ThePewterPalace Our Love Affair with Avions

Depending on what year of Avion (or other vintage camper) you have, you may or may not have any tanks for holding fresh water (drinking and for use at sinks, etc.) grey water (drains from sink and tub water) or black water (toilet) tanks. Pre-early 70’s tanks were very limited, some had only one that everything went into (and dumped out of). I am not super researched on very early models of Avions but they may not have had any tanks at all and some vintage campers had literally a tube that ran from the sink drain through the floor to allow water to drain onto the ground—THAT was true camping!

Our 1973 Avion, 28foot- had three tanks (fresh, grey and black). Our current and hopefully final Avion, our 1987 32S model also has the same three tanks. Typically these tanks are located right around the axels of the rig or immediately behind the axel and can be seen if the aluminum belly pan underneath the trailer are removed (big job, dont do unless you have to for repairs, etc.) or are removing rotten flooring and doing a major restoration job.

IMPORTANT FOR “REMODELERS”! The weight of water in these tanks makes it necessary to place them over the axel area for maximum support. Extreme care should be taken if you think you may wish to ever relocate a tank.

***** I say “typically located” because, these are all vintage vehicles that have had multiple owners and somewhere along the way any one of those people could have removed or relocated one or more tanks.

TIP: when purchasing an Avion, ask the current owner where the tanks are, do some of your own looking around to ensure they are there! Some buyers have been told there are tanks, when in fact….the tank was gone. Tanks can be very difficult to repair, find replacements for, etc. and posting on one of the Avion Facebook pages will be your best source if necessary. We have a link below to our source for our new black tank which fit perfectly in our 1987 Avion! The company has dozens of sizes and various dimension configurations for tanks!

Grey Tank Maintenance:

While the grey tank is only used to hold dishwater, bathroom sink water and tub/shower water- that does not mean it does not need treatment and some TLC now and then. Actually grey water can smell just as bad as black water!

IN THE KITCHEN: I recommend using the original blue DAWN liquid dish detergent for dishwashing. If it cuts grease off of ducks caught in an oil spill it surely will do a great job on your dishes BUT also I would think it would also help to minimize any building up of grease in your grey tank too. Below is our actual kitchen sink elbow when we cleaned our pipes for the first time after purchasing our Avion. Check out that grease build up over ??years??

Here are some tips on efficient and good dishwashing practices:

• Minimize any food particles doing down the drain. Use a really good drain strainer either the mesh type or one with very small holes. (The traditional household types with slots do NOT do the trick!) Wipe off all food, etc. debris from plates, etc. before washing by using a paper towel and putting that in the trash.
• Wash pots and pans LAST. Using a paper towel, or paper napkin you used for your lap, wipe out all pots and pans BEFORE washing them to remove as much grease, gravies, and food particles as possible.
• Again, Use a small strainer drain basket to avoid food particles down the drain. Mesh ones are OK, or ones with very small holes. Check out more valuable tips Here!
• Run your really hot water to allow that to really go through your pipes now and again.
• Check out our article on removing GUNK from your kitchen drain pipes
• We also put a dose ( about 1 oz) of our Liquified brand Black Tank Treatment or Liquified brand Grey tank solution down all of our drains at least monthly (more in very hot weather).

HYGIENE ROUTINE for GREY TANKS

You would think that since only really soap from bathroom and kitchen are going down the drain that the grey tank would be pretty sweet smelling. It is NOT.

Invariably gunk goes down the drain and after a time the grey tank will smell. There is no such thing as a completely drained holding tank.

–DUMPING ANGLES DO MATTER! we had this issue when camping a few years back— where we knew our black was not nearly full, but our grey evidently had not drained sufficiently at our last dump due to an uphill dump station and so after 2 days use, our grey was full (never trust  your light up sensor panel!) and had begun to overflow at the juncture of the pipe into top of tank (had not been sealed correctly either from some owner prior to us). The smell was not constant and not as bad as black tank…but it definitely was there! Try to always have your trailer higher than the dump station pipe.

TIP: IF YOUR GREY TANK IS DIRECTLY UNDER YOUR SHOWER/BATH TUB (like our 1973 was) you will see grey water backup very quickly if you have overfilled! For this reason we always kept one of those Rubbermaid plastic coated plate racks (used inside kitchen cabinets) on the bottom of our tub so anything stored in our tub (like our fans, laundry basket) would not get wet.

REMEDY for this…

1. Kevin now installs a digital water meter similar to this one, inline on our infill street water hose along with our 2 stages of filtering. This way, he always knows how many total gallons of water we have used (this would be in sinks, shower, and toilet).

2. Luise has created a cute “bead abacus ” of sorts using a wire with beads on it that sits on the wall in the kitchen near the sink. She slides one bead from left to right whenever she dumps her 3.5 gallon dish pan down the drain.  No more guess work!! Another way, prior to the abacus, was to use small clips and rotate them from spot on my curtain valance over the sink to another spot on the valance.

Draining your grey tank:

1. We DO NOT recommend keeping your sewer hose hooked up and grey tank valve open all the time. The sewer hose lifespan is decreased significantly, you are more prone to holes or tears, and also for sewer flies to lay eggs in the hose…and then get into your tank(s). If you feel you must keep it hooked up be sure to put a good “P” trap elbow in the hose and keep water in that area at all times to prevent sewer smell back up into your rig and flies out!
2. Be sure your grey tank is at least half to full to allow for good “schwoosh pressure” before dumping your tanks. This goes for black tanks too!

Need Black Tank Help? we have had to repair our original tank, but that costly repair failed after only 6 months. So, ultimately, we had to replace the black tank completely. Here is a link to our project with that. It includes valuable tips on how to install, insulate, and support holding tanks.  Black tank woes!

WHERE TO FIND REPLACEMENT HOLDING TANKS FOR YOUR AVION OR ANY RV OF ANY AGE? We have found Pelland Enterprises to be the best source. It is where we found and ordered our new replacement black tank in 2022. They were excellent to work with and have the tanks built by Inca Plastics in CA. You may be able to go direct through Inca Plastics. Here is the link for Pelland Enterprises holding tanks– you can search by gallon size and then drill down to hundreds of configurations of sizes with inch measurements (you will need to know all your measurements first including where your round pipe openings are, etc.). (PS- they have a lot of vintage trailer goodies like Hehr windows, window trims, etc. )

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Happy travels!

Kevin, Luise &  Nutmeg

The Pewter Palace