filling fresh water with city water hook up

[papper]

For those of you like me that do not have tne luxury to be able to fill your fresh water tank direct with city water hookup here's what to do.Go to your fresh water pump and install a tee in the pump suction line and one to the outlet line. Now run a line between these two tee's with a shut offvalve. To fill the tank with city water hook up just open this newly install bypass valve.Make sure the pump is shut off.
To explain this. The pump suction line is hook up to the fresh water tank and the pump outlet line is hook up to city water so with this bypass open city water will fill the tank.I always open the tank lid in case the vent line would be plug. After the tank is full don't forget to shut off the valve

[All_I_could_aff]

My trailer has the gravity fill on the door side about 2 feet away from my outdoor shower. Once or twice over the years I have stuck the shower hose in the tank filler and let it fly. Rarely do I see another trailer with the outdoor shower on the door side

[mbopp]

milo wrote:
Hmmmmmm interesting!
On ours, the only way to fill the FW tank is by using the city water inlet. There's no gravity fill hole. There's a lever that is rotated from tank fill to city water usage. Makes it a pain to winterize. And no I can't get to the pump to add a winterization kit without taking a cabinet apart or taking the docking station out.

On our Grand Design we have the lever to fill the FW tank from the city inlet. And in 2017 models GD added a gravity fill port. We do have a winterizing valve and hose but I have to remove a side panel on the docking station to access it.

[Sam_Spade]

RLS7201 wrote:

Just so you know, many RVs come from the factory with the mod the OP did. Including my 95 Bounder.
It's a good feature for those with a positive attitude. Try it, you'll like it.

Richard

And just so YOU will know:
I knew that already.

And I assume that the models equipped like that are well known and well documented.

Non-standard modifications are neither a known for that model nor documented at all probably.
Under those circumstances it CAN become a problem.

And pointing that out is neither positive nor negative but practical.....and intended to be helpful in some cases.

[RedRocket204]

Another plus for this MOD is if you have a water filter on your city water hook up, filling the fresh tank, under most cases, is probably being filtered. At least it would be the case for my set-up.

[RLS7201]

Sam Spade wrote:

papper wrote:
For those that don't already have that option' why not.

There actually are some "why nots", although minor.

It is an unnecessary confusion for the next owner or other members of the family if they turn on the pump and have no pressure.

It is potentially bad for the pump.....IF you accidentally leave the bypass on and turn on the pump......and don't notice that it is running constantly.

Just so you know, many RVs come from the factory with the mod the OP did. Including my 95 Bounder.
It's a good feature for those with a positive attitude. Try it, you'll like it.

Richard

[milo]

Hmmmmmm interesting!
On ours, the only way to fill the FW tank is by using the city water inlet. There's no gravity fill hole. There's a lever that is rotated from tank fill to city water usage. Makes it a pain to winterize. And no I can't get to the pump to add a winterization kit without taking a cabinet apart or taking the docking station out.

[Walaby]

papper wrote:
This modification as noting to do with the grey water tank

Think he was just saying that overall, need to factor how to winterize with your mod.

Interesting though. I didn't realize that some RV's have the fresh water fill point on the opposite side of the city connection. My first TT, and now my second one, have them on the same side.

I use the hose extension with the 1ft clear nozzle. Works good for me.

Mike

[papper]

This modification as noting to do with the grey water tank

[TakingThe5th]

The lesson I learned with my grey water system was to thnk about how you are going to winterize your modified system. Think about water entrapment, low point drains, etc. Just saying ...

[papper]

I like your idea about adding water to the tank with the winterizing pipe.

[rekoj71]

TakingThe5th wrote:
Your modifications could be augmented to facilitate the winterizing process as well. Put a tee valve on the suction side of the pump and add a hose to the tee valve and you are ready to suck antifreeze out of a jug. The valve will control the source of liquid for the pump; fresh water tank or jug. Cap off that new hose when not in use for extra safety.

Mine came from the factory with exactly this.

I added a mod where I added a "T" after the pump and a spigot in the bay on my passenger side that is just below the Fresh Water Fill Gravity port (also on my passenger side), I keep a short hose on it with a sprayer kinda like having a outside shower on my passenger side, although only cold water. Now I can fill the gravity feed with this hose that is there all the time (I like the OP's idea a lot too and may go that route also, but read for the next trick).

The above hose (in the quoted section) that was originally designed to help with winterizing, can be used to fill the Gravity Fresh Water Fill also. Now I use the winterizing hose dropped into my portable water container with the valve set to winterizing, turn on the RV water pump and let it suck the water up out of the portable container and I then use my new spigot and hose to dispense it into the gravity hole. Now I don't have to lift a large water container or carry an extra 12v pump when boon docking and wanting to fill the tank from portable containers.

[Sam_Spade]

papper wrote:
For those that don't already have that option' why not.

There actually are some "why nots", although minor.

It is an unnecessary confusion for the next owner or other members of the family if they turn on the pump and have no pressure.

It is potentially bad for the pump.....IF you accidentally leave the bypass on and turn on the pump......and don't notice that it is running constantly.

[jvharal]

Good idea, thanks for sharing.

[papper]

For those that don't already have that option' why not.