filling freshwater from shore fitting

[Greg1410]

I seen people post about setting up their plumbing so they can fill their freshwater tank with the hose connection from shore. I have not seen some of the details as to how to hook into the fresh water tank. I assume one would tie into the regular 1.5 inch fresh water fill hose or put a new hole and fitting into the freshwater tank. Advice and suggestions would be appreciated. Pictures would be great.
Thanks!
Greg

[Sphere Guy]

How about one of these. Not a hard plumbed connection but it lets you fill the tank.

[AnnArborBob]

I second Sphere Guy's suggestions. Direct plumbing the fresh tank into the city inlet is just asking for trouble.

[xrvr]

Not an AS, but my Avion has a valve I can open to fill onboard tank from fresh lookup. Afraid to try it, though. I thought some AS had this also?

[Lumatic]

Be careful not to over pressurize the tank. You can pop it!

[xrvr]

Thanks.

[OTRA15]

Ditto to "trouble" comments. If it ain't broke why fix it?

Every trailer should have a new-ish food-grade hose for filling potable fresh water tank, a very simple task.

KISS

[HCR]

I use one (the screw on extension shown in a previous post) and it's great--especially when filling from a low-flow source, as I frequently encountered in Baja. With a high-flow source, the gadget keeps the hose from jumping out which occurs on mine unless you are standing there holding the hose.

[darsea]

We use the certified fresh water hose for RV's, an in line water filter and when the pressure is high a pressure reducer. The initial connection to city water is made using a brass "Y" valve. This comes in handy if you wish an additional line but important to relieve the pressure when you disconnect.

After several contraptions to pour bucket water into the fresh water fill we finally settled on a long necked mouth wash bottle it's a more substantial bottle. It fits the opening without holding. all you have to do is cut out an opening to pour the water in.

[PKI]

We always use a pressure regulator at the shore water source connection. The adapter that SG posted is great. Shut off valve gives control at point of fill and allows a minimum of water waste in the transition from fill to shut down.

To this point, we have used same hose for hookup and fresh fill. Had seen a "Y" splitter on the hookup connection post filter and it is likely an easy way to fill fresh water.

Good luck on your investigation. Pat

[Tim A.]

To fill our tank using the freshwater fill on the outside of the trailer, we use the device Sphere Guy shows.

For a variety of reasons, we added, years ago, a manual valve inside of the trailer which lets us fill (without going outside) the freshwater tank when we are connected up to "city" water. Here is one place I have posted about that:
http://www.airforums.com/forums/f37/...ml#post1567462

This is a very old post about our installation and showing the valve:
http://www.airforums.com/forums/f443...tml#post461981

Tim

[phann]

At Amazon:
http://www.amazon.com/Camco-40003-Wa.../dp/B0006IX850

Walmart also has them online

[MelGoddard]

Originally Posted by Greg1410

I seen people post about setting up their plumbing so they can fill their freshwater tank with the hose connection from shore. I have not seen some of the details as to how to hook into the fresh water tank. I assume one would tie into the regular 1.5 inch fresh water fill hose or put a new hole and fitting into the freshwater tank. Advice and suggestions would be appreciated. Pictures would be great.
Thanks!
Greg

And WHERE would you use a "1.5" hose for usual usage??
My hose is 5/8" and others are 1/2" which is usual!

[dannydimitt]

Our 66 AS was plumbed from the factory with a valve to fill the fresh water tank while connected to shore water source. Simply take the fill cap off while doing so if worried about a burst tank . 50 years of use and the valve and tank work fine .

[greghoro]

Currently, my fresh water tank slowly backfills from the city water supply (takes about 10 days) due to a faulty check valve in the fresh water pump. So, there is city water pressure at the output side of the fresh water pump.

I would think it would be somewhat simple to build a bypass around the fresh water pump, similar to what is used to bypass the hot water heater when winterizing. Whether there is room to fit the additional plumbing or you have sufficient access to do this would vary on your model.

First noticed the problem when I saw a trickle of water coming out of the fresh water tank filler door. Full hookup campsites, didn't have the tank monitors on. Funny thing is that I just weighed the trailer a day before discovering the problem and was wondering where all the extra weight came from.


Greg

[Jacob D]

Originally Posted by dannydimitt

Our 66 AS was plumbed from the factory with a valve to fill the fresh water tank while connected to shore water source. Simply take the fill cap off while doing so if worried about a burst tank . 50 years of use and the valve and tank work fine .

Ditto our '67 Overlander. The outside fill cap is made so that it vents the tank so that neither pressure nor vacuum can occur in the tank. If it didn't, the tank would collapse as water is used.