Dry Camping Water Replinishment

[bexparza]

When dry camping how do you refill your water tank without moving the trailer? Are there any special portable water tanks you can haul water in? Any special hose attachments to use between container and trailer inlet? Have seen a water bladder advertised for this purpose but was wondering about other ideas.

[jkohler70]

I have a Hopkins 7 gallon water can. It's a hassle, but 4 trips fills my 30 gallon tank. It has a long spout and two handles. It's the only one I could find that was portable and light enough to manage alone.

[BOWWOW]

I have used a 55 gallon food grade drum in the bed of my truck for extended stays. Pumping it with a 12v or 120 v transfer pump. Used a very small vice grip pliers to hold the hose in the bottom of the drum while pumping out. It weighs almost nothing empty. It just takes up some space.

[allmi01]

It depends on what type of fill system your fresh water tank uses. Gravity (just pour in water from a container) or if it needs to use a water hose hookup (I've seen this on many fifth wheel rigs).

The gravity type is easy. Get a water can or 2 from your local big box store in the sporting goods / camping section. Using a funnel will help in many cases.

for the hose type hookup, you will need some kind of transfer pump. The least expensive (and also least capable) is a $15 pump that attaches to a drill. You'll need to make a hose of the proper length to go between the trailer fresh water hose hookup and the pump (male on trailer end, female on the pump end) and a second hose to go between the pump (female connector) and the water supply. Mostly, these need a bit of gravity help to stay primed.

A more expensive 12vdc transfer pump is a better choice. Again, you will need to make up the necessary hoses as above for the transfer pump.

Mike

[Lee]

Hi,

We exclusively dry camp and this was a deciding factor in our selection of the Cougar as it has a 60gal water tank.

On extended trips I also pack along two 7gal plastic jerry cans. I have a small 120vAC pump with some plastic hoses I use to fill the tank.

Take care,

[mfifield01]

I bought one of these for transporting water:

http://www.amazon.com/Scepter-04933-...=scepter+water

[Ram189]

I have a 55 gallon we used when I had a travel trailer. It stayed in the bed of my truck when we went to a race. Go to water source fill it up and pump it into the trailer like everyone else.

With the 5th wheel it won't fit so I switched to a 45 gallon bladder type water storage tank. It stays folded up in the storage bin of the 5er unless we need water then I go fill it up, pump the trailer full, drain it and refold it up until the next time.

http://www.campingworld.com/shopping...45-gallon/1605

[dabat]

I use the exact same water bladder as the one in the link posted by Ram189. I have had for 5+ years and use it 3-4 times every year. Takes up very little space when folded and holds a lot of water. When I first got it, I tried to fill trailer using gravity......doesn't work very well. I then bought a transfer pump and now the trailer is full within a few minutes.
I use to use the 5 gallon water cans but that got tiring pretty quickly. When this bladder needs replacing, I will buy the exact same one again.

[zuley]

We dry camp more than we camp with hookups. Filling the water tanks was constantly an issue for me. I came up with something a couple of years ago that has certainly made life a whole lot easier. I had an old sureflo water pump in my camping inventory. Purchased a group 27 battery box along with a garden tractor 12 volt battery. Mounted the pump and battery inside of the battery box and wired in a off/on toggle switch. A couple of pipe nipples on the intake and discharge side of the pump with about three feet of water line connected to each with a hose fitting. When we need water I use my little two wheel cart and bring a blue jug of water back to the camper, stick the suction end of the hose into the jug and the discharge hose into the camper water fill; turn on the pump and sit back. Takes about 3 minutes or about a third of a beer to empty the jug. Uusually about three jugs of water to a beer and we are good for another day or so. Two of our camping friends have also pirated my little idea and have made their own units.

[PerryB]

If you have a winterization port and an outside shower/hose fitting, you can use the water pump to draw from an outside container. Put the suction line in your jug/barrel and turn the winterization valve on. Put the outside hose in the freshwater fill port and turn on the pump. I've been doing this on my Montana for years. I also have a 55 gal. food grade barrel and a pump that plugs into the 7 pin in the truck that I take on extended dry trips.

[hdxbonez]

My camper is located on property I own without a water source. I fill the holding tank every weekend using 7gallon jugs from Walmart and a 12 volt pump from Amazon. It takes about 15 minutes to fill it from empty.

[michael_h]

- we buy bottled water for drinking & cooking and only use the tank water for flushing and an occasional shower . . . hey ya didn't mention the need to dump the holding tanks when dry camping, so I'm assuming you're only doing that when ya leave

[Spacetrucker]

We use 4 water bladders which are 40 go from camping world. Woke great. When done go back in a small boxe. Then use a 12vt pump...Camping World has the on line


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

[Nagrompj]

I got a new 15 gallon weed sprayer from Tractor Supply on clearance(end of season $59). I replaced the rubber hose with food grade hose and added garden hose fittings. Washed it out with bleach water.

The tank has a 12 volt demand pump mounted on it so I can either hook to the city water or fill the fresh water tank.

I just fill the tank in the back of the truck, go to the trailer, hook up the hose and battery and let it do its thing.

I think the pump is only 2 gal/min so it doesn't work great for showering when hooked up to the city water port but dishes and washing work well.

You can get weed sprayer tanks like this in different sizes but if I don't have a place to empty the waste tanks I don't really need more than 15 gal.

[JRTJH]

Originally Posted by Spacetrucker

We use 4 water bladders which are 40 go from camping world. Woke great. When done go back in a small boxe. Then use a 12vt pump...Camping World has the on line


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

That's 160 gallons of water (plus what was already in your RV)?? 160 gallons at 8 pounds per comes out to about 1280 pounds of water to carry.... Once you pump it into your RV, where do you dispose of that much "gray water" ???

[Elk4me]

Originally Posted by PerryB

If you have a winterization port and an outside shower/hose fitting, you can use the water pump to draw from an outside container. Put the suction line in your jug/barrel and turn the winterization valve on. Put the outside hose in the freshwater fill port and turn on the pump. I've been doing this on my Montana for years. I also have a 55 gal. food grade barrel and a pump that plugs into the 7 pin in the truck that I take on extended dry trips.

Thanks for this tip, I have the 375FLF Montana, I knew that there must be some way to use my onboard water pump, I just never thought of using the winterization port for that purpose. We have had the RV since September but it has been a torential downpour here in Washington State most of the winter and I have'nt had a chance to pull the panel behind the fill port compartment to trace the lines. I did hood up a small 12 volt pump to a battery to fill while hunting last year but I will try this soon.

[canesfan]

Originally Posted by Elk4me

Thanks for this tip, I have the 375FLF Montana, I knew that there must be some way to use my onboard water pump, I just never thought of using the winterization port for that purpose. We have had the RV since September but it has been a torential downpour here in Washington State most of the winter and I have'nt had a chance to pull the panel behind the fill port compartment to trace the lines. I did hood up a small 12 volt pump to a battery to fill while hunting last year but I will try this soon.

Thank you for this!!! I have to go look at my setup and see if this is doable. I have the winterize port and the shower, the shower hose is weird though, I might need to make up something with the right fittings. There's another ongoing thread here about filling the water tank without a gravity fill and this could be the answer.

[canesfan]

Originally Posted by PerryB

If you have a winterization port and an outside shower/hose fitting, you can use the water pump to draw from an outside container. Put the suction line in your jug/barrel and turn the winterization valve on. Put the outside hose in the freshwater fill port and turn on the pump. I've been doing this on my Montana for years. I also have a 55 gal. food grade barrel and a pump that plugs into the 7 pin in the truck that I take on extended dry trips.

I tried this yesterday. It didn't work. Apparently my pump doesn't have enough pressure to open the check valve in the city water inlet. And when seeing the stream that comes out of the shower hose I can see why. Does anyone know just how much pressure is needed to open that check valve? I pushed it in with my finger and it took a good deal of pressure. More than I had expected. Oh well, back to the drawing board.

[canesfan]

Originally Posted by PerryB

If you have a winterization port and an outside shower/hose fitting, you can use the water pump to draw from an outside container. Put the suction line in your jug/barrel and turn the winterization valve on. Put the outside hose in the freshwater fill port and turn on the pump. I've been doing this on my Montana for years. I also have a 55 gal. food grade barrel and a pump that plugs into the 7 pin in the truck that I take on extended dry trips.

Per my post above ^ I tried this and it didn't work, sadly. To follow up it had nothing to do with the city water check valve. I investigated it further. The way the plumbing is in my rig this can never work. I won't make this horribly long, but there are two things preventing it from happening. First, a tee, where water meets itself head on and would have to pass itself (go both directions at once), and if it were able to do that it would then meet the winterize valve, which it would not be able to get past because it is in the winterize position. This valve would need to be in the non winterize position for the water to be able to continue on and flow into the tank. Oh well, back to the drawing board. Looks more and more like spending more money because Keystone had a better idea.

[PerryB]

I don't attach the discharge line to the city water port, I put it in the gravity fill hole. Works great, been doing this for years.