Thetford 40510 Smart Portable Waste Tote Tank with 4 Wheels - 18 Gallon RV Holding Tank for Camping & Travel | Durable Waste Storage Solution for RVs, Trailers & Boats

We bought this tank to use with the outside kitchen I set up with our pop up camper. We do not have a bathroom, so all we need it for is gray water. Our camper is older, and the drainage system is the wrong size to work with the tank; so we just put a funnel into the hose and pour the water in. A kitchen strainer in the funnel helps keep larger pieces out, and we dispose of those in our trash. This system works very well, and it has solved the problem of what to do with gray water in a rustic campground or semi-modern campground without sewer hook-up as long as there is somewhere to go to dump the water. People using a tent could do the same thing.We bought the 27 gallon tank figuring we would not have to empty it for about a week. That was pretty accurate for a trip with 5 of us. The tank is pretty big, though, and it takes up a lot of room when we are traveling.The tank is well made, and it pulls easily by hand. As some other reviewers said, though, it gets pretty heavy when full, and it was easier to empty it when partially full. The rustic campground we often stay at is over a mile down a state highway from a dump station, so travelling at 5 mph to pull it by car to the dump station was not an option. Instead we lifted it into the back of our SUV and transported it that way. No spills. No mess. No smells. As long as we made sure to empty it while it was still light enough for two people to lift it, this worked just fine.The tank is easy to use, and having the main hose swivel up to be filled and then swivel down to empty the tank works very well. It was easy to rinse out the tank using the hose provided, and it attaches neatly to the top of the tank for transport. I agree with other reviewers that it would be helpful to have the cap attached so it won't be as easy to lose, and the little strap that crosses it during transport probably will eventually break but be easily replaces with some twine. The tank is all but perfect for our use. The only reason I did not rate it 5 stars is that so far we have not been able to get it to empty completely at the dump station.ADDITIONAL COMMENTS 2 YEARS LATER. We now own a small travel trailer with gray and black water tanks, so we use the 27 gallon tote to empty the waste tanks as it was designed to do. Transporting a tote this size inside our previous pop-up trailer was always an issue, and we were delighted to discover that the empty 27 gallon tote can easily be strapped onto the bumper of our new trailer tor transport rather than having to try to fit it into the trailer. However, as other reviewers have stated, the strap that holds the hose cap on is flimsy, and on our very first trip while traveling down the road, even though we made sure the tote was protected from the wind and there was no stress on the strap, the strap came completely off and so did the cap. Both were lost who knows where, and we were shocked to find out that a replacement cap costs around $15 and that shipping runs from $10 - $15. Since we have read other complaints about this cap coming off, we think Thetford needs to come up with a better system for securing the hose cap to the tote! Until then, we will now be making sure the tote is completely empty then removing the cap and storing it safely away before traveling down the road with the tote strapped to the trailer bumper again.A couple notes about pulling the tote with a car. (1) The tote handle will not fit over a ball larger than 2 inches, so if your trailer requires a ball larger than that, you will have to change to a smaller ball to pull the tote. (2) If you use a hitch where the ball is dropped below the level of the receiver on the car, you need to make sure that there is enough space between the ball and the hitch for the top of the handle to fit down over the ball. Our previous trailer used a drop hitch, and the handle didn't fit into the space. Both of these problems can be solved just by switching the ball to a 2 inch or using a straight or raised hitch when you want to tow the tote, but it is kind of a pain to have to switch. You want to be sure your car will pull the tote before filling it, because a completely full 27 gallon tote can be pretty heavy to pull by hand!A completely full 27 gallon tank weighs about 230 lbs while a completely full 18 gallon tank weighs about 155 lbs. We found that we usually empty the 27 gallon before it gets too heavy to pull easily. Even though the 27 gallon tote is designed to be towed when completely full, 230 lbs is a lot of weight to pull over uneven campground roads on those small tote wheels fastened to the tote with just a metal plate. Even though the 27 gallon tote is almost the same size as the 30 gallon waste tanks on our trailer, it might have been better for us to buy the 18 gallon tote and just empty it more often. The 18 gallon tote would also have been smaller to transport.I bought this product a year ago to use at my house. I have water and electric hookups for guests, but the septic tank is way on the other side of the property. It has sat unused in my garage because I was keeping it as sort of a last resort. I didn't want to get it dirty, and I wasn't very confident that I could transport to poo stew without spilling it everywhere, etc., plus I was worried about the weight trying pull it. Also I was a little bothered with the idea of trying all this out on someone else's waste - the thought of it kept me finding excuses not to use it. Today I finally used it and it was awesome. I was amazed at how seamless the "stuff" went from the trailer to the portable tank. I am guessing that it was about 3/4 full, and I was surprised that I was able to pull it myself through the grass right up to the septic tank. I thought I was going to need my lawnmower to pull it, but I was wrong. Even at full capacity I bet I could pull it through the grass. I did need to raise up the tank about 8 inches off the ground to be able to let it flow down into the septic tank at my house. This is because my hookup sticks out of the ground pretty high. I was able to acomplish this easily with a pallet and some plywood I had laying around. I simply made a ramp from the plywood right up the top of the pallet and had placed another piece of plywood on top of the plywood for the tank to sit on. It worked perfectly. I rolled it up surprisingly easily. After emptying the contents I hooked up the little hose flush, which I love, and gave it a quick rinse. Then I put it all away - Done. Easy peasy. Very impressed!!! Very seamless. Hardly any smell, no mess. Simple. One final note - I had visions of storing this tank clean and dry after each use, but I don't think this will be the case. Now that it is dirty, I think it will just remain tightly closed until the next time I need to use it, just like the black water tank on my camper. Because the whole process was so seamless it doesn't really bother me to leave it all sealed up until the next use. Now that I have had a wonderful experience I will not wait so long to use it again. In fact I can't wait to have a guest over to show them how to use it. Haha.Works just as described. I need to get the 90 degree turn down for camping dump stations. I saw it that others users purchased and I should have. The station where I am at will accept it with the connection it comes with but not all will, so spend the money and get the 90 degree adapter and you can use it anywhere. Dumped gray and waste water with no problems so far. No leaks and no mess. I did not get any waste out of the vent tube. Pulls nice and rolls great. Should have made this investment 6 years ago! The directions lead one to believe if you do not hold the dump hose just right it will make a mess. It was no big deal at all. The hide away hose worked awesome. Trouble free and I would recommend it to any one look for a waste tote. Spend the money and stay away from the blue ones you see every one using. Place on level ground to full and up hill to dump it is a breeze! I thought I had 40 gallon tanks but it held both gray water and waste water. One trip for each with room to spare. I would have liked to see if the over flow valve worked but hey if I didn't need it then that was a bonus! Two people asked to bower it and I charged $25 each so part of it is paid for and they are going to get the same thing. Spend the money and get the big one so you have plenty of room!This is one of the BEST purchases for our trailer that we ever made.The top cap pops off.