Anyone take their own water?

[Whirlaway]

Originally Posted by THEPILL

How do you know when your holding tank is full w/o looking at the gauge? Will it just equalize if left un attended?

I fill up at home with my own filtered water, sanitize it, and only use it for showers, flushing etc. I do the bottled route as everyone else has noted.

CW and Walmart have an adapter for the garden hose it shows the water flowing into the tank. I start torching the lug nuts when I hear it hitting the deck, I know it's full...lol...I like my own well vs. a campgrounds.

[ROBERT CROSS]

We saved 6 one gal jug's and fill them with home filtered. Try not to bring too many of 'dem damn teeny bottles,(end up all over the place).

Don't really have a safety concern with the storage H2o, just tastes like cR@p
after awhile.

[Ag&Au]

Originally Posted by Whirlaway

..................................

I do the bottled route as everyone else has noted.

A bit of a point of order. Not everyone said they took bottled water. I certainly didn't. I have been drinking water out of RV tanks since I was 14. I am now 66 and still alive.

Regards,
Ken

[Whirlaway]

Originally Posted by w7ts

A bit of a point of order. Not everyone said they took bottled water. I certainly didn't. I have been drinking water out of RV tanks since I was 14. I am now 66 and still alive.

Regards,
Ken

You are correct I made an assumption incorrectly...I stand corrected.

[fmr.capt.evi]

REDNAX (post#59) makes some great points!

[Ag&Au]

Originally Posted by Whirlaway

You are correct I made an assumption incorrectly...I stand corrected.

Actually, although I do drink the tap water, I do also carry some canned or bottled sparkling water. That with a little lemon juice is my substitute for soda pop.

Regards,
Ken

[BillTex]

3/4 tonners KNOW AirStreams tow better with a full H2o tank...

[TBRich]

We fill our fresh water tank for travel...we treat with a purifying bleach mixture when we fill with water from other-than-home sources...we drink the water from the fresh water tank and cook with it, too...and we are still here....

[ROBERTSUNRUS]

Originally Posted by thecatsandi

Shane,
Use a wash basin and dump your wash water down the toilet. Saves grey water and keeps things hydrated in the black tank. They flush easier that way.

Hi, Shane. If your sink or sinks are like mine, Sterilite makes a tub and dish drainer that fits nicely in your sink. As Michelle said, I do the dishes and dump the dish water down the toilet while boondocking.

[Gene]

There's a collapsible dish drainer that fits on one side of our sink perfectly. I think we got it at the Container Store, but not sure.

Gene

[TerraYacht]

I try not to dring water...you know what fish do in it!
Seriously, I do carry a backpacker's filter that will catch giardia and most other bad stuff in case I'm in a location where something seems marginal and there's no choice, but a couple of taste filters make water good enough for ice and coffee.

[pinktrailer]

I always travel in my big rig with a full holding tank, but never use it for anything but washing, flushing, etc. I bring 3-4 gallon jugs of spring water for drinking and dogs. If I can't refill them, I buy spring water.

[pinktrailer]

Whoops!!! I bring 3-4 ONE gallon jugs, under the counter.

[Mike Leary]

We carry water, there are a few places around the country (Flagstaff,AZ, Port Hadlock, WA) that have drinkable water, but it's iffy elsewhere.

[Gene]

Perhaps this is a misdirection, but how about the filters some people use in the hose between the faucet and trailer. Usually what I see is a double filter between two pieces of potable water hose. Since there's a filter under the kitchen sink, at least in more recent models, that seems like overkill* to me. Do you use them? Do they reduce water pressure?

Gene

*actually the more appropriate word would be "underkill".

[BillTex]

Originally Posted by CrawfordGene

Perhaps this is a misdirection, but how about the filters some people use in the hose between the faucet and trailer. Usually what I see is a double filter between two pieces of potable water hose. Since there's a filter under the kitchen sink, at least in more recent models, that seems like overkill* to me. Do you use them? Do they reduce water pressure?

Gene

*actually the more appropriate word would be "underkill".

Gene, Don't get a filter...get a "Purifier" if you are thinking of getting water from a questionable source. Big difference. I spend quite a bit of time backpacking in remote areas and drink water from some pretty cruddy puddles...yes, puddles.
But we pump it through a purifier. Available at REI, etc.
Filters and Purifiers are 2 different things, rated for different performance.
You can also use iodine tablets, bleach, or just boil it.

Note; Purifiers, and filters, are quite slow. It would take a lot of pumping to fill a holding tank.
You can also get garvity fed systems. This might me your best option. This is a bag (2gal? 5 gal?) that you fill and hang (from a tree, your roof maybe)and just let it work while you go about your business. Purifying water is possible...but requires patience.

There is a great discussion of this topic here; RV.Net Open Roads Forum: Truck Campers: Water from lakes and creeks

With some pretty elaborate systems for boondocking.

Bill

[Ag&Au]

[QUOTE=CrawfordGene;814258]Perhaps this is a misdirection, but how about the filters some people use in the hose between the faucet and trailer. Usually what I see is a double filter between two pieces of potable water hose. Since there's a filter under the kitchen sink, at least in more recent models, that seems like overkill* to me. Do you use them? Do they reduce water pressure?

Gene

Hi Gene, This is the one I use:

Hydro Life Exterior Disposable Inline Water Filter - Item - Camping World

It does not seem to reduce the pressure as far I can tell . If it did, I think I would take that as I sign that it needs to be replaced. I change it at the beginning of each season and have also thrown a couple away during the season due to my doubts about a particular water source.
Our trailer came with a filter under the counter that feeds a separate spigot, so we use it sometimes, but I think is redundant filtering.

regards,
Ken

[Boondocker]

Originally Posted by BillTex

There is a great discussion of this topic here; RV.Net Open Roads Forum: Truck Campers: Water from lakes and creeks

With some pretty elaborate systems for boondocking.

Bill

I am eying that 3 filter system pretty close. I like it a lot. I can see that upgrade in the future. I can think of several places I have been in the last two years where that would have been just the thing.

[searcher]

Hi

I purchased a 65 gallon poly tank and transfer pump. The Tank fits nicely in the center of my pickup bed (F250). I can transfer via 12 volt or 110 to my fresh water tank in the trailer. I don't always carry a full 65 gallons unless I expect to be boondocking for a week. 65 gallon runs about 500 lbs and does not change my mileage significantly. We also bring a case of bottled water.

Steve

[Gene]

Thanks for the info on inline filters. Since we already have one or two gallons of distilled water with us at all times, and we have the filter under the sink, and most of our drinking is of things that come in bottles or orange juice cartons, I don't think we need more filters.

When we used to backpack we never filtered or treated water and never got sick. I'd look for a water source such as a spring. They are not hard to find in the Alpine Zone of the mountains. There's not much chance of contamination at the source even though there is in a crystal clear mountain creek. Another place to get water is the melt water at the bottom of the snow field. A couple of decades ago, before I even thought about giardia or other contaminants, we used to drink water out of the creeks and never got sick either.

But we've known people who have gotten sick and it's no fun. Giardia can last for many weeks and runs you down so that you can't do much. Even so, some people have little or no illness from giardia, and others get whacked. Various towns in Colorado have had giardia problems when their water systems did not filter it out properly—and it's not hard to filter it out (it's a parasite so large, microscopically speaking, just about any filter should catch it), so their systems failed badly.

So, we try to be careful, but not overdo it. I think we are in more danger driving down the road. If we do get sick, I'm sure we'll have a string of filters from one end of the trailer to the other, then boil the water and collect the condensate. Or, just drink beer or gin.

Gene