Water tank

jenandjon · May 29, 2018

I have been using a 55 gallon barrel for extra water. I put a valve stem in one bung to pressurize it. forcing the water through a hose to refill my tank. I was wondering how you all set yours up. I had my barrel laying the bed of my pickup. I plugged in a cheap Wal-Mart air compressor to pressurize it. It's slow but it works. My fresh water tank in my 5th wheel only holds about 25 gallons. Someone changed it out once for whatever reason I don't know. I can refill it twice without dumping my waste tanks.

I want to mount something down on the frame of the truck. I can pressurize it off the truck air tanks and just turn on a valve. Something along the lines of a water tank off a cement mixer but I only need 50 gallons. Maybe I am overthinking the whole thing.

Edited May 29, 2018 by jenandjon

Yarome · May 29, 2018

I use a standard 12v RV type water pump for refills. Cheap, easy and it's always nice having a "spare" water pump on hand if the house pump were to fail. It's also easily moved between different water feed sources.

Lance A Lott · May 29, 2018

I have two 33 gallon tanks, from eBay, mounted out side of the frame. Or will have whenI Get them on. I have the same setup on my ton truck only smaller tanks so I Know it works. They are plumed together at the bottom with Ts for the fill and drain. I have a high volume pump I believe 5 gpm, also eBay. This works very well. I had the tank in the bed of the pickup like you and also,tried the air route. it was slow and took a lot of attention to keep the right amount of pressure. You could use a pressure control valve but I question the longevity of a plastic tank being pressured and depressed like that.

Let me know if you would like a drawing or pictures. I also have a black water holding tank on the ton truck and soon on the Volvo I use a mascarater pump on the trailer to pump,it to the truck. I have a pump on the truck for emptying as well.

Randyretired · May 30, 2018

I have a 100 gallon fresh water tank mounted on my truck and use a RV pump to transfer the water. Sometimes I add a 50 gallon plastic barrel and just add a piece of pex to the pump inlet to reach the bottom of the barrel. The pump is wired to battery clips so it can be used by others.

NeverEasy · May 30, 2018

The RV water pump works well for me, too. On mine, there is a female hose fitting on the "in" side and a male hose fitting on the "out" side. I made a 55 gal barrel length "U" shaped pipe out of PVC that will go into the white plastic barrel and hang over the side. The barrel end has a water filter. The outside end has a male hose fitting that attaches to the pump. The output of the pump is fed to a FW hose and attached to the City Water Connection on the trailer. I don't need to transfer to the FWT but I can.

For gray water and black (if I have to), I carry two blue plastic 55 gallon drums. Like Lance A Lot, a macerator pump is used to dump the trailer contents into the tank. When I get home, I just fill a 3/4 inch hose with water, put one end in the barrel and the drop the other end into the septic tank fill port. Mr gravity does the work.

Lance A Lott · May 30, 2018

My wife and I dry camp in a horse camp ground for two weeks, more if the Park Ranger is not around. This means three or four dumps black and gray, more fresh water. I had a 30 gallon tow behind tank looked a little funny behind a ton truck. It was a pain, smelled bad and took forever. Now Nadine comes out sees me in the lounge chair and says I thought you were going to dump. All done and fresh filled. Almost fun, its probably the best mod I have done. Nadine won't let me take the Volvo in August if I don't have the water works done.

jenandjon · May 30, 2018

See I knew I was over thinking this. What do you use for a vent? Lance a lott that would be great if I could see a diagram.

Lance A Lott · May 30, 2018

Got to take the middle boy to dmv for driving test today but I will get back to you. The tanks I bought have 4 outlets on one end two 1" fpt and two 3/8 fpt They are on opposite corners so just use the small one as a vent. I will apologize in advance for my artistic talent.

RandyA · May 31, 2018

When my youngest son outgrew his super-single-twin waterbed I re-purposed the mattress. It is not baffled or chambered and is constructed out of some really thick/heavy vinyl. I take it along when we go off grid camping. So far I have only used it for gray water collection and dumping. It is easy to store, unroll and fill with a macerator pump as needed. I just lay it flat on the bed of the Volvo, fill it up and drive to a dump station. I have often thought a "clean" one would be great for potable water but not knowing how much or if any lead is in the vinyl I have not tried it. For potable water, I have a 50-gallon drinking water safe tank from Northern Tool and an extra 12V Shurflo pump. My first hard side camper was a 19' Vega (1973). The fresh water tank was in the front of the trailer under the jack-knife sofa bed - a 25 gallon galvanized steel tank with a 12VDC compressor set for 30 psi rather than a water pump. It had a full bath but no gray water tank. You used a bucket, blue tank or just let it run onto the ground. The black tank was 20 gallons.

ALLOY · May 31, 2018

Pulled out the 70gal that was next to the front pass through and installed two 120gal tanks over the axles.

Edit....would air from a compressor contaminate the water?

Edited May 31, 2018 by ALLOY

tyates007 · May 31, 2018

I have a 120 gallon well pressure tank. I fill up and the internal bladder pushes the water back out. Ball valve and hose bib controls. Have been using for years. Works very well. Just like having full hookups.

jenandjon · May 31, 2018

8 hours ago, ALLOY said:

Edit....would air from a compressor contaminate the water?

That is a good question. I have used the little compressor in my picture above along with a small oil less compressor form harbor freight. I dont think they would have anything in there to contaminate the water. Using the truck air I really don't know. It might. I am changing my thinking from air to a separate 12v pump. That just makes more sense to me.

jenandjon · May 31, 2018

6 hours ago, tyates007 said:

I have a 120 gallon well pressure tank. I fill up and the internal bladder pushes the water back out. Ball valve and hose bib controls. Have been using for years. Works very well. Just like having full hookups.

That is a good idea.

RandyA · May 31, 2018

11 hours ago, ALLOY said:

Edit....would air from a compressor contaminate the water?

It could, depending on how much oil blow-by the truck compressor has and what the atmosphere is like when you charge the drum. The oil-less compressor without a tank using a moisture/dust filter to collect condensation and grow microscopic critters would be my 2nd choice. An RV water pump would be my first choice. You can pick up disposable airline filters for paint spraying at Wal-Mart or Harbor Freight that would contain any airborne particles larger than 1 micron.

crazybanshee · June 5, 2018

I have a 55 gal tank mounted on each side of the frame in front of the fuel tanks. They are plumbed into the side box where a RV pump is used to the 5th wheel. Bought the clear tanks at a Tractor supply house.

Jim Gell · June 6, 2018

crazybanshee,

How did you plumb into the tank from Tractor Supply? If it's like the one I looked at, it has a 3/4 inch NPT drain and a 5" screw on cap on top. I assume you pump in and out the drain hole. How did you install a vent line to the top?

Thanks,

Jim

crazybanshee · June 6, 2018

I have a 55 gal tank mounted on each side of the frame in front of the fuel tanks. They are plumbed into the side box where a RV pump is used to the 5th wheel. Bought the clear tanks at a Tractor supply house.

the tank has a 1" inlet on top that I plumbed into a marine water inlet with the flush screw top that is on top the bed. I drilled a 3/8" hole in the cap and used a brass fitting for a vent line.

Lance A Lott · June 6, 2018

picture did not post I will work on it.

Sorry this took so long, and that my artistic ability is as bad as my penmanship and spelling. They do work wery well. The tanks come from ebay and have 4 ports on one end 2 large and 2 small they are on opposite corners so you can flip the tank. I drew the rinse pipe on the wrong side, it is on the same end as the vent and drain. You drill the 1\2 inch npt fitting through so the pipe can pass through and be glued in place.

Edited June 6, 2018 by Lance A Lott
Add diagram

jenandjon · June 6, 2018

8 hours ago, Lance A Lott said:

picture did not post I will work on it.

Sorry this took so long, and that my artistic ability is as bad as my penmanship and spelling. They do work wery well. The tanks come from ebay and have 4 ports on one end 2 large and 2 small they are on opposite corners so you can flip the tank. I drew the rinse pipe on the wrong side, it is on the same end as the vent and drain. You drill the 1\2 inch npt fitting through so the pipe can pass through and be glued in place.

Thats fine. I'm not doing it right now anyway. Just getting a plan together.

Lance A Lott · June 6, 2018

7 hours ago, jenandjon said:

Thats fine. I'm not doing it right now anyway. Just getting a plan together.

Looks like i got it feel free to contact me if you have questions, anyone. Lance

Brad NSW · June 6, 2018

Great source for RV tanks of ALL sizes and prices look fairly reasonable. All plumbed for pumps and vents.

RV tank source

I'll probably order from them when I figure out where we want to put an extra fresh water tank.

Ronbo · June 6, 2018

A lot of these tank suppliers will spin weld the fittings onto the tank if you provide instructions as to location and size.

Imurphy907 · June 7, 2018

I don't haul a car at this point. So I use a 275 gallon IBC tote on the back of the truck. When I build my bed it will have at least 100 gallons of water storage designed into it.