Bruce

Wade,

I agree with you about needing some way to fill the water tank without opening up the trailer. I attached a short piece of garden hose with a female hose fitting to the water tank drain valve. I had to shim the drain valve fitting with a piece of 3/8" hose and then I pushed on the 4" section of 1/2" garden hose and clamped it down real tight. A plug will keep dirt out of the fitting when it is not in use.

Now when we pull into a campground without water at the camp site we just hook up the 25' hose I keep in the back of the van, open the TM drain valve and turn on the faucet. It takes about 8 minutes to fill up the 20 gallon tank because the drain opening is so small but we feel it beats having to open and then close down the TM or towing with a full tank. The water will come out of the vent located next to the fill cap when the tank is full and drip down between the outer and inner shells. The overfill will not go inside the trailer.

I also made a little adapter for the input (female) end of the 25' supply hose that allows us to get water from one of those chrome faucets with no hose threads. I call it my State Park Adapter since so many SP's have this style of faucet. It is just a short piece of 1/2" garden hose with a male fitting on one end, essentially the reverse of the piece attached to the TM drain valve.
I push it on the faucet, clamp it down and hold open the spring loaded valve while the tank fills up.

It would be nice if the factory would put on a larger drain valve to make this whole operation easier.

Bruce