# 1981 Ford Scamper holding tanks



## zoekool (Aug 10, 2011)

I'm very green at RVing so please forgive me in advance. I recently purchased a 1981 Ford Scamper to get my feet wet. I see that there are 2 holding tanks. 1 is empty, that's for the toilet, back sink and I think the shower. I figured out how to empty that one but the one for the front sink marked Holding tank 2 is full and I can't for the life of me find away to empty that. 

If you can help me I would be forever grateful.


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## JoeS (Jun 1, 2011)

is the front one supposed to be for Fresh water I think. 1 tank is for freshwater and another is for dirty water. I have yet to own a rv I still just use a tent , but seems like thats what it would be used for.


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## zoekool (Aug 10, 2011)

Yes that is correct, the second holding tank is for graywater and it is full and I need to know how to empty it. I looked all over underneath to see how to empty it with no luck.


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## artmart (Sep 21, 2010)

Maybe it empties out the side. Have you looked behind every door and the underside at the edges?

I have helped many people find their drains even to the point some didn't even know they had drains, but more times than not I have to be there to figure it out. There is no standard, even though they are getting better at it, and early trailers could be pretty creative on how they did this.

Worse case, you might have to open up the walls to see where the plumbing goes and where it drains. Not pretty, but it's what you gotta do if you don't have the manual or don't know.

One thing about trailers is that they do teach how you to be a little more handy. Sure you could call someone for help, but if you think plumber's make expensive house calls wait until you call someone that specializes in RVs. If you want to be rich but not study too hard and long become a plumber. And if you want to be even richer than that, own an RV business!


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## zoekool (Aug 10, 2011)

I've looked everywhere and I guess I keep looking. There has to be a way. Thank you for your help.


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## artmart (Sep 21, 2010)

LOL, my only help was for you to take the rig apart to figure it out. I appreciate your sentiments but I imagine there's a little frustration mixed in. I hope you post what you eventually find out.


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## dogbone (Sep 22, 2009)

JoeS, touched on it, could it possibly be a fresh water, drinking water, holding tank. There would be no t handle for this, just a small valve on a 1/2 in. line, under the trailer or in a cabinet. Just to drain the tank.
I don't know why it would be full though.
Is the trailer one of those 12' or 15' travel trailers or pop up? I found a few scamper trailers out there, in my browsing.


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## zoekool (Aug 10, 2011)

Thank you all for your help and advice. I decided to trace the pipe from the kitchen sink to see where it went. I noticed a little hatch at the back under beside the tub. I opened it and lo and behold there was another pull handle. I pulled it open and all of the water from the sink line drained and lots of water came out !! 

Stand-by for more questions! :rotflmao1:


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## artmart (Sep 21, 2010)

Well I hope you didn't just dump it on to the ground. In some states that's illegal even if it's only dishwater. At least once might be okay cuz you didn't know any better. Find out the capacity then get some kind of container to dump this into in order to dispose of properly.

Congrats on figuring this out. Now you need to find out how the get the effluent to where it's supposed to go. I hope it didn't have black water, too!


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## zoekool (Aug 10, 2011)

The previous owner emptied it out correctly and I just filled it up with regular water to see how it all worked. It's all good!


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## artmart (Sep 21, 2010)

Ah... cool.

So what does the RV drain look like? It sounds like it has a standard 1" hose fitting. As part of the setup you probably want to connect a drain hose into an "RV Tote" (with an adapter?), then you wheel this over to a dump station for dumping. This makes thing clean and neat and other campers will appreciate your consideration. You'll need a tote a little larger than the Skamper's tank so you don't have overfill problems. If you have more questions on this just post them.


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