Anyone take their own water?

[THEPILL]

Going out this weekend and the water at the S.P is not drinkable. A SALINITY issue. Who takes along their own water.......and weight?

Just wondering.
Shane

[fotochop]

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Dreamstreamr Odyssey

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[Boondocker]

Originally Posted by THEPILL

Going out this weekend and the water at the S.P is not drinkable. A SALINITY issue. Who takes along their own water.......and weight?

Just wondering.
Shane

I try and pull out with plenty of water, generally a full tank. I more or less have the WD rigging tweaked for it. I think having the water improves the tow and it certainly nice knowing all the water I could want is there.

Of course, I tend to tow long distances and you are presumably talking about shorter distance. At 8lbs a gallon you can carry quite a bit of water before you see a change in mileage. It would take 25 gallons to equal the weight of one 200lb person. How far do you have to drive to use an extra gallon of fuel carrying a 200lb guy along? To me, its worth the extra fuel to have water on hand or water you like.

[barbara4rb]

We have a friend who has towed her 5th wheel thousands of miles, and have followed her water guidelines with great success. We fill our tank (50 gallons) for the washing and toilet use, and bring along bottled water for drinking. We found the 1.5L bottles in a case at Costco works best--easy to handle for cooking, drinking, etc. We do bring a few gallon bottles of home water to fill the dogs' water bowl. The bottles/case gets put in a plastic box and rides in the shower when traveling. We've tried the 3 gallon bottled water containers as well as 1 gallon for drinking, cooking and found both sizes too awkward.

Since our Airstream is 18 years old, before our first trip we did the bleach in the fresh water tank to disinfect the tank and lines. (I found good info on this here at the forums.) Probably not an issue with your new Airstream. I feel safer drinking the bottled water instead of risking unpleasant problems with an unknown water source.

Hope this helps. Enjoy your first outing. Remember, it'll be a learning experience! Take a notebook along and start the list of things to do/things you need/etc. :-)

[ROBERT CROSS]

Originally Posted by THEPILL

Going out this weekend and the water at the S.P is not drinkable. A SALINITY issue. Who takes along their own water.......and weight?

Just wondering.
Shane

Only to drink....bring all drinking water from home.

Water in fresh tank is filtered when filled, drinkable in a pinch.

We boon-dock a lot, always travel with full fresh tank.

[Boondocker]

Originally Posted by THEPILL

....the water at the S.P is not drinkable.
Shane

I missed that part, you mean you can DRINK water? That is crazy talk.

[THEPILL]

I bought an external filter. Ill bring my own anyway. Thanks again.

Shane

[ROBERTSUNRUS]

Hi, I fill the fresh water tank for handling, dish washing, toilet, and showers. I put small bottles of water in the refrigerator for my wife and I bring larger water bottles for coffee and cooking. Even though I keep my tank clean and sanitized, I would not drink it; Actually I don't drink water anyway.

[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?

[Melody Ranch]

Well, I went out and hooked up the water hose and put some water in the tank. Then I opened the drain valve to flush the tank out. After seeing what came out of the drain...I will never drink...maybe never wash with, onboard water again. How that much mud could be in there is a mystery to me. Looks like I'm in for a major tank sanitizing job tomorrow.

[Gene]

We bring drinking water in jugs for making ice, drinking, making coffee and tea. The undersink filter may or may not be good enough to filter out giardia, and some CG water tastes bad anyway.

We bring anything from a full or partly full fresh water tank depending what's down the road.

Conserving what you have when boondocking can be a challenge. Also, the grey water tank fills up a lot faster than the black tank. We put a dish pan in the kitchen sink and wash dishes in it and then dump that water in the toilet to keep the grey tank from filling too soon.

Gene

[ROBERTSUNRUS]

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?

Hi, if you mean the fresh water tank; Water will flow out of the vent tube, located in the same place as the filler tube.

[Gene]

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?

You'll know the grey water tank is full when the water is coming up in the shower. The monitor is not too accurate and may need one or more adjustments from the dealer. The sensors get dirty, the wiring connections get dirty and the monitor may fail. You can fill the fresh water tank 5 gallons at a time and learn how accurate that gauge is. You can pour water down a drain 5 gallons as a time and check the grey tank gauge the same way. Just look down the toilet to see how high the stuff is. After a while you get to have a fair idea what's going on from experience.

If I remember correctly, the SS model may have small tanks, so it will be more of a challenge.

Learning all the systems takes time and starting our with short trips is a good idea, building up to longer and longer ones. Looks like you're doing it the right way. Asking all these questions is good so you have fewer surprises, but there will be surprises.

Gene

[AIR-Quarius]

We carry about ten gallons (two large bottles) of purified water, even though we have six large bottle in all. The water supply In Altus here is called industrial water and I am here to tell you do not drink it under any circumstance. We (I doubt) are going to carry water in to lower tanks because of the weight. So we get by on the bottled water.

[ROBERT CROSS]

POI.....Make sure there is air space around the fresh fill hose... and don't fill too fast or you may splode the tank....for real.

[mandolindave]

Somestimes I travel dry, sometimes with a full tank, it all depends on the availabilty of water and length of trip.
But I try like crazy to not travel with half a tank. My fresh water tank is mounted sideways, and I can feel the water sloshing back and forth.

Towards the end of the season when the tank has been filled and emptied 20 times, I have used the water for cooking. But I usually drink bottled water.

If you are unsure of the quality of water you are drinking, or unsure
of the condition of your plumbing, play it safe.

[OB Bambi]

Not that my fresh water tank is all that large but I always like to fill it up before I leave home. The reasons are: sometimes we have stopped and used the toilet in route: We don't have to look for water when we get to our destination: I don't like the idea driving around with 1/2 or 1/3 full tank and having that water shlloshing around. (Shloshing? I can't remember if I have ever seen that spelled before). onomatopoeia

Randy Bowman

[Boondocker]

A proper bleaching once or twice a year along with properly chlorinated water is sufficient to keep the nasties out. There is absolutely no reason your fresh water system isn't providing excellent drinking water. Absolutely none whatsoever.

[sempi2]

Originally Posted by Gen Disarray

A proper bleaching once or twice a year along with properly chlorinated water is sufficient to keep the nasties out. .

What is proper bleaching? I know it is a ratio between water & bleach, but don't know the exact amount.

[Boondocker]

Originally Posted by sempi2

What is proper bleaching? I know it is a ratio between water & bleach, but don't know the exact amount.

I forget the recommended ratios as I figured out my plan a while back and rely on my procedure by rote now. Frankly, just filling with city water and letting it stand several hours and flushing a few times will work wonders.

My procedure: for a 30 gallon tank add 1/4 cup of bleach to a full tank and allow to set several hours. Then pump water through all lines. Again let it set for an extended period. Flush entire system. Then flush 2X with normal treated water. Avoid the temptation to boost the amount of bleach as there is good evidence that diluted bleach solutions are more effective than high concentration bleach for the application. DILUTED bleach and TIME coupled with multiple flushes are the key here. Hope this is helpful