fill my water tank with potable water. Some reviews I’ve read of dump stations mention no potable water is available, like at water treatment sites and a smattering of other locations. If a location (gas station, RV park, etc) charges a dump fee, may I assume they also provide potable water?

Any tips and words of wisdom appreciated!

[Rockwood27]

Download the Pilot/Flying J app. Many Flying J's and some Pilot truck stops have RV pumps with dump stations, water and propane. Some have RV parking out front, away from the trucks.. You can fine tune the app to search for these features.

[avanti]

Try some state parks and COE sites.

[InterBlog]

I never travel without a pair of MSR Dromedary bladders, which hang on my wet bath wall on suction cup hooks when not in use. With them, I can snag a bit of potable water wherever I need to, including from restaurant sinks if that is what the situation requires. If there's a potable water source available that I can hook my hose to, great - but I don't require it.

From IG:

[SteveJ]

My goto is Free Campsites.net. I'm not sure if you have to tick a box to get them to show on the map. They have different colors for free, fee, and ??. They don't show all available but they do list quite a few that I don't see elsewhere.

They generally have reviews and comments and.

Sometimes getting fresh water one has to get creative. We have just asked at places to hook up to their hose bib to fill up. We carry a five gallon collapsible water jug for when hose access is not allowed as well as a Camco "water bandit". Our current coach has no fresh water pour in filler so I use the water pump anti freeze intake fitting to suck the water out of the jug, if required. A bit of a pain but sometimes you just gotta do what you gotta do.

Forthcoming example: We are leaving today for AZ,NM. Our first dump will be at the water treatment plant in Alamagordo, NM(free). Unsure about fresh water but we intend to camp the next night or two at Aguirre Spring near White Sands and they do have water there.

[ks@yvr]

Conserve and carry at least one portable water container (we carry 3 gallon) for strictly clean drinking water. You will find some peoples definitions of potable water may not be what you are used to, so the extra drinking water comes in handy if the water in your main tank ends up with a bad taste. Sometimes well water or even treated is potable but has localized minerals that although fine to drink doesn’t quite go so well with coffee or tea. We also have a couple of gallon containers that we use for dispensing water as my wife would rather pour out of a lighter container so we actually carry our water tank plus 3+2 gallons when boondocking. When in the extreme cold and our systems are empty - when we could run south we also used the portable containers until it was warm enough to fill our main tank. Most of the time you can find water if you ask nicely to fill your tanks. I have only been turned down a couple of times from chain restaurants since they don’t want to be put in a position of someone saying they got contaminated water from them, but that has been rare. We also carry a pump, and uv/charcoal 3 stage filtration system so we can pump directly from a stream or filter the bad taste out of some well water. We have never been turned down from getting water from a state or provincial park even when not staying there when you ask nicely.

Dump stations used to be hard to find in some areas, when we had a black tank but that is behind us now since we have gone (back) to a cassette toilet in our new van. We boondock 95% of the time so its a bit of an art form to work out a system that works for you.

[mlts22]

Don't forget wastewater treatment plants. Oftentimes they will let you dump for free, some may have 24/7 stations that are open to the public.

As for potable water, you can find this in some odd places. Sometimes I've dropped by a FB friend's place when in another town who didn't mind me filling tanks and some water jugs.

If you have a macerator pump, sewage "clean-outs" can become effective dump stations, provided they are either to a city sewage system, or located well before the septic tank.

(PS: Been away for a while... glad to see familar and awesome names again.)

[rowiebowie]

Originally Posted by mlts22

(PS: Been away for a while... glad to see familar and awesome names again.)

Two years is quite a spell.

[gksmith]

Most, but not all, Walmarts have filtered water for sale at 39cents per gallon. We use that for all our drinking water. That makes our RV water last a long time.

[InterBlog]

Originally Posted by ks@yvr

Conserve and carry at least one portable water container (we carry 3 gallon) for strictly clean drinking water. ....

Yes, we do that, too, in addition to carrying the bladders - I carry a 10 liter Scepter which sits on the floor next to my fresh water tank.

It has a limitation, however. With two active adults, it gets consumed in about 2 days.

[Windrat]

I am always concerned about potable water taps when they are close to dumpstations. Too often I have watched people don gloves or not to work with their dump procedures but fail to remove them or cleanse their hands before using the potable water tap. Always be cautious to clean and flush the faucet and your fill hose before filling your tanks. Sometimes that water may be in there for a while experiencing a range of temperatures. Some people use filters on the intake but most of these filters will remove the chlorine but not other possibly dangerous contaminates ..better to fill with chlorinated water in the tanks and use separate water for drinking if you don’t like the chlorine smell and taste.

[Davydd]

The better dump stations will have a tap near the dump with an attached hose for rinsing slinky hoses, cassettes and surrounds if you make a mess and another labeled potable water only an appreciable distance away so you cannot use it until you are clear of the dump area and it will not have a hose attached. You would need to use your own fresh water hose. I think you would have to be brain dead not to understand all this. I don't use any potable water anywhere near a dump station regardless as I assume there are a lot of brain dead people.

[Cold Gold]

I have always been able to dump at a Camping World store and refill from a municipal supply hose without any charge or even having anyone ask who I am. You can find the stores online.

[JDBrown]

We use sanidumps.com quite a bit. Sometimes just Google "RV dump near me".

The fact that a location charges a fee to dump does NOT mean they will have potable water. I once paid to use the dump station at an RV park, and they wouldn't let me fill my fresh water. Too bad for me.

A lot of truck stops have fresh water spigots by the diesel pumps, but that depends on location. Just be courteous of the truck drivers, fill up and get out of the way.

[SeabeckStan]

we've used RV Dump Sites app for years. been very happy with it. Ours is Android but they probably have an Apple version, too.