Fresh water tank

cgmartine wrote:
So sorry guys, but this is where I take the left fork on the road. I carry just the amount of water I think I will need. Sometimes with no more than a quarter tank of water. Why carry around extra weight. I know I live life dangerously, but I also don't travel with a full tank of gas, or carry the kitchen sink with me. The lighter the load I have to pull, the better. This lifestyle may not be for you, but I live life on the edge.

Your RV didn't come with a sink? :B

bobm253 wrote:
i travel with a full water tank and empty holding tanks and have an additional supply (8 gals) of drinking water from home filtered tap. Always have.

Same here.

I use the same rule for our other tanks as I do for the main gasoline tank:

1) Travel with the main gasoline tank on at least the upper half.

2) Travel with the fresh water tank on at least the upper half.

3) Travel with the grey water tank on at least the lower half.

4) Travel with the black water tank on at least the lower half.

5) Travel with the propane tank on at least the upper half.

I try to keep the RV in the driveway at home under the same conditions. One never knows what to be prepared for.

We carry some spare fresh water, some spare gasoline, and some spare small propane bottles, too, when traveling. We purchased a motorhome specifically on a heavy duty chassis so that - for all practical purposes relative to our traveling style - it doesn't matter how much additional weight over the base weight we carry when traveling.

i travel with a full water tank and empty holding tanks and have an additional supply (8 gals) of drinking water from home filtered tap. Always have.

Its preference really but I must say that anyone that says it won't hurt your fuel mileage is wrong. More weight more fuel is used. Now with that said it may not be a major difference.

One more thing I would like to add, and this may not apply to any of the newer motorhomes, bu may apply to some of the older ones, and that is the manner in which some of the holding tanks are fastened to the underside. In some cases, the tanks are merely held by at most four L shaped brackets to the lip that protrudes from where the two halves of the tanks are joined together. I learned from personal experience that the weight of a full tank is just to much for the lip, which can break. In a motorhome I previously owned, that is exactly what happened. I had to jury rig a couple of 2 by 4's under the tank to support the weight. Like I said, not all motorhomes are built the same, but that was one reason I did not always carry a full tank of water in any of the tanks.

1/4 tank

We always travel with a full tank. I know the quality of the water at my house. We also drink only bottled water (we buy gallon jugs, usually enough for a gallon a day for the two of us). Since we mostly dry camp, we like the convenience of having a full tank. Some places we go have hand pumps in the national forests. That is fine but we try not to drink it and use our bottled water. Thirty years of rving and never had a stomach problem from water.

Our tank is 30 gallons. Sometimes, we also carry a couple of 6 gallon Jerry cans of additional water.

I always fill 'er up. I stick the hose in and go off doing other things until I hear the water overfilling onto the ground.

The couple of times we traveled with our tank close to empty, we had a heck of a time getting water. Should have known better in the southwest. We stopped at a gas station once and paid by quarters about $5 and once at an RV park that let us fill up for $3. But it was driving around finding these places that was the issue. In the RV park case we had a round trip of 40 miles from the park to get the water. I've since learned to carry "devices" to get water at various pressure less spigots, but I still prefer having the insurance of our own water.
Our fresh water is 30 gallons, our black water is 30 gallons and our grey is 36. So we carry an extra plastic container of 5 gallons outside on the storage rack and a 3 gallon drinking container under the sink.

Since ours can hold nearly 100 gals and located near the bumper, we normally carry about 25 to 30. Generally will last a few days. Generally we stay at sites with water and electric. Saves overall weight but also the unloading of the front axle.