Using the onboard water tank??
We have just bought our first caravan ( Bailey Senator Arizona 2004) and only had one night away so far, just to see how everything works. We are going away for a week so we would like to use the onboard water tank as someone at the site said it holds more water and you'll have less trips to the tap. We think we've located it under the front drawer unit between the front seats. How do we fill it and how do we swap to use that and not the aquaroll and pump?
Also we have a whale pump but the cover id too small for the aquaroll opening so just falls inside giving no cover to flies etc. Can we get a replacement or alternative cover? and will we need to remove the pump end to get it on?
One last thing....when the water is connected the shower continuously drips. Will this need replacing? We tried putting a new washer in but it had no effect.
Thanks for your help!
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Without further information, it's difficult to advise because there are a number of different systems. It may be that you have to fill the onboard tank manually, with a hose pipe or watering can or something similar - bit of a pain in my opinion.
On the other hand - our previous Bailey Barcelona (but 2015 model) had a 3-way switch for the water pump. Internal - Off - External.
To fill the tank, it was necessary to switch to external - turn a diverter valve near to the pressure switch (located under offside front bed in ours) to fill the onboard tank - then close the valve again when it was full and the water source could be selected by the three way switch.
In our present van, there is no such switch but the inboard tank fills automatically from the aquaroll and is switched on/off by a float switch in the onboard tank. All of our water comes from the onboard tank and as it is used up, the float switch activates and automatically keeps the onboard tank full (until the aquaroll runs out!)
Don't know if it's possible to get just the cover for the pump hose, but if you can, I think you will have to remove the pump. An alternative would be to cut it half-way through and then put some gaffer tape over the slit to stop it falling off. It doesn't have to be airtight - as you say, it's just there to keep the rubbish out.
However, I would thoroughly recommend replacing the whole pump with a Whale High Flow which I doubt your model van was fitted with. This will have the correct sized cap. The difference in flow rate and pressure is significant. Plus you would then have a spare pump which is always sensible to have.
Re your dripping tap - sounds as if the cartridge may need replacing - possible to do and you might find some guidance on You Tube but I would be inclined to replace the whole thing - probably quicker and easier in the long run.
Hope this helps - I am sure others will have different views and will be along to help.
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You cannot get rid of the Aquaroll completely as you have to fetch the water in something, unless on a serviced pitch, and even then you may decide to use it.
We have an older van, 2008, but not a Bailey, your best plan would be to obtain a hand book for the van that will have the correct instructions, but our tank is operated as follows......
First, the external pump cannot pump water from the on board tank, so to use it there needs to be either an on board pump or a pump in the tank, we have a single on board pump and only a dedicated pipe from the Aquaroll into the van.
As R&R explained, we have a 2 valve set-up on the pipework, these valves can be set in 3 different ways. Either to use directly from Aquaroll, fill the onboard tank from Aquaroll, or use from the tank, this is all explained in the handbook. Later models of our van have the "autofill" feature described above.
I suggest you investigate the pipework to and from the tank you have found to see if you can locate a second pump and valves to set how you use it, the feature may have been removed by a previous owner.
Our tank has the same capacity as the Aquaroll, 40 litres, so the only advantage is that you can have 80 litres available, but this still means 2 trips to the tap. Some on board tanks are only 30 litres.
Remember, even if you have 80 litres fresh water available, the Wastemaster still only holds 40 litres!
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If all else fails, check the handbook 😀
PS. If the Whale submersible pump isn’t submersed in the water in the Aquaroll, it cannot pump. What you describe is perfectly normal.
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We had a later Bailey with a tank that could be filled using the three way valve described above or removed from the van to fill manually. Really fiddly whichever method you used and Bailey stopped doing it. Don’t be tempted to travel with water in it as you will probably exceed the noseweight or payload. Also, depending on the type of tank it is probably not designed to have water sloshing around in transit.
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You might need to replace the whole valve in the shower tap, we just did this because ours started to leak. We got a replacement quite cheaply from screwfix. Check on YouTube for replacing leaking caravan shower taps, various tips on there. You might even find Youtube info on your Bailey water tank but as KJ says you'll still need to transport water to your tank so hang onto the aquaroll.
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We have a 2005 Senator but have never used the onboard tank.
I have photographed the information on filling the onboard tank from our manual. Hope this helps.
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