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DutchmenSport's avatar
May 24, 2016

Water Transfer - New "Toy"

Decided to go ahead and fight the crowds over Memorial Day Week-end and was able to get a campsite reserved yesterday. But the campsite is not conveniently located near a water spigot. We always attempt to get a spot within 200 feet of a spigot so hoses will reach and won't have move the camper for a fresh water refill, and the largest jugs I have are a plastic forgery of the military style 6 gallon gas cans. They are heavy and awkward for filling the fresh water tank (although I have done it this way before.)

So, this time, I decided it was time to transport water a "little" bit easier and came up with this idea. I know there are all kinds of water containers, but this one seemed to make the most sense for us.

It's 35 gallon, got it at TSC ... (click here) ... after searching their inventory, decided the 35 gallon was priced right and still big enough to hold a decent amount of water and still small enough to fit in the bed of my pick-up without crowding too much space.

So went over to the local TSC and compared the 50 gallon, 65 gallon, and the prices and decided the 35 gallon was the best: $99.

So then, I checked the height of the bed and the truck vs the fill port on the camper, and ... yup ... water does not run "up hill", so decided to get an electric transfer pump. I considered battery operated pumps, but since I have 400 watt inverter I carry in the truck all the time, decided to go with a normal AC electric one, and can always plug it in the inverter in the truck if need be.

So, off to Lowe's and there it was ($88.00).

I put the whole thing together last night and actually decided to kill 2 birds with one stone. I sanatized the new tank and then ran the water into the camper fresh tank and filled completely.

The tank on my trailer took 45 gallons. It lists as a 47 gallon tank, so, evidently when draining from the drain plug, 2 gallons must remain in the bottom that can't be drained.

The entire process was a 100% success! I did fill the 35 gallon tank twice, I was also very curious exactly how much my fresh tank on the trailer actually holds, and finally could do it with some amount of reliability.

Now, this week-end, I can fill the trailer at the spigot when first arriving at the camp ground and can go fetch additional water as needed without having to drag 200 feet of hose through 4 different campsites and across a road to reach the spigot!

And, it now gives us the ability to camp in some spots that don't have water near by at all, which might be really nice too.

Anyway, here's the photos. (everyone loves photos).



  • I use a food-safe 55 gallon plastic drum for boondocking refills. Instead of purchasing a separate pump, I hook into my "city fill" port, set the control panel lever to "Sanitize/Winterize/Drain" and use the on-board pump to draw water from drum to tank. Works great, and only cost me $30 in parts including the drum.
  • At the risk of sounding gross, you could buy a NEW never-before-used one of these to transport your water. You would get some interesting looks while filling your tank!
  • RoyB's avatar
    RoyB
    Explorer II
    Neat idea for your larger fresh water tank...

    We too camp alot without hookups and usually spot the area that has a water spigot before arriving at the camp spot...

    Sometimes of course this doesn't work out.

    I carry four empty containers two 5-gal jeri-can types for fresh water and two 7.5-gal Aqua-tainer jugs for waste gray water.

    I also have a two-wheeled folding hand truck.

    Most places we camp at has a central located bath room and usually has an outside spigot so my daily game is take the jugs to the bath room area and dump down their toilet and bring back fresh water... I usually keep up with it pretty good...

    We also have the cassette porta potty tank to roll up to the bath room as well and dump down their toilets... Sometimes the camp area allows you to pour out your gray water around the trees so I look for those signs too... Some places also has a designated marked area for your waste water as well mixed in with the camp sites..
    This is one from Cloudland Canyo camp area...



    This is my sink water capture setup using two aqua-tainers when one fills up then I move the hose to the second one...


    I also carry a 120VAC water PUMP I pulled out of our washing machine before hauling off to the dump... It works great to fill things from a tank but of course being 120VAC I have to fire up my 2KW portable generator to run it.. The 12VDC model would suit me much better... My generator is always available sitting secured in the tailgate corner of my truck so no big deal...

    I have seen one camper have one of those waste tanks up in his truck bed and used one of the mercerator pumps to pump his tanks out into the truck bed. Then he unhooked from the pump and kept the hose up high on the truck and took that to the dump area. Then he would gravity feed the waste into the area they wanted him to use for that...

    Roy Ken
  • I can't carry a big water tank like that in my MH, so I carry 2 of the 5 gallon collapsible water carriers. They take up very little room in the box. I bought a new Shur-Flo pump, calling it a "spare" in case the one in my MH ever dies. I had already run a 12v connection to the dump station bay to hook up my macerator, so I wired it to connect to that. Here is what I ended up with:

  • Fire19 wrote:
    I have been trying to find an easy way to do this with out carrying jugs back and forth to fill the 60 gallon fresh water tank. I already have a blue boy to get rid of the grey water so that was not a problem. Can you list the part # you got from TSC and Lowes.


    TSC SKU #213732499 click here

    I couldn't find the exact one from the Lowe's web site, although there is one very close, for the same price, but the actual pump looks to be plastic. So I took a photo of the box for you:

  • I bought this water bag to place in the truck and get filled up. It was smaller than a hard sided container and it looks like it is pretty well built. Haven't had a chance to use it yet but don't see any problem.

    bag
  • I have been trying to find an easy way to do this with out carrying jugs back and forth to fill the 60 gallon fresh water tank. I already have a blue boy to get rid of the grey water so that was not a problem. Can you list the part # you got from TSC and Lowes.

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