Newbie motorhomer
do I need a pump to set up an external fresh water barrel
Comments
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It might depend on what system you have but my Bailey has an external pump to fill the onboard tank from a container. Logically I would have thought that would be the same for all motorhomes that have that ability to fill from an external container?
David
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AK, i guess you are new to motorhoming? perhaps you were a caravanner previously?
of so, it may be that your first assumption is that you have to manage water in the same way 'as you always did'....
whilst some, like DK, prefer to move water from a tap to an aquaroll, then move the aquaroll to the van and then pump the water from the aquaroll into the vans water tank...
with an aquaroll being fairly small in capacity, you may find youre doing this as often as you did (or caravanners do) previously.
you may find it easier to cut out the middle man and just move the water from the tap straight into the van.
for this purpose, we use a specially designed piece of equipment called a hose
you can carry (say) two hoses that can be joined together and we find that this will reach a tap on pretty much any site.
of course, some manufacturers have decided that all users should act like caravanners and dont give the option to stick a hose in the hole like the majority of MHers do...
its horses for courses, some like to carry extra kit like pumps and aquarolls but this all takes up unnecessary storage space. and some vans have a shortage of externally accessed locker space.
personally, two hoses seems a simple way of getting from tap to van, others prefer the aquaroll route.
neither is mandatory, unless of course your vehicle's water inlet has been designed by a caravanner....
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I would say you do if you have one of those MH's that doesn't have the large petrol type filler cap on the side. If it's got a nice filler cap then you can use a watering can. Personally I prefer two as they are easier to carry. It also means that you are not restricted to sites for filling up. Surprising where you find taps
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When I first changed to a motorhome I was determined not to use an Aquaroll or similar. However practicality won the day. We often stay on sites for 3/4 days and we use our own facilities. I find that one container full of water is enough to keep the internal
tank topped up, so one trip a day. In their wisdom Bailey decided that you could only fill the tank either by a hose or an external pump, unless that is you wised to fill the tank directly in the actual motorhome through the floor. Had I not had a pumped supply
I would have been happy to use a watering can to top up but with my model this is not possible unless done directly into the tank. If I have a nearby tap I can use that but that is rarely the case and I don't see the point of going backwards and forwards to
the service point. So as you can see the Aquaroll is a reasonable compromise. Whether I would have purchased one to use with the motorhome had I not already had one I have no idea!!!David
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Ant Kenny - What make and model of MH do you heve?
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newish or older model?
if you have an external 12v socket you can pump water from a container into the tank. if the tank has a 'normal' filler, you can also use a hose or a watering can...
i also carry a 'guttering elbow' which is very small and fits nicely into the water inlet, allowing (say) a 10 ltr container to be used for emergency top ups...
no pumping, no large aquarolls to carry....
i saw a guy at Brighton this year, he was parked only about 30 feet from the toilet block and a tap...
so....he connected the hose to the tap and filled an aquaroll stood next to his van....he then turned off the tap and then pumped the water into the van....then refilled the aquaroll and repumped the water....
repeat as necessary......
as he seemed to have a normal filler i considered suggesting he take the hose out of the aquaroll and just stick it in the filler....
but he seemed happy in his work and obviously thought i was impressed with his array of equipment....so i let him get on with it.....
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What is a non 'normal filller' arrangement? I can't imagine what it must look like. My 30 Litre m/h onboard tank is filled via a lockable petrol filler cap type of arrangement on the side of the body into which I can easily empty a 5L container in about 20 seconds.
I cannot see why all m/h wouldn't be designed like that.
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....
i saw a guy at Brighton this year, he was parked only about 30 feet from the toilet block and a tap...
so....he connected the hose to the tap and filled an aquaroll stood next to his van....he then turned off the tap and then pumped the water into the van....then refilled the aquaroll and repumped the water....
repeat as necessary......
...
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What is a non 'normal filller' arrangement? I can't imagine what it must look like. My 30 Litre m/h onboard tank is filled via a lockable petrol filler cap type of arrangement on the side of the body into which I can easily empty a 5L container in about 20 seconds.
I cannot see why all m/h wouldn't be designed like that.
Correction...
It has a 60L tank and I fill / top it up using 2 x 10L containers.
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Ant Kenny - the logical answer is, as stated earlier, use a hose pipe from the fresh water tap directly to your Autotrail MH,
Remove the fresh water cap, insert a HEOS water filler cap, connect hose to filler cap with a Hozelock connector, the other end of the hose pipe to the fresh water tap using another Hozelock connector, turn tap on, stand and watch for ten
minutes while 100 litres pours into your tank – and repeat every three or four days depending on how many showers you take.I've done that for years with a 5 metres hosepipe in the UK and abroad and never once needed a longer pipe or had problems obtaining water.
It seems too simple an operation for many but as I'm on holiday the minimum effort expended the better.
Why complicate it?
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What is a non 'normal filller' arrangement? I can't imagine what it must look like. My 30 Litre m/h onboard tank is filled via a lockable petrol filler cap type of arrangement on the side of the body into which I can easily empty a 5L container in about
20 seconds.I cannot see why all m/h wouldn't be designed like that.
Correction...
It has a 60L tank and I fill / top it up using 2 x 10L containers.
The idiot who designed the external filler system for a MH must have been on the design team for caravans at some point. The filler cap is the simplest system on the planet. How can you inprove on it. The only working part is the lock.
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What is a non 'normal filller' arrangement? I can't imagine what it must look like. My 30 Litre m/h onboard tank is filled via a lockable petrol filler cap type of arrangement on the side of the body into which I can easily empty a 5L container in about
20 seconds.I cannot see why all m/h wouldn't be designed like that.
nor can i, S, but some ('clever' ones) aren't.....
some manufacturers think we all want to wheel some other contraption around and then stand it outside the van (remind you of anything.....?..think freezing weather.....) and then rig up a pump with a small bore pipe with an odd shaped fitting on the end,
as the filler only has a tiny odd shaped (could be square) hole.apparently, you can use a hose....but of course it needs to be a special hose with the same special connector on the end to fit in the odd shaped (square) hole....
so, extra kit, extra cost, extra complexity.....as you say, whats wrong with a hose and a 'normal' filler...
as a pal of mine on another forum might say....'progress, eh?'
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Quite BB. I thought I was being dim, not knowing they don't all have 'normal' filling arrangements. It not as if by fitting his own style filling connector the m/h manufacturer or dealer will enhance his sale by tying the owner to buying a special hose and connectors or enjoy an ongoing after-sale income stream by forcing the owner to use only the manufacturer's own extortionately priced water.
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Our motorhome comes with one of those funny square filler things that you refer to BB. We quite like it, the M/H came with the special hose, it also came with the short filler hose should you require to fill the tank using a container, so no extra cost involved.
We fill as normal from a tap using the hose provided, its a flat hose and takes up no space what so ever in the gas locker. Should we be on site for long enough to use a full tank then we can if we so wish fill up using a longer flat hose and connect the 2
together giving us a hose many metres long (like yours) we could of course like DK fill it using an aqua roll (but we don't have one) We don't mind using this method its not caused us any problems and it does prevent someone tampering with your water supply
IF you don't have a lockable filler cap.
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Unless it comes as supplied as original equipment?
David
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I can see the need for a sealed connector on a caravan since as far as I know (never having had a caravan) caravans don't have an inboard water storage tank and must have an external portable reservoir (which is known as an Aquaroll I think)
which feeds an inboard pump for the caravan's water system. But all m/homes have inboard tanks...........don't they?0 -
I can see the need for a sealed connector on a caravan since as far as I know (never having had a caravan) caravans don't have an inboard water storage tank and must have an external portable reservoir (which is known as an Aquaroll I think)
which feeds an inboard pump for the caravan's water system. But all m/homes have inboard tanks...........don't they?As far as I know they do, but some (not ours) don't have a lockable filler cap to them, just a twist and its off kind. With that anyone could (if they so wished) tamper with your fresh water.
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i do have a lockable filler, uses same key as other van lockers.
im guessing the reason for the Whale-type install is not so much to protect your water supply, which is easily sorted by buying a lockable water filler cap, but more to do with giving more versatility to the filling process...
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i do have a lockable filler, uses same key as other van lockers.
im guessing the reason for the Whale-type install is not so much to protect your water supply, which is easily sorted by buying a lockable water filler cap, but more to do with giving more versatility to the filling process...
Probably neither BB, just they had some lying round and knew they worked on caravans so why not try them on the M/H's
either way it doesn't
matter does it, we like what we have and you like what you have. Should we change to a differant van we would just use what was fitted, if we didn't like it we would change it.0 -
We have the same filling system as TG, never thought it a problem, in fact, we prefer it to the open hole filling as, no matter how careful you are, there is always the possability of allowing cantaminents to enter your tank, (mud etc.) How often do you
wash your hose on the outside?....
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i do have a lockable filler, uses same key as other van lockers.
im guessing the reason for the Whale-type install is not so much to protect your water supply, which is easily sorted by buying a lockable water filler cap, but more to do with giving more versatility to the filling process...
Probably neither BB, just they had some lying round and knew they worked on caravans so why not try them on the M/H's
either way it doesn't
matter does it, we like what we have and you like what you have. Should we change to a differant van we would just use what was fitted, if we didn't like it we would change it.absolutely agree....
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I agree a hose would be easier as well, but the Truma Ultraflow unit fitted to my MH does have some advantages :
- I can hook up the MH to mains water when staying on a site long-term using one of these
- I can re-fill the tank using using a standard hose fitted with one of these direct from the tap
- I can use one of these and a 23L Roll Tank when convenient
Quite a bit of kit, I know, but I have the space and payload and it gives maximum flexibility. I could even use a normal hose or watering can, filling direct to the onboard tank under one of the beds, if all else failed!
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One school of thought suggests that the most obvious reason for the fitting of the pistol type water connection on MHs, rather than a lockable cap, is to stop diesel being put in the water tank and vice versa.
I've heard of mis-filling tanks of both MHs and boats, especially where hire fleets are concerned! and I can recall a post on here a while back from someone asking how to clean his fresh water tank after having accidentally put
diesel in it.0 -
again, this could be a valid reason...
to compensate, on my Fiat based vehicle my fuel filler (beneath a flap) can only be opened using the ignition key, same as a car would be...whereas the lockable water filler cap is unlocked with a separate key, the one that unlocks all the other outside
lockers.also, the fuel filler is up front and the water filler is two thirds of the way back....
despite this, i can see how it might be done if the fillers are adjacent....but i would also suggest this wouldnt be very sensible of the converter.
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Our fuel filler is hidden inside the passenger door whereas our water filler is midships on the offside. Imagine a complete newbie who has no idea that the passenger door has to be opened to access the diesel filler........
However, our water filler is via the pistol grip connector, I'm pleased to say.
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Our fuel filler is behind a flap on the N/S wing and you need the Ign key to remove it and the water filler is half way down the side and you need a locker key to remove the flap to fill it ,it also has a label round it that says " fresh water"
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it also has a outboard pump to fill from a aquaroll ,which I don't bother with .....0 -
What is a non 'normal filller' arrangement? I can't imagine what it must look like. My 30 Litre m/h onboard tank is filled via a lockable petrol filler cap type of arrangement on the side of the body into which I can easily empty a 5L container in about
20 seconds.I cannot see why all m/h wouldn't be designed like that.
Write your comments here...
30 ltrs doesn't sound like muchbut I agree with you and subscribe to the acronym KISS. My solution is a 10 litre ridgid water carrier a 5litre water container (we don't use "system" water for drinking) a short length of hose and a collapsible funnel. With
these I can deal with any scenario. With an easily accesible tap I can use the hose to fill up otherwise two water containers x 4 trips. Easy reliable and low tech.And the work carrying 15kg from the tap compensates for not going to the gym that day or so I like to think.
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