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GUNNERS_MOM's avatar
GUNNERS_MOM
Explorer
Oct 14, 2013

Re-filling fresh water tank while I dry camping

I apologize if this has been addressesd previously but I found no threads for my specific issue. We spend one week annually in Cade's Cove. To add water to our fresh water tank mid stay is a pain. We haven't found a good way to refill with our 5 gallon containers without spillage and aggravation. Yes, we could break camp and visit the refill station but we choose not to. Anyone have any "handy dandy" cheap ideas.

28 Replies

  • Harbor Freight has this for under $40, and it's 12VDC, so you can hook it up to the battery in your RV, and pump through a hose to your holding tank.


    You can probably find alternative ways to carry extra water, though the plastic 5-gal jugs are probably the easiest and lightest to deal with....you can leave them in the RV or the back of the TV for the drive to the CG......then pump them in as you need them.
  • I bought a 30 gallon cooler that has hose thread on the drain port at Wally World fairly cheap. I use a 12V pump to transfer the water to my TT
  • I have a 15 gallon plastic barrel mounted in the pickup bed. Fill at the faucet, then gravity-feed into the tank.
  • We love to dry camp and we always hauled water in 5 gallon jugs. usually 5 or 6 of them. I used to lift them up and pour into the TT using a flexible neck funnel but over the years they got too heavy for me. so I bought a boat bilge pump and used some hose and some long lengths of wiring to the battery with an on/off switch next to the fill spout to control the pump. that worked for me. have read where some bought a regular Tt water pump and did the wiring like I did. they bought a TT pump for the purpose of back up if their pump ever went bad.
  • I bought 3 water heater bypass kits and configured them to let me pull fresh water from my 7 gallon water jug with a 25 ft. white hose. I also needed a fitting from the hardware store to let me attach my garden hose to the end of the water heater bypass inlet.

    I bring 2 of the blue 7-gal. water jugs from wal mart and a little red wagon to pull them back from the water spigot.

    I put one end of the hose in the water jug (still sitting in the wagon), screw the other end to the water heater bypass inside the trailer, change position of the 3 valves to have the water pumped from the jug to the fresh water tank.

    And then turn the pump on.

    Move the hose to the second jug when the fist one is emptied.

    Ed
  • Francesca Knowles wrote:
    Assuming you have a vehicle in addition to the RV in question:

    They're not cheap, but...I sure like the convenience/ease of those bladder-type cartop tanks.

    Works by gravity once you get back to the rig.


    I use one of these as well, works great.