How do you transport water when boondocking or at a park that doesn’t have water hookup? This describes 90% of our camping (state parks in Colorado, where we camp often, don’t have water for each site)
I should point out that we camp for weeks at a time, but are not the obsessive minimal-water type of campers. We each shower daily (sometimes twice if hiking etc). We’ve moved mostly to paper plates and are generally careful about water use – but we stay comfortable! We generally need to refill our 50-gallon tank every 2.5 to 3 days.
Our initial foray in water carriers involved a variety of water jugs, usually bought at WalMart. These were OK, but they eat up a lot of space in the back of our tonneau-covered pickup. Some were too tall to stand up under the closed tonneau cover, making transport difficult when full. I still carry two 6-gallon carriers with me, but it takes too many to refill a 50-gallon tank!
Generally, even when boondocking, we can find water within a few miles (state parks, etc.). Our solution two years ago was to buy a 45 gallon vinyl rubber bladder from Camping World. You can see the CW site HERE, or the original manufacturer HERE claims to provide custom-sizes. When not in use, it rolls up into the size of a shoebox.
As shown on the Camping World site, this unit is designed to be carried on the top of your car. This allows gravity feed down to the trailer. Unfortunately, this assumes that your water source is probably quite close to your trailer, and you’re not going more than a few miles-per-hour. Also, I’m not that thrilled with carrying 400 pounds on my roof!
To use the bladder for long distance, high speed transport, I fill it in the back of our pickup. Because the back of the truck is too low for gravity feed, I modified an old 12-volt water pump (plugged in to the truck via a 12-volt extension). This allows me to transfer from truck to trailer without gravity feed advantage. I bought the necessary fittings at the local hardware store. It requires two hoses, using the fittings that allow you to reverse them.
I filter the water going in to the bladder using the in-line filter, then again coming out of the bladder (same filter) when using the transfer pump.
See pictures below
Some caveats:
the pump may blow the fuse on a regular 12-volt cigarette lighter plug. Our Ford F-250 has a Power Source plug with higher capacity.
I clean and disinfect the bladder regularly. I haven’t figured out how to dry the inside if its not going to be used for a while, and once found a bit of green algae near the fill-spout. Not sure how solve this problem
make sure the outside is completely dry before rolling and storing. Any moisture on the outside will remain in place and get moldy.
We’ve now used this method successfully for two years. We’re still using the original bladder, but don’t expect it to last beyond 3-4 year lifespan.
Hope this gives you some ideas! Helpful comments are welcome.
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