City water or On-board tank?

ricks99 wrote:
When camping at a site with city water, do you use your fresh-water tank? Why or why not?

Rarely would I use on-site city water hookup and instead almost always draw from our tank. The reason - most of our camping is in provincial and US state parks where on-site water isn't available anyway, which in turn means I always have all the equipment needed to source more potable water and transfer it into the trailer's FW holding tank. I guess my second reason is I've read enough stories over the years about those who've left their site for the day only to come back to a flooded trailer. :E Sure, one can and should remember to turn off the incoming water supply anytime they're not around to keep an eye on things but I've found that gets old really quickly and I often forget. I likewise could forget to turn my water pump off before leaving our site but for whatever reason I usually do remember, maybe because the switch is right there inside the camper and hard to miss. Aside from that, not hooking up to city water means I don't ever have to fool around with a clogged up regulator and the small length of hose I do carry "just in case" is tucked well away in the camper as I rarely need it. JMO, but not hooking up just works better for me. :)

Not all "city water" is created the same, some better, some worse, and some from a well.

Mr. Rick, just off the top of my head, using your fresh water tank regularly will keep the water fresher.

On our coach (I know it's out of the norm), is plumbed to use the fresh water tank only. We have two holding tanks, one for fresh water (189 gallons) and one tank for black AND grey water (189 gallons). I don't need to connect to water every time we stop.

When I use the city water outlet, it is only to add fresh water to our tank. The plus, is that I don't have to worry about the city water pressure being too low or too high as our water pump is used all the time. We do have a built-in pressure regulator for incoming city water.

I've always felt that all parts and pumps work better when used regularly.

Safe travels,
MM.

On our winter trip, we hit about 30 campgrounds all over the southeast. We hooked up to their water. I never had an issue with taste or smell. I have an inline sediment filter and we Brita our drinking water. The Sahara also has a built-in pressure regulator.

We snowbird so we set up for a few months.
Almost every year somebody runs over a water spigot and the park has to shut off the water for a day or two.
First thing I do now is fill the tank when we settle in.
You learn these things.

delete

changing water source in your diet can ruin a vacation.

Nobody here has mentioned a real big issue.

If your RV has a problem and there is a virtually unlimited supply of water, it can all end up on your floor. And, that will be after the black and gray tanks overflow. So, unless you leave the dumps open all the time, that is a real risk.

It is also my personal point of view that if you are at even a WE site (let alone FHU) you are not even close to "Camping". If you choose to go RVing or Glamping, that is fine with me, but I have been camping and am just too old to go that anymore.

The both of us can get by for 3~4 days on the coach's 30 gallon water tank. When that gets low, we also need to find a dump, so that works for me.

Matt

Iraqvet05 wrote:
In the 5 years that we have owned our TT, I have only used the water tank once. I will not tow 90 gallons of water (720 lbs of extra weight) from my house just for the sake of having water I feel comfortable with.

As I read it the OP wasn't asking about the various aspects of towing with a tank full of water brought from home but rather who doesn't hook up to an on-site city water feed and instead continues to draw from their tank, refilling the tank during their stay as necessary. I'm one who does, for the reasons I mentioned.

midnightsadie wrote:
changing water source in your diet can ruin a vacation.

What do you do when the tank runs dry? Go home?