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Old 08-09-2020, 01:55 PM   #1
Firefighter1406
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Adding fresh water capacity

This is our first weekend with our new to is 26’ Cougar. Have quickly found out that 41 gallons of fresh water isn’t enough. I have a waste toter that works well but I just don’t have a good method to adding water. I have a couple 7 gallon jugs but that’s not ideal either. What have everybody used? I have looked into adding a second tank but an undecided.
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Old 08-09-2020, 02:09 PM   #2
sourdough
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First and foremost water conservation is mandatory. If went thru 41 gallons in a weekend I'm thinking you may want to review how you are using water...you're not at home with an unlimited supply. Short showers turning off the water while you are scrubbing, minimize water used to wash dishes and for anything else. If there are kids keep them out of the water or monitor their usage.

When I used to go deer hunting for a week we sometimes had to go through quite a bit of water. We used various types of containers from pulling a 500 gal. water buffalo on its own trailer to water jugs to water barrels and ended up using a fiberglass tank I bought at a farm store. On all of them used a portable 12v water pump we just cabled to a battery and pumped from the tank/containers into the trailer. There is no IDEAL solution as far as I know.
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Old 08-09-2020, 02:27 PM   #3
Carl n Susan
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40 gallon collapsible water bladder and a 12V pump from HF does the trick.
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Old 08-09-2020, 02:37 PM   #4
Firefighter1406
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Quote:
Originally Posted by sourdough View Post
First and foremost water conservation is mandatory. If went thru 41 gallons in a weekend I'm thinking you may want to review how you are using water...you're not at home with an unlimited supply. Short showers turning off the water while you are scrubbing, minimize water used to wash dishes and for anything else. If there are kids keep them out of the water or monitor their usage.
Couldn’t agree more. And try to do all of the above. There are 3 of us. I have thought about some type of bladder in the truck. That’s a good idea. Could use a hose to transfer as well if I couldn’t get the truck close enough. Give me an excuse to purchase the Milwaukee transfer pump. 😎
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Old 08-09-2020, 04:04 PM   #5
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I bought a spare water pump for the trailer and put hose connections on both ends for garden hose. Wired a pigtail to plug-in to the truck seven way plug and then have a 35 gallon plastic tank that fit in the back of the truck. Don’t use it much now with 110 gallons in toy hauler that will last us about 6-7 days. If we ever have a water pump failure on the road, I have a spare pump now.
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Old 08-09-2020, 04:45 PM   #6
GaryUT
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Firefighter1406 View Post
This is our first weekend with our new to is 26’ Cougar. Have quickly found out that 41 gallons of fresh water isn’t enough. I have a waste toter that works well but I just don’t have a good method to adding water. I have a couple 7 gallon jugs but that’s not ideal either. What have everybody used? I have looked into adding a second tank but an undecided.
Besides the conservation that the others mentioned, are you sure the tank was still full when you got to your campsite?

On our fifth wheel we were loosing 1/3 to 1/2 of the tank out the overflow/vent at the rear of the trailer. Since I started plugging the vent while traveling we arrive with a full tank. I also carry 2 5 gallon jugs in the bed of the truck.

Gary
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Old 08-09-2020, 05:48 PM   #7
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As far as I know everything is good and not leaking. I will have to pay attention. We are headed home in the am.
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Old 08-09-2020, 06:18 PM   #8
lunge motorsport
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Greetings
I am a boondocker and also am not satisfied with the 60 gallons available in my Cougar. I thought hard about this prior to my installation and decided on a new 34 gallon auxilliary tank that is installed below the kitchen sink with a new filling station identical to the original that is on the opposite side of the coach.

Originally I considered a completely separate tank, pump, switch, and check valve that would be tied in to the reinforced fresh water tubing after the original pump. But his seemed overly complex...then it came to me. In my coaches configuration the fresh water tank is in the rear and so is the kitchen. I purchased fittings to cut a tee into the pump suction line from the original underfloor tank and ran the new tubing in the back of the cabinetry to the new tank. The new tank is elevated about 3/4' so the poly line is slightly graded to the tee. What I didn't consider was that the pump would suck air when normally operated since the poly line was typically empty. I re configured the poly tubing and cut a new tee in at the poly vent tubing from the original tank eliminating the pump cavitation. So I have a completely passive system now. When my main tank gets to 1/3 volume I open the ball valve at the drain of the new tank and it fills the main tank by gravity in about 40 minutes. I now have 94 gallons of fresh water available for an extended stay.

Even with the 320lb or so additional weight on the rear of the coach I still weigh in far below the gvw of 10,300 listed on the data plate. Also, when I replaced the horribly inadequate axles, brakes, tires and wheels I relocated the axles rearward to account for the additional weight at the rear and I am now about 100lb over the original pin weight and at around 18%.

I probably wouldn't advise this as a blanket solution but in my case the numbers all worked out and the beauty is in its simplicity.
Cheers
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Old 09-04-2020, 06:11 AM   #9
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Another thought that I've learned the hard way is make sure you are actually filling up your tank. My tank vent is really crappy, and so even if I slowly trickle water into it the vent will start gurgling and spraying water out before the tank is full. I bought one of these water flow meters for this exact purpose. I was blow away by how long it take me to ACTUALLY get 43 gal of water into my fresh tank. Lots of stopping, letting the water settle down and then slowly topping it off.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0...?ie=UTF8&psc=1

I estimate that I'm getting almost 10 additional gallons in there now that I know how much I'm putting in. Its made the long weekends much easier to get through.
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Old 09-06-2020, 05:10 PM   #10
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I’m in the same boat. Me and my three girls. Wife works weekends unfortunately.

Anyways depending on what we are doing we run out as well on a simple weekend trip. Even with being super conservative on water. Paper plates when we eat to reduce the need to wash dishes, I’m the only one that takes a daily shower, etc.

But kids need rinsed off from the lake, Mac and cheese as the lunch of choice, etc.

I fill the tank as the campsite so I bought a 6 gal jug. Fill it when we pull in, add it to the tank the next morning and then every time we have to drive past the fresh water spigot I stop and refill. We tend to use 60-70 gallons.

I’ve thought about adding another 40 gal tank and just putting a hose between the two to act as an equalizer but what I’m doing now is less work. Lol. Plus I’ve only had to use the tank twice this year out of 7 trips.
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Old 09-08-2020, 03:34 PM   #11
cjm
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I bought one of these

https://www.campingworld.com/portabl...ks-accessories

Works great for those times that a refill is needed!
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Old 09-08-2020, 04:02 PM   #12
BrooksFam
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Although we haven't boondocked much or for a long term, besides the above mentioned conserving practices, we take bottled water for drinking, cooking, coffee, teeth brushing and the like. Only use tank water for dishes, showers/bathroom and hand washing in general.
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Old 09-09-2020, 03:49 AM   #13
notanlines
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I am assuming that each of you are teaching your offspring good conservation habits by trucking out EVERYTHING you trucked in? Let me hear please how each of you solved the problem of putting 200 marbles in a 100 marble bag...
Not one of you explained to us how you expanded your grey tank capabilities.
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Old 09-09-2020, 05:30 AM   #14
Brantlyj
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I am assuming that each of you are teaching your offspring good conservation habits by trucking out EVERYTHING you trucked in? Let me hear please how each of you solved the problem of putting 200 marbles in a 100 marble bag...
Not one of you explained to us how you expanded your grey tank capabilities.
I have yet to see a camper that didn’t have roughly double the waste water holding capacity than fresh. 🙄. Mine has triple.

Beside, not all of the fresh water goes down the drain.
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Old 09-09-2020, 06:09 AM   #15
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Originally Posted by notanlines View Post
I am assuming that each of you are teaching your offspring good conservation habits by trucking out EVERYTHING you trucked in? Let me hear please how each of you solved the problem of putting 200 marbles in a 100 marble bag...
Not one of you explained to us how you expanded your grey tank capabilities.
Easy explanation for that - we're putting 100 marbles into a 150 bag. Our Raptor has 110 fresh water capacity and 164 waste capacity. The last 3 of our rigs have been set up with waste capacity that far exceeds fresh capacity, as pointed out by Brant. He's also right that not all fresh water goes down the drain (hard to catch that water from the outside hose).

Not sure if you were serious about the "everything you trucked in" comment, but that is often not the case:
  • We commonly will use the campground facilities and make no attempt to capture this waste.
  • We dispose of trash in approved local trash collection points rather than hauling it home.
  • We burn a lot of fuel (truck, side x side, generator, etc.) and make no attempt to capture the exhaust gasses.
  • I suspect you were making an off-hand reference to the subject of disposal of gray water on the ground while boon docking? If so, yes, we also do that when it is both safe and legal. See the reference that follows.
https://www.rvtravel.com/more-on-the...the-gray-tank/

There's lots of information available on this subject with a simple internet search. We try very hard to be environmentally responsible campers, but we commonly do NOT haul EVERYTHING home that we brought on the trip. We DO try to leave EVERY campsite clean and improved after we use it.

Thanks for asking,
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Old 09-16-2020, 05:49 PM   #16
Firefighter1406
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I agree we have a 41 gallon fresh water tank and a 28 gallon black tank and a 56 gallon grey tank. I carry a 35L toter tank that I truck down to the on-site dump faculties.

But back to the fresh water dilemma, this is what I have done so far to expand my capacities. I bought 2 more water jugs so I have 28 gallons on reserve. I fill them up on the way in to the camp ground and when the water pump starts chugging I go pump them in. I bought the Milwaukee M18 transfer pump to do the job. Worked very smoothly. Takes 4 min to pump the 28 gallons in. Has worked well for the last two trips. I fill the water jugs up next time I drive by water supply.

Not for everyone but I figured I would share at has worked for me so far.
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Old 09-17-2020, 01:15 PM   #17
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I have one of those jugs, and 2 of the collapsible 5 gallon jugs for 17 gallons extra. I also have a 28 gallon waste tote if needed for gray and black. For a pump, I use a reconditioned RV water pump that I replaced due to a bad pressure switch. Prior to that I used a DIY gravity feed hose from the blue tank to gravity fill the water tank.
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Old 09-17-2020, 01:20 PM   #18
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I have a 60 gallon fresh tank, (2) 52 Gallon gray tanks, (1) 30 gallon gray, and (1) 52 gallon black tank. So I can refill twice. I am good.
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