7 ms·

So you're in your van, parked at the beach, or a beautiful park and you gotta poop - what now? Pack up your van and find a public restroom? Poop in some sort

So you're in your van, parked at the beach, or a beautiful park and you gotta poop - what now? Pack up your van and find a public restroom? Poop in some sort of composting toilet that you then lug around with you and dump ...where exactly? Drive to that gym you bought a membership to ... how close is it to the beach again and how badly do you need to poop? Yesterday's article on tiny homes, and this one make me laugh because we all get romanced by hipster vans and nifty solar panels but skip right over essential things like ... going to the bathroom! The tiny home article said (and I'm paraphrasing here) you can buy a home, pull it up to a spot of land and *just hook up the utilities!" - it's not that simple. Septic and water are not electrical plugs - hell even electrical is not as simple unless you're in an RV park. Edit: Just to be clear, I spend a good deal of time traveling myself. I now tow a 26 foot travel trailer (with kitchen and full bathroom) but before that towed a small utility trailer that I converted to a travel trailer for my kids and my office. We stay at campgrounds with septic hookups and showers (which I prefer over my trailer shower). Whenever we "dry camp" we then have to find a place to dump our septic, grey water etc. it's a real pain (Google "honey wagon" for a fun look at a "good" option for handling your own waste). Typically this is done at a campground (for a small fee), but I'm not sure how it would work for someone living in their van ("can I dump a bucket full of piss and poo?").

a3n 8y ago
> So you're in your van, parked at the beach, or a beautiful park and you gotta poop - what now? Well, if you're "parked," there's a good chance that there are restrooms. You can carry a portable toilet. Or a bucket and kitchen trash bags. I'm an over the road trucker, and in an "emergency" I have just closed the curtains, squatted down in the back and pooped into a 13 gal kitchen trash bag. Not at all comfortable, but workable in an emergency. Store the bag outside in the spare tire, until I get to a suitable dumpster/trash can. (And I doubt that my rare, once or twice a year "dump" compares at all to the daily disposal of diapers on the road and at home on garbage day.)
- josefresco 8y ago
  Yeah so I've done the "shit in a bucket" thing. When I was towing an enclosed trailer I converted to a "camper", our only bathroom was a bucket (with a toilet seat). This is not sustainable! This works in a pinch, it does not, and should not work full time. Dumping your poo in a kitchen trash bag in dumpsters doesn't work if everyone, or even "a lot" of people are doing it. Towns and the townspeople do not want van dwellers dumping their shit bags in local trash cans.
  - shhehebehdh 8y ago
    I don’t think there is any danger of hordes of people starting to live in vans. Try not to let such concerns stress you out too much.
    - rexpop 8y ago
      Condescending speculation.
      - shhehebehdh 8y ago
        No, frustrated reaction to irrational “what if everyone did this!!!???” concern trolling.
        rexpop 8y ago
        I read it as personal experience. There are such communities.
    - switchbak 8y ago
      Depends where you live. I can most certainly attest to the rising popularity of "vanlife", and the associated downsides of long term unmanaged camping/squatting. In my case there's a popular area for climbers on a fire road near a river close to me. Many of these folks just shit arbitrarily in the woods, and don't even bury it. It stinks, attracts animals, and makes it impossible to go on hikes. A friend's dog even ate some which had THC in it from someone who ate a marijuana edible. And let's not get started about the risk of forest fires in the dry season. There are some that are better about managing their waste and overall footprint, but there is an outsized impact from the less considerate. There are places where these concerns are real and are having actual and increasing impact. Dismissing these concerns is not helpful.
nicky0 8y ago
That's why you bring a small shovel.
- fhbdukfrh 8y ago
  If you're just burying your waste at the beach you making it worse than if you just left it lying there
  - RankingMember 8y ago
    ...but also please don't leave it lying there, in case that needed to be said.
    - _eht 8y ago
      It definitely needed to be said, sadly.
- switchbak 8y ago
  That's fine if you're practicing "distributed camping", so that nature has a chance to process the poo. People often congregate at the same sites however, and it doesn't take long before that strategy starts to fail. And like others said - this doesn't work so well on a beach.
wjjdjw 8y ago
This is important. I sometimes go on vacation and sleep in the back of my car. Cosier than it sounds, but no van. The money I save I spend on dining in a restaurant. The stereotype of surfers who stay on the beach for weeks developed a system for that: They litter the beach, until it's all dirty. I was amazed how much "van life" suddenly comes back to normal camping except for the litter left behind.
bluGill 8y ago
RV toilets work well, thus flush into a tank with a cup of water. The tank will hold a few days worth of waste. If you know what to look for places to dump are all over. Camping websites often have lists. Many rest areas have a dump station. Camping/sporting stores will have a place to dump. Many cities sewage departments have a public dump... If you are not looking for a place to dump you won't see all this, but if you are looking there are plenty of places.
- josefresco 8y ago
  Have dumped plenty, and looked for dumping places... plenty. Not always easy to find. Luckily, our local campground allows us to dump for $15 which we do when returning from any "dry camping" exp. Calls to campgrounds in other cities/states didn't always produce the same result. Furthermore, the process of "dumping" requires proper plumbing from your shitter to the opening for dumping. You can't simply tip your bucket of shit into an open hole and expect it to go well. My point was that if you're living in a van, and shitting into a "glorified bucket" - dealing with your waste becomes a significant element of your day. This point is often glossed over in tiny home, or van articles. The focus is usually on the build, and not on the "living" part, which includes things like showers, dishes, poo etc.
sametmax 8y ago
If the question bothers you, you are just not in the state of mind for this experience, that's all. If you choose to travel in a van, you decided upfront that this type of life was worth the expected inconveniences, and even some unexpected ones. I lived in Mali for 2 years, didn't have hot water, sometime no running water at all. Electricity shut down regularly. I got Malaria. When the war arrived, I lost all my money, and my company. I had a great time there. E.G: I remember warmly about the generosity of a Malian family sharing with me their (disgusting) fish and rice diner in a dirty court, on the floor, all hands in the same big wooden bowl. On the other hand, a friend of mine recently had lunch with me, returning from hollidays in Cuba. She was horrified by the experience, seing only the totalitarian state and the poverty. She didn't have hot water, so she decided not to shower for the whole trip. She couldn't find a way to enjoy anything there. E.G: she felt so sad about the omelette a local made for her, thinking it was depressing he had so little, and yet felt obligated to share the few precious eggs he had. It's all about what experience you wish to have, what are the things you really value. There is no right answer for that of course, and yours is no better than mine. All that to say: the toilets are not really an issue. Just a constraint. EDIT: reading again my post, it felt a bit pretentious. I added more nuances in the following one.
- josefresco 8y ago
  I travel for 8 weeks every, single, year. I've shit in plenty of buckets, gone for many days without showering, I've tent camped, DIY trailer camped - shit gets old ... fast. The ability for you to enjoy your trip, your family and small moments is severely hampered when even the easiest things (going to the bathroom) become a chore. Sounds like you're young & single and looking for adventure. I have kids, have to work to support them and the novelty of crapping in a bucket, or in figuring how to wash my dishes with no running water isn't fun, or adventurous. We now have a modest travel trailer with full bathroom and kitchen. We can cook meals, poop in peace and always choose "full hookup" campgrounds. Dry camping is fun ... for like 3 days and then everyone gets smelly, grumpy and wants some comfort.
  - sametmax 8y ago
    What you are saying is that the experience you want now differs. I wouldn't go back to live in Mali myself. I've done it. Enjoyed it. Now I like my life malaria and war free. My answer is not some romantic vision of the bohemian life style. Simply an explanation that the question of the toilets doesn't make sense: you don't look for vans if it's important to you. Like you said, you rather choose a trailer. You would not go on the specific type of trip that requires a van anyway. I edited my previous post from "you are not the type of person" to "you are not in the state of mind". After all, it doesn't define you as a person but rather, reflect your current expectations of life.
hbosch 8y ago
I’d like to introduce to the invention of marine toilets. They are small, portable, self-contained flushing toilets with a sealed waste chamber that is detachable and can be emptied (ideally into a permanent toilet). My in-laws have one on their boat that stores enough water for 27 “flushes” and it works great. 27 flushes is easily a weekend of waste management for a couple or small family, or could last a single person a week perhaps. This is the toilet in question: https://www.westmarine.com/buy/thetford--porta-potti-135-portable-marine-head--17959826?recordNum=1 https://www.westmarine.com/buy/thetford--porta-potti-135-por...
- drderidder 8y ago
  Yeah, I have one of those on my boat and they do work fine but you definitely can not wait 27 craploads to empty it out. Those "27 flushes" is how much the clean water tank can hold, not an indication of the waste tank capacity which is nowhere near 27 jobs. It's more of a daily thing - every time you dock if it's been used you gotta lug it down to the clubhouse, and emptying it is no fun either. For landlubbers a composting unit that separates solids and liquids would be way better for anything that you don't want to empty on an almost daily basis.
  - hbosch 8y ago
    To be more clear, I didn't say 27 craploads. I said 27 flushes. I would say most healthy people take ~1 crap per day. And, of course, this is one of the smaller and more compact marine toilets at West Marine. And of course, emptying a toilet is never going to be fun. But would you sell your boat just because you have to use a marine toilet while adift? No, it's a minor inconvenience that you deal with to enjoy the multitude reasons you have the boat in the first place (but, if you talk to my father in law, the joys of owning a 20 year old Boston Whaler get fewer every year!).
    - drderidder 8y ago
      Which is why it makes sense for a boat, but as for this article about van life, not so much.
tomaha 8y ago
You could try something like this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4rdkGUFzvfc https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4rdkGUFzvfc . It burns your waste and you'll have to empty the ash tray every 2+ weeks. It's more expensive initially but is also much more convenient.
- josefresco 8y ago
  From the comments it looks like it requires 1900 watts. Not van friendly, but maybe tiny house friendly assuming you have full electricity hookup. Of course as another YT commenter put it, this doesn't handle "grey water" - another element of tiny living that isn't ever discussed.
  - tomaha 8y ago
    Incinerating toilets also work with propane, which makes more sense for vans etc. I didn't check this specific one but they all work similar no matter what creates the heat.
mirimir 8y ago
Let's see. As a child, some family lived on a farm. No running water. No indoor plumbing. Coal stove. So you heated water for bathing on the stove. At night, and especially in the winter, you used a chamber pot. But hey, they had electricity! And a couple decades ago, living off the grid in the US, it was sometimes pretty much the same. One winter, I lived in a tipi. There was a communal outhouse. But hey, I did have a down bag. So whatever, any well-equipped van would have a composting toilet. And a solar-heated water tank, with a portable shower. Just like RV stuff, but on a smaller scale.
zer01 8y ago
I'm just coming off a 7 month stint in an RV myself, and you speak the truth, and it's clear you've actually done full time living on the road. Dealing with sewage is a huge pain in the ass - especially if you're in the northern regions during winter, finding a place to dump out can be a real nightmare (not to mention frozen tanks, etc). Another thing people don't really think about is cooking - you can do it, but as someone who enjoys cooking I ate like shit a lot of the time because it was more convenient not to have to worry about prep on a tiny counter, cooking on basically a single burner (I have 3, but if you use one it covers the other two ️), and then doing dishes by hand with hot water you need to wait for. Recently moving back into a house has made me appreciate a lot more of the little things like how I can just go jump in the shower real quick (and not bump my head while showering), easily get amazon packages, etc. Traveling was a whole lot of fun and definitely had its upsides, but it also has downsides a lot of people don't think about (or try to write off as not a big deal).
- peterlk 8y ago
  I spent most of last year travelling, and getting an apartment where I had hot water whenever I wanted was heavenly. You don't realize how convenient things are until you don't have them for a long period of time. A hot shower now is a daily recognition that life is good
  - donkeyd 8y ago
    Meanwhile, I experienced the opposite while doing a 3 week long camper trip. Showering for two minutes to save water, being mindful of the amount of stuff you can bring, being able to go anywhere I wanted was great. Sure, there were some annoyances, but I was kinda sad I had to get back to my stationary home.
driverdan 8y ago
I live in a bus I converted. I have an Airhead composting toilet with the urine diverted to my 42 gal waste water tank. I also have a 42 gal fresh water tank. Most RVs have small tanks making it hard to dry camp or boondock. I go 3-4 weeks before I need to refill my water and dump my waste. My composting toilet goes for months between emptying. It's not hard, time consuming, or a big deal.
- darreld 8y ago
  About your toilet; Does it smell at all? I've been interested for my travel trailer but the traditional RV community is very down on them. Seems like it would be more convenient than black tanks.
  - driverdan 8y ago
    It does not smell inside. It has a small vent fan that runs 24/7 that prevents odors and helps reduce the moisture content. Even when emptying it there isn't much of a smell. It's kind of earthy. I believe having a urine diverter like most commercial composting toilets have is a must. Urine will make it smell.
tonystubblebine 8y ago
I spent four months in a van this last summer with a proper black water tank. That makes the experience really easy. When I was in Arizona & Utah, I was mostly camping out in the wilderness. The rhythm I got into was to pay for an RV park about once a month for luxuries: an uncramped shower, laundry, easy access to empty my tanks. Technically, you can empty your tanks at many gas stations, but I enjoyed the full service amenities of the RV parks. When I was in a city, I almost always ended up camping at a Walmart and working from a coffee shop. So I used my tanks much less often.
embwbam 8y ago
I have many rock climbing friends who live in vans and tents the majority of the year. I’ve spent significant time crashing with them. Nobody shits in a bucket. You find a place that has toilets of some kind. For example, in Indian Creek, UT, people camp in vans on unimproved BLM land. There is no water. But there are toilets where the roads turn off toward the camping, about a mile away. Every morning, people have coffee, and do a toilet run as you get ready for the day. In an emergency you drive over to the toilet. People definitely do pee in jars, but usually you can just pee outside somewhere. It’s not all instagram models. The lifestyle does work. But you spend some of the year crashing with friends, staying in nicer camps with cabins, etc
rolph 8y ago
there are lots of places to dump "blackwater waste" but not letting it build up is an important habit. commercial campgrounds may let you dump for a small dump fee, but it can be more efficient to book a day in to clean up purge and tidy things. There is a technique called "cat holeing" find an out of the way place deposit the dumpling in a shallow hole 6-8 inches from the surface, include the topsoil and organic debris, and soil microbes decompose it quickly. Do this at least 200 feet from water for sanitary reasons and all is good for practical sense. There are ordinances of aesthetics regarding dumping, i very often include a few apple seeds in the hole, in the high probability there will be a well established tree for all to partake in, human and beast alike.
newnewpdro 8y ago
I don't believe the typical vanlife or tinyhome scenario is a family having such high-throughput septic, water, and food requirements. For an individual with a sane diet, altering their behavior slightly by using a simple urine-diverting waterless toilet with a bucket and whatever's convenient for dry cover material like a human-scale cat box sans urine is actually a very simple and effective solution to an individual's human waste problem. A gallon milk bottle holds multiple days worth of urine, tidily emptied where and when appropriate without any drama. In my experience you don't need that large of a container, one day capacity for urine is good enough and lighter to carry. The bucket stays dry, and is a waste disposal problem no different from a cat box. You can bury its contents in a field, or you can send it to the landfill in a bag, line the bucket with a bag like a cat box for greater convenience if you wish. In my experience a 5-gallon bucket used in this manner is good for a week. Keeping the urine and feces separate is key. A bucket containing just poop and dirt or sand/litter doesn't even have an odor and there's no splashing or other mess to worry about when handling it, it's dry. Cat boxes smell predominately of urine, by separating the urine and keeping your solids covered, the negative characteristics of a cat box are eliminated. The real challenge people embracing this lifestyle have to contend with is the judgement and ignorance of society. Don't expect the average American to come by for beers and be happy to poop in your glorified cat box. They very likely won't be coming back. Nor will your minimalist storage capacity accomodate a few beer-drinking guests; they're pissing outside. Women are often uncomfortable with anyone witnessing their menstrual waste in the urine container, and will want to wash residual blood down the diverter further increasing storage demands. It can be a very solitary life. But if you have a brain and some ability to adapt to the situation, sanitation is simply not a problem. It's just a minor inconvenience like having to clean a bathroom, plunge a toilet, or take out the trash is.
KurtMueller 8y ago
There are plenty of custom vans out there that have showers/toilets.
newcombinator 8y ago
san francisco people are used to shit everywhere, just shit on the street. like in india.

a3n 8y ago

> So you're in your van, parked at the beach, or a beautiful park and you gotta poop - what now? Well, if you're "parked," there's a good chance that there are restrooms. You can carry a portable toilet. Or a bucket and kitchen trash bags. I'm an over the road trucker, and in an "emergency" I have just closed the curtains, squatted down in the back and pooped into a 13 gal kitchen trash bag. Not at all comfortable, but workable in an emergency. Store the bag outside in the spare tire, until I get to a suitable dumpster/trash can. (And I doubt that my rare, once or twice a year "dump" compares at all to the daily disposal of diapers on the road and at home on garbage day.)

josefresco 8y ago
Yeah so I've done the "shit in a bucket" thing. When I was towing an enclosed trailer I converted to a "camper", our only bathroom was a bucket (with a toilet seat). This is not sustainable! This works in a pinch, it does not, and should not work full time. Dumping your poo in a kitchen trash bag in dumpsters doesn't work if everyone, or even "a lot" of people are doing it. Towns and the townspeople do not want van dwellers dumping their shit bags in local trash cans.
- shhehebehdh 8y ago
  I don’t think there is any danger of hordes of people starting to live in vans. Try not to let such concerns stress you out too much.
  - rexpop 8y ago
    Condescending speculation.
    - shhehebehdh 8y ago
      No, frustrated reaction to irrational “what if everyone did this!!!???” concern trolling.
      - rexpop 8y ago
        I read it as personal experience. There are such communities.
  - switchbak 8y ago
    Depends where you live. I can most certainly attest to the rising popularity of "vanlife", and the associated downsides of long term unmanaged camping/squatting. In my case there's a popular area for climbers on a fire road near a river close to me. Many of these folks just shit arbitrarily in the woods, and don't even bury it. It stinks, attracts animals, and makes it impossible to go on hikes. A friend's dog even ate some which had THC in it from someone who ate a marijuana edible. And let's not get started about the risk of forest fires in the dry season. There are some that are better about managing their waste and overall footprint, but there is an outsized impact from the less considerate. There are places where these concerns are real and are having actual and increasing impact. Dismissing these concerns is not helpful.

nicky0 8y ago

That's why you bring a small shovel.

fhbdukfrh 8y ago
If you're just burying your waste at the beach you making it worse than if you just left it lying there
- RankingMember 8y ago
  ...but also please don't leave it lying there, in case that needed to be said.
  - _eht 8y ago
    It definitely needed to be said, sadly.
switchbak 8y ago
That's fine if you're practicing "distributed camping", so that nature has a chance to process the poo. People often congregate at the same sites however, and it doesn't take long before that strategy starts to fail. And like others said - this doesn't work so well on a beach.

wjjdjw 8y ago

This is important. I sometimes go on vacation and sleep in the back of my car. Cosier than it sounds, but no van. The money I save I spend on dining in a restaurant. The stereotype of surfers who stay on the beach for weeks developed a system for that: They litter the beach, until it's all dirty. I was amazed how much "van life" suddenly comes back to normal camping except for the litter left behind.

bluGill 8y ago

RV toilets work well, thus flush into a tank with a cup of water. The tank will hold a few days worth of waste. If you know what to look for places to dump are all over. Camping websites often have lists. Many rest areas have a dump station. Camping/sporting stores will have a place to dump. Many cities sewage departments have a public dump... If you are not looking for a place to dump you won't see all this, but if you are looking there are plenty of places.

josefresco 8y ago
Have dumped plenty, and looked for dumping places... plenty. Not always easy to find. Luckily, our local campground allows us to dump for $15 which we do when returning from any "dry camping" exp. Calls to campgrounds in other cities/states didn't always produce the same result. Furthermore, the process of "dumping" requires proper plumbing from your shitter to the opening for dumping. You can't simply tip your bucket of shit into an open hole and expect it to go well. My point was that if you're living in a van, and shitting into a "glorified bucket" - dealing with your waste becomes a significant element of your day. This point is often glossed over in tiny home, or van articles. The focus is usually on the build, and not on the "living" part, which includes things like showers, dishes, poo etc.

sametmax 8y ago

If the question bothers you, you are just not in the state of mind for this experience, that's all. If you choose to travel in a van, you decided upfront that this type of life was worth the expected inconveniences, and even some unexpected ones. I lived in Mali for 2 years, didn't have hot water, sometime no running water at all. Electricity shut down regularly. I got Malaria. When the war arrived, I lost all my money, and my company. I had a great time there. E.G: I remember warmly about the generosity of a Malian family sharing with me their (disgusting) fish and rice diner in a dirty court, on the floor, all hands in the same big wooden bowl. On the other hand, a friend of mine recently had lunch with me, returning from hollidays in Cuba. She was horrified by the experience, seing only the totalitarian state and the poverty. She didn't have hot water, so she decided not to shower for the whole trip. She couldn't find a way to enjoy anything there. E.G: she felt so sad about the omelette a local made for her, thinking it was depressing he had so little, and yet felt obligated to share the few precious eggs he had. It's all about what experience you wish to have, what are the things you really value. There is no right answer for that of course, and yours is no better than mine. All that to say: the toilets are not really an issue. Just a constraint. EDIT: reading again my post, it felt a bit pretentious. I added more nuances in the following one.

josefresco 8y ago
I travel for 8 weeks every, single, year. I've shit in plenty of buckets, gone for many days without showering, I've tent camped, DIY trailer camped - shit gets old ... fast. The ability for you to enjoy your trip, your family and small moments is severely hampered when even the easiest things (going to the bathroom) become a chore. Sounds like you're young & single and looking for adventure. I have kids, have to work to support them and the novelty of crapping in a bucket, or in figuring how to wash my dishes with no running water isn't fun, or adventurous. We now have a modest travel trailer with full bathroom and kitchen. We can cook meals, poop in peace and always choose "full hookup" campgrounds. Dry camping is fun ... for like 3 days and then everyone gets smelly, grumpy and wants some comfort.
- sametmax 8y ago
  What you are saying is that the experience you want now differs. I wouldn't go back to live in Mali myself. I've done it. Enjoyed it. Now I like my life malaria and war free. My answer is not some romantic vision of the bohemian life style. Simply an explanation that the question of the toilets doesn't make sense: you don't look for vans if it's important to you. Like you said, you rather choose a trailer. You would not go on the specific type of trip that requires a van anyway. I edited my previous post from "you are not the type of person" to "you are not in the state of mind". After all, it doesn't define you as a person but rather, reflect your current expectations of life.

hbosch 8y ago

I’d like to introduce to the invention of marine toilets. They are small, portable, self-contained flushing toilets with a sealed waste chamber that is detachable and can be emptied (ideally into a permanent toilet). My in-laws have one on their boat that stores enough water for 27 “flushes” and it works great. 27 flushes is easily a weekend of waste management for a couple or small family, or could last a single person a week perhaps. This is the toilet in question: https://www.westmarine.com/buy/thetford--porta-potti-135-portable-marine-head--17959826?recordNum=1 https://www.westmarine.com/buy/thetford--porta-potti-135-por...

drderidder 8y ago
Yeah, I have one of those on my boat and they do work fine but you definitely can not wait 27 craploads to empty it out. Those "27 flushes" is how much the clean water tank can hold, not an indication of the waste tank capacity which is nowhere near 27 jobs. It's more of a daily thing - every time you dock if it's been used you gotta lug it down to the clubhouse, and emptying it is no fun either. For landlubbers a composting unit that separates solids and liquids would be way better for anything that you don't want to empty on an almost daily basis.
- hbosch 8y ago
  To be more clear, I didn't say 27 craploads. I said 27 flushes. I would say most healthy people take ~1 crap per day. And, of course, this is one of the smaller and more compact marine toilets at West Marine. And of course, emptying a toilet is never going to be fun. But would you sell your boat just because you have to use a marine toilet while adift? No, it's a minor inconvenience that you deal with to enjoy the multitude reasons you have the boat in the first place (but, if you talk to my father in law, the joys of owning a 20 year old Boston Whaler get fewer every year!).
  - drderidder 8y ago
    Which is why it makes sense for a boat, but as for this article about van life, not so much.

tomaha 8y ago

You could try something like this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4rdkGUFzvfc https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4rdkGUFzvfc . It burns your waste and you'll have to empty the ash tray every 2+ weeks. It's more expensive initially but is also much more convenient.

josefresco 8y ago
From the comments it looks like it requires 1900 watts. Not van friendly, but maybe tiny house friendly assuming you have full electricity hookup. Of course as another YT commenter put it, this doesn't handle "grey water" - another element of tiny living that isn't ever discussed.
- tomaha 8y ago
  Incinerating toilets also work with propane, which makes more sense for vans etc. I didn't check this specific one but they all work similar no matter what creates the heat.

mirimir 8y ago

Let's see. As a child, some family lived on a farm. No running water. No indoor plumbing. Coal stove. So you heated water for bathing on the stove. At night, and especially in the winter, you used a chamber pot. But hey, they had electricity! And a couple decades ago, living off the grid in the US, it was sometimes pretty much the same. One winter, I lived in a tipi. There was a communal outhouse. But hey, I did have a down bag. So whatever, any well-equipped van would have a composting toilet. And a solar-heated water tank, with a portable shower. Just like RV stuff, but on a smaller scale.

zer01 8y ago

I'm just coming off a 7 month stint in an RV myself, and you speak the truth, and it's clear you've actually done full time living on the road. Dealing with sewage is a huge pain in the ass - especially if you're in the northern regions during winter, finding a place to dump out can be a real nightmare (not to mention frozen tanks, etc). Another thing people don't really think about is cooking - you can do it, but as someone who enjoys cooking I ate like shit a lot of the time because it was more convenient not to have to worry about prep on a tiny counter, cooking on basically a single burner (I have 3, but if you use one it covers the other two ️), and then doing dishes by hand with hot water you need to wait for. Recently moving back into a house has made me appreciate a lot more of the little things like how I can just go jump in the shower real quick (and not bump my head while showering), easily get amazon packages, etc. Traveling was a whole lot of fun and definitely had its upsides, but it also has downsides a lot of people don't think about (or try to write off as not a big deal).

peterlk 8y ago
I spent most of last year travelling, and getting an apartment where I had hot water whenever I wanted was heavenly. You don't realize how convenient things are until you don't have them for a long period of time. A hot shower now is a daily recognition that life is good
- donkeyd 8y ago
  Meanwhile, I experienced the opposite while doing a 3 week long camper trip. Showering for two minutes to save water, being mindful of the amount of stuff you can bring, being able to go anywhere I wanted was great. Sure, there were some annoyances, but I was kinda sad I had to get back to my stationary home.

driverdan 8y ago

I live in a bus I converted. I have an Airhead composting toilet with the urine diverted to my 42 gal waste water tank. I also have a 42 gal fresh water tank. Most RVs have small tanks making it hard to dry camp or boondock. I go 3-4 weeks before I need to refill my water and dump my waste. My composting toilet goes for months between emptying. It's not hard, time consuming, or a big deal.

darreld 8y ago
About your toilet; Does it smell at all? I've been interested for my travel trailer but the traditional RV community is very down on them. Seems like it would be more convenient than black tanks.
- driverdan 8y ago
  It does not smell inside. It has a small vent fan that runs 24/7 that prevents odors and helps reduce the moisture content. Even when emptying it there isn't much of a smell. It's kind of earthy. I believe having a urine diverter like most commercial composting toilets have is a must. Urine will make it smell.

tonystubblebine 8y ago

I spent four months in a van this last summer with a proper black water tank. That makes the experience really easy. When I was in Arizona & Utah, I was mostly camping out in the wilderness. The rhythm I got into was to pay for an RV park about once a month for luxuries: an uncramped shower, laundry, easy access to empty my tanks. Technically, you can empty your tanks at many gas stations, but I enjoyed the full service amenities of the RV parks. When I was in a city, I almost always ended up camping at a Walmart and working from a coffee shop. So I used my tanks much less often.

embwbam 8y ago

I have many rock climbing friends who live in vans and tents the majority of the year. I’ve spent significant time crashing with them. Nobody shits in a bucket. You find a place that has toilets of some kind. For example, in Indian Creek, UT, people camp in vans on unimproved BLM land. There is no water. But there are toilets where the roads turn off toward the camping, about a mile away. Every morning, people have coffee, and do a toilet run as you get ready for the day. In an emergency you drive over to the toilet. People definitely do pee in jars, but usually you can just pee outside somewhere. It’s not all instagram models. The lifestyle does work. But you spend some of the year crashing with friends, staying in nicer camps with cabins, etc

rolph 8y ago

there are lots of places to dump "blackwater waste" but not letting it build up is an important habit. commercial campgrounds may let you dump for a small dump fee, but it can be more efficient to book a day in to clean up purge and tidy things. There is a technique called "cat holeing" find an out of the way place deposit the dumpling in a shallow hole 6-8 inches from the surface, include the topsoil and organic debris, and soil microbes decompose it quickly. Do this at least 200 feet from water for sanitary reasons and all is good for practical sense. There are ordinances of aesthetics regarding dumping, i very often include a few apple seeds in the hole, in the high probability there will be a well established tree for all to partake in, human and beast alike.

newnewpdro 8y ago

I don't believe the typical vanlife or tinyhome scenario is a family having such high-throughput septic, water, and food requirements. For an individual with a sane diet, altering their behavior slightly by using a simple urine-diverting waterless toilet with a bucket and whatever's convenient for dry cover material like a human-scale cat box sans urine is actually a very simple and effective solution to an individual's human waste problem. A gallon milk bottle holds multiple days worth of urine, tidily emptied where and when appropriate without any drama. In my experience you don't need that large of a container, one day capacity for urine is good enough and lighter to carry. The bucket stays dry, and is a waste disposal problem no different from a cat box. You can bury its contents in a field, or you can send it to the landfill in a bag, line the bucket with a bag like a cat box for greater convenience if you wish. In my experience a 5-gallon bucket used in this manner is good for a week. Keeping the urine and feces separate is key. A bucket containing just poop and dirt or sand/litter doesn't even have an odor and there's no splashing or other mess to worry about when handling it, it's dry. Cat boxes smell predominately of urine, by separating the urine and keeping your solids covered, the negative characteristics of a cat box are eliminated. The real challenge people embracing this lifestyle have to contend with is the judgement and ignorance of society. Don't expect the average American to come by for beers and be happy to poop in your glorified cat box. They very likely won't be coming back. Nor will your minimalist storage capacity accomodate a few beer-drinking guests; they're pissing outside. Women are often uncomfortable with anyone witnessing their menstrual waste in the urine container, and will want to wash residual blood down the diverter further increasing storage demands. It can be a very solitary life. But if you have a brain and some ability to adapt to the situation, sanitation is simply not a problem. It's just a minor inconvenience like having to clean a bathroom, plunge a toilet, or take out the trash is.

KurtMueller 8y ago

There are plenty of custom vans out there that have showers/toilets.

newcombinator 8y ago

san francisco people are used to shit everywhere, just shit on the street. like in india.