Toilet Solution for LONG TERM Overlanding trips

[Joe917]

A standard bag of peat moss is 2 cu ft and lasts a year for us. You just need to carry enough for your trip, it is much lighter than water! Peat moss or coconut fiber can be found worldwide anywhere people have gardens.

 

[DiploStrat]

...
Joe, diplostrat, I'm pretty sure you've both traveled internationally with your rigs. I'm wondering how easy/difficult it was to shop for peat moss or coconut fiber or whatever it is that you use in the head while in other counties and staying out of major cities?

I like the idea of the composter and the separated pee collection, I'm just trying to come to terms with the size and understand just how much peat moss or whatever I would also need to be carrying around. We didn't use or previous toilets much, but if we found an easy, clean solution, I could see using it more often. ...

Sadly, never took the Nature's Head overseas. But, as that was always the plan, I did a lot of tests with a range of materials - Nature's Head even shipped me a paper product to try. We panicked at one point when we heard rumors that many EU countries had banned peat moss.

Once you realize that the goal is to break up the material so that it drys faster, you realize that you can use just about anything and you don't need a lot - you are not burying things.

Peat moss has the advantage of a dark color to disguise things, but this is not a big issue for us as we don't spend a lot of time staring into the toilet. (OK, we do check to make sure things are drying nicely ...)

We have used hamster/rabbit bedding, horse straw, and shredded paper from the office. All will work - you just want something to hold the initial moisture. As the fecal matter dries, it should tumble like garden dirt. Really. You can also use a mixture - 50% peat moss as it is dark and covers quickly and paper shred or straw as it is cheap and available.

There are some folks who use these things with nothing at all.

As Joe noted (listen to the folks who actually use one of these things), you don't need vast quantities. Peat moss, in particular, is sold compressed - the hardest job will be getting it expanded. Generally add almost a liter of water.

The point is that it is easy to pick up months worth of material and you are still probably talking about less than a cubic foot of light material. Throw it in the roof rack until needed.

 

[Garbinator]

I have been trying to find a toilet solution for long term overlanding.

My wife and I spent 17 months traveling through Mexico and Central America. During this trip we mostly dug holes or used provided toilets (despite whatever condition they were in) We also carried a Luggable Loo bucket/bag toilet. We weren't big fans of pooing in a plastic bag and leaving it in the local trash pile, so we didn't use it much. We did, however find ourselves in situations where we wanted to camp, but facilities were not offered and digging holes was not an option.

We tried a chemical toilet with a design similar to this http://www.nrs.com/product/73050.02/eco-safe-toilet-system during a 2 month Baja trip, but were not impressed with the detachable "bowel" design nor the difficulty of cleaning the separate parts when a dump-station and ample fresh water are not available.

I am currently thinking that a chemtoilet similar to the one mentioned above, but with a simpler design for use away from dump stations would be our best bet, but I haven't found one yet.

Any suggestions?

Peat Moss?

As in a small bag? Would that be considered agriculture products during border crossing? Something to think about.

 

[Traveling 2gether Journal]

Thanks for the input everyone. I feel like I have a good plan A&B. I will consider the natures head as I try to design the layout of our next camper, but if I can't figure a way to make it fit. I'll be designing my own chem toilet, probably with an ammo box as the base/holding tank.

 

[Dmoranz]

Overland toilet option

Have you looked at the Wrappon toilet system ? Design from Japan.
Sealed bag with gelatin powder added with each use.
12 volt required
Pricy $800.
Lots of moving parts.
Requires proprietary plastic sleeve.( $48.00 @Cabalas) good for 50 uses.
Has a USA distributer located in Colorado.

Can Google for info

 

[Traveling 2gether Journal]

Thats seems like a really complicated, expensive way of pooing in a plastic bag.
I guess if you really hate the sight of your own poo, maybe its worth it to ya?

 

[DiploStrat]

Anecdotal Tale

...
The Advantage of a composting toilet is not the compost. It is waste handling that is clean, does not smell, compacts the waste(as it breaks down) and uses no water. Only requires dumping every 3-5 weeks (2 people full time) if used correctly.
I sound like a composting toilet salesman! Changing from a flushing toilet to a composter is one of the best things we have done to our truck.

Sigh! Was reminded today that the procedures of a composting toilet are NOT those of a cassette! (Or a black tank, for that matter.)

Returned from a trip on Saturday. Did not immediately dump the cassette. When I went out to the truck today there was a slight, shall we say, aroma in the air! Cassette cannot be left full! It needs to be dumped immediately and refilled with water for storage. You do NOT want to let material dry in there; it is a bear to get out. (Yes, we bought our camper used and learned this the hard way.)

The composting toilet, on the other hand, is just the opposite. At the end of a trip you pull out the urine bucket, dump, and refill with water so that salts don't collect. But you leave the feces bucket as long as possible - the longer it sits, the more benign the contents.

Oh well, we learned that lesson! ;-)

 

[Factoid]

Have you looked at the Wrappon toilet system ? Design from Japan.
Sealed bag with gelatin powder added with each use.
12 volt required
Pricy $800.
Lots of moving parts.
Requires proprietary plastic sleeve.( $48.00 @Cabalas) good for 50 uses.
Has a USA distributer located in Colorado.

Can Google for info

That must be the one the Martian had. All poo nicely wrapped up in air tight bags. However, he preferred a composter so he cut them all up and mixed them with soil to make compost. Apparently, that's another vote for a composting toilet. I think I'm convinced.

 

[roving1]

Strange question. What would be the best system in terms of storage footprint but not necessarily use? I want something to be compliant for short use in pack out only locations or emergencies. But honestly I think all I would really do is pee in a bottle and dump in a non-sensitive area later and just not go#2 lol. I don't plan on staying long term in pack out areas I usually do BLM land type of stuff so the toilet would mainly be to prove compliance to John Q Ranger.

 

[thefishhawk]

Pett toilet comes to mind

 

[Fireman78]

There are a few instances where the PETT system placed directly over a nice hole in the ground works pretty sweet.


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[mep1811]

No PETT system ? You either bury it or put it in the trash

 

[bearman512]

Please don't flame me but for years I have used a good old fashioned 5 gal bucket Lug-able Loo and kitty litter. Easy to double bag and carry out to your local trash dumpster. We currently use the PETT system sprinkle 1 cup of biodegradable kitty litter over each bombing mission. If in the wilderness and able to dig a hole then this is what we do.

 

[Coachgeo]

My plan is similar to compost toilet....... married with a incinerator. Simple start with a separating urine/ liquid from solids top into say a pipe that feeds material into a 1/2 gal? paint can. Paper and other ground up material put in first..... take care of business...... . More paper with a prod to push it into can. Pull can out from below...... install top which has a pin hole in top to release moisture. Can gets stacked onto others in a PVC pipe that sealed and ventilated at top similar to compost set up's vent. So that is the compost side of it.

Now..... once week or so...... nice camp fire outside..... throw cans in the fire, methane gas etc burns out of the little hole.... and helps fire stay lit etc. after cooking......... result is BIO-CHARCOAL is dumped from the cans.. Eventually build a retort/ smelter that uses the BioChar from previous batch...... as the fuel source to burn for next batch. Then later something else besides the can's. Maybe use exhuast to drive off moisture? The solid matter.... instead drops into an iron kettle just as if it was a compost 5'gal bucket. Then just bio-char cook it in the kettle??

Urine.... supposedly is a good product to make HHO out of. No catalyst needed. Electrolysis of it takes less volts than typical HHO cause the catalyst is so good. Use it to improve fuel mileage?....... or via solar panel to create the elec. for electrolysis cook with the hydrogen?

 

[Hilldweller]

We do a lot of close work with Georgia Tech here at the lab.
I think it would be worthwhile contacting Jasmine:
http://www.wishforwash.org/
http://www.news.gatech.edu/features/solving-global-crisis


Maybe if we all put our heads together with these young folks we can come up with a better overlanding solution?