Towing with toilet charged and fresh water tank full

[whitegs]

We are going to Lexington for Thanksgiving, and the campground (Kentucky Horse Park) shuts off its water Nov. 1. I'd like to fill the fresh water tank and charge the toilet before leaving. Any harm in that? Will the toilet slosh water over the floor of the bathroom?

Doc

[ShrimpBurrito]

Nope. I do it all the time.

Dave

[Bluegrass]

We are going to Lexington for Thanksgiving, and the campground (Kentucky Horse Park) shuts off its water Nov. 1. I'd like to fill the fresh water tank and charge the toilet before leaving. Any harm in that? Will the toilet slosh water over the floor of the bathroom?

Doc

No, it won't slosh onto the floor. No problem with either filling the water tank or charging the head.

That said, filling the water tank will add a little more weight but unless you are already close to your towing capacity, it's not a problem.

[B_and_D]

Some have reported having the toilet slosh out of the bowl when traveling, but I believe this is more apt to occur when the toilet is full. Others have suggested wrapping the top with plastic wrap to avoid this. It doesn't take much to charge the toilet to the point where it flushes. We keep an empty 2L soda bottle (larger mouth than the ordinary 1.5L) in the trailer for filling water in case we need to, it's lightweight and doesn't take up much room. Sometimes we fill it up with drinking water before we leave because our well water tastes so much better than most water we have tasted at various campgrounds.

As to traveling with the water tank full, many people also do this for convenience. We usually keep at least a small amount of water in there "just in case".

The only drawback I know to traveling with your water tank full is weight and how this might add to the risk of blowouts.

[whitegs]

Sometimes it's nice to have a little reassurance that what you think is true really is.:)

Doc

[PopBeavers]

I always leave home full of water, because sometimes my destination has had a water safety problem.

I have the optional 40 gallon water tank, so I carry about 333 pounds, plus whatever is is the toilet.

I have never had a sloshing problem with the toilet, even when leaving the campground. I sometimes have to tow 150 miles to the most convenient dump station along the way home. I have never covered with plastic wrap.

[Bill]

Most people don't have a sloshing problem, but a few do. I've experienced minor sloshing, and even when it is minor, and even when clean water is what sloshes, it was annoying to clean up. So now, instead of putting the charge water into the toilet before leaving home, I put it in a couple one-gallon milk jugs, and carry the jugs in the bathtub. Then, in the comfort and security of the campground, I charge the toilet and throw the jugs away. Kind of like what B_and_D described.

Bill

[Wavery]

I never tow with water in the camper so I don't know about "Sloshing". All of the CGs that we have been to have water available somewhere in the CG. We just fill up and charge toilet when we arrive if we are dry camping. If the CG doesn't have water anywhere (which I've never encountered), I'd just find a place close by that has water.

I carry an empty 2G plastic jug (with a large lid) that I fill up and use for charging the toilet. I also use that jug as my private......ahhhhhhhh......dare I say it????....uranal while camping. I just put potty chemicals in it, (just like the toilet). It saves a lot of room in the camper's toilet for the rest of the family and I can take it to the restroom and dump it in the toilet.

The trick is to remember to put water in the tank before you set-up.....:cool:.

[PopBeavers]

I never tow with water in the camper so I don't know about "Sloshing". All of the CGs that we have been to have water available somewhere in the CG. We just fill up and charge toilet when we arrive if we are dry camping. If the CG doesn't have water anywhere (which I've never encountered), I'd just find a place close by that has water.


I used to think that way, but have been burned twice:

1. a few years ago we camped at Laguna Seca Raceway, in Monterrey, CA to attend a mountain Bike race. Signs posted at the restrooms said to boil the water before using.

2. In the late 1970's, of the many trips we camped at the Forest Service campground at Lake Shasta, (near Antler's) the water pump had failed late Friday, and there would be no one to fix it until Monday.

Lesson: unless you call shortly before you arrive, you will not know if the campground water is actually working and safe. Mostly it is. But when I arrive late on a Friday night after dark I like having my water from home.

This year we went twice to a new campground. We really like it, because we can ride the ATVs and off-road motorcycles from camp to the forest trails. The water source is a pipe at a spring near the campground entrance. I have several 7 gallon water containers that I use to refill, but it sure is easier the first two days to start out with the water from home.

[Beak12]

I have always put enough water and chemical in the toilet to just see water flow when I hit the power switch. Never had a problem of anything getting on the floor.

And there have always been water in any campground I visit. I do carry about 1/3 full just in case.:confused:

[markandanne]

I second that it's sensible to always keep some water in the tank, even when you fully expect full hookups at a campground. This summer I went to Maine and back with the girls. On our return, a brief but fierce thunderstorm hit the campground in rural PA right after we arrived. I had just leveled and was getting ready to pop the shells when it struck but the storm was so intense we retreated to the TV and hung out there until the wind and downpour eased up a half-hour later. Once I got set up and hooked up to the utilities, I found out that the campground had lost power so not only no electricity for the night but also diminishing water pressure until we had none by the next morning. Luckily the toilet was charged, the battery topped off from traveling, and I could both cook with propane and cool the frig with it so we were fine. Looking at all the tree damage driving out the next day, including the limb that fell on the unit parked a couple sites away from mine, I was thankful to have only suffered the minor inconvenience of lacking a few utilities I had expected to have. I also resolved to always at least have the hot water heater filled up and 5-10 gallons in the tank, just in case.

[wmtire]

I've pulled back home with the toilet charged a few times, with no problems or water sloshing out. Mainly, because I didn't feel like waiting in the long line at the dump stations.

After reading here of others encountering water problems at the campgrounds, I really liked the advice by Bill of carrying a few jugs of water in the tub, just in case. I am going to start doing that now.

Thanks

[PopBeavers]

One of the reasons that I tow with a full tank of water is because there is no penalty in taking my own water with me.

If I leave home empty, then there is sometimes a penalty at the destination if they have a water or power problem, or I have a breakdown along the way.

There is a theoretical penalty for carrying a half a tank of water. When a water tank is full or empty, it does not slosh. When it is partially full, the water can slosh, which can, theoretically, contribute to instability under some circumstances.

My total weight driving down the road is around 10,000 pounds. Saving weight by eliminating 150 pounds of water (half a tank) is not going to save me any money in gas. Filling the tank half way instead of all the way is not going to save me any time, either.

I can find no advantage at all in leaving home with less than a full load of water: charged toilet, 40 gallons of fresh water, and the water heater full.

[Wavery]

We never drink water out of our tank. We put our drinking water in 1.5G mylar water storage bags. We bring 3 or 4 on each camp-out and that services all of our drinking water needs and avoids any emergency situations.

I bought a box of 10 of these a few years back and I'll be darned if I can remember where I got them. It was an online survival store but I just can't find it:new_cussi. They were about $1 each and I need to reorder.

These things are so strong that I can fill them up with water and stand on them (I weigh 225#).

http://beprepared.com/images/250/ZA-B100.jpg

[greentrail]

Any chance it's from this place?

http://beprepared.com/product.asp?pn=ZA%20B100&bhcd2=1258771494

The picture looks the same. I just googled mylar water storage bags

[greentrail]

Duh....nevermind. You copied the picture probably from the same site.

[Bill]

I have a number of those bags around. They're all labelled "Franzia". Being from California, you should know about that! By the way, how do you fill them - the opening seems kind of small.

Bill

[Bluegrass]

I have a number of those bags around. They're all labelled "Franzia". Being from California, you should know about that! By the way, how do you fill them - the opening seems kind of small.

Bill

For those that didn't understand where Bill gets his bags:

http://www.franzia.com/

[Wavery]

I have a number of those bags around. They're all labelled "Franzia". Being from California, you should know about that! By the way, how do you fill them - the opening seems kind of small.

Bill

The spout pulls off. It's a bit of a struggle but they snap off & snap back on again. I've never had one leak.

The 1st time that I ever used them was in 1995 in Australia. We finished a 5L "Box" of wine, took out the bag and filled it with water for a trip into the outback on our newly aquired motorcycle (Honda 250.....we paid $300 for it and sold it for $400 when we left). It worked out so well that we went to the winery to see where they bought them. The owner of the winery gave me about 100 of them after we told him that we were sailing around the world.

I filled about 20 of them with good drinking water and put them in the bilge of the boat. I used them for many years. The only problem is, sometimes the inner layers will delaminate and water will get between the layers. You can see it when you dump them out. That's when you know it is time to replace them.

It's best to find the 1.5 gallon size because they are very manageable @ 12#. 5G of water weighs 40#. Not exactly something that you would want to carry around.