Dumping at Flying J

Today I did something new. I dumped my tanks at the Flying J.  Normally I dump at the last campground we stay at before we go home.  On our last trip it was rather wet and I did not want to mess with the tanks standing in a puddle.  The tanks were pretty empty so I would just do it later.   Unfortunately, the "stank in the tank" came and needed to be taken care of.

From my house there is a Flying J about 10 miles away.  The nearest "free" dump site is 20 miles away at a county park.  Another one is 50 miles away.  In the interest of time, I decided to use the Flying J.  I looked it up on their web site, https://pilotflyingj.com/rv-services/ to verify they had dump facilities and I was off.

It was actually pretty easy though not cheap.   First you find the dump station.  In the case of our Flying J it was next to the RV fueling stations.  Then you go in and pay.  The standard price is $10.00.  With my Good Sam Card I got a discount and the price was $7.50.   With the Flying J RV Plus Card it would have been $5.00.

Your receipt has a code on it and you go back and get to work.  The area that the sani-station was located at was nice, dry and clean.  A contained concrete pad with a drain in case anything escaped.

There is a keypad next to the dump station.  When you enter your code the cover to the septic unlocks.  There are some big signs telling you to get everything ready before you enter your code since you have 60 seconds to open the cover before it locks again.

The system worked out pretty well.  I got my RhinoFLEX hose out and connected the Fuse end.   I laid it out where I needed it to go.   Then I entered the code, the cover unlocked, I opened it and put the elbow into the hole and went through the standard process. Luckily, no leaks.

The process went well but the implementation at this particular Flying J was not great.  There is a containment curb around the hole.  Really nice but the Fuse is low enough that there was only about an inch of drop from the Fuse to the hole.  Not much assist from gravity and I had to help coax the "stinky stuff" down the hose.  Picking the hose up in the middle and giving the nasty stuff inside a roller coaster ride.  Every other time I have dumped we had a good foot of drop and everything flowed nicely.

They had plenty of water available and I used my expandable utility hose (not the drinking water hose) to flush the black tank and wash up the sewer hose and sani-station area.  I put up everything  and then I was on my way.  

Today it was worth the price.  I needed to get rid of the stank.  The Flying J was reasonably close and I accomplished the mission.  On the other hand, it is a $7.50 lesson to not be lazy and dump before you go home.