My Water Solution

I often stay at campsites without water, and worrying about making the water last for a week or so is always a major concern - if another person is with me, the concern is amplified. It's really inconvenient to hook the whole trailer up to just get 40 gallons of water or to dump the tanks.

So...what I did...

I bought two 35 gallon "poly leg tanks" that fit in the back of my truck. I labeled one "POTABLE" and the other "WASTE" for obvious reasons.

On the potable tank, I attached fittings to and valve attach a white hose, and I have a portable 12 volt water pump (designed for a sprayer, but rated for potable water). I put a bargeman connector (like the TM uses for its' lights and brakes) on the wiring for the pump, so I can run it off of the trucks' battery easily. It takes about 20 minutes to pump all 35 gallons into the TM.

On the waste tanks, I attached a 1 inch flexible hose to the outlet, with a valve at the tank end of the hose and another valve about 1 foot from the end of the hose (you can't have too many valves when dealing with sewage, and the final 1 foot section of hose past the last valve lets me make sure I can shove the hose down the drain station opening far enough to avoid problems). Obviously 1 inch hose is smaller than 3 inch slinky hose, so to solve that problem I use a FloJet macerator to fill the sewage tank, via a garden hose fitting I attached at the top of the tank. Anything that can flow through a garden hose can easily flow through a 1 inch hose. I also have a hose cutoff valve installed at both ends of this black, contractor-grade hose (you don't want leaks dealing with sewage!). The FloJet is wired into a bargeman connector, just like the fresh water pump. I haven't tried this with completely full tanks, and haven't used it on the black tank yet (less need to dump that tank than the gray tank), as I want to be very comfortable with gray water before I try it with black! But, preliminary work seems to indicate it works great.

The only thing that I haven't done yet is secure the tanks in the pickup bed somehow - I'm still debating the best way of doing that. 35 gallons of water is 280 lbs, so it's enough weight that it probably needs to be secured fairly well. Right now, they just sit loose in the bed.

I like this solution much better than portable water containers that I have to lift up to fill the TM, and definitely much better than the blue tote for the waste water. There is no lifting involved with this setup, and the tanks are much better made than any blue tote I've seen. I don't want a graywater or blackwater leak!

With a generator, these tanks, and the auto-switching gas regulator, I can go as long as I want without moving the TM.

Joel,

This sounds like a great idea for extended boondocking. Thanks for sharing. Since pictures are worth thousands of words, would you mind posting some images of the setup?

I'll try to take some pictures this week or next and post them in this forum.

Grakin, can you tell me what screws on the Barman connector that I use to hook my pump to? I tried Aux/Ground and Running Lights/Ground and neither worked. The ignition key was on. Maybe I'm missing something . I know that the pump works because I clamped the wires to both sides of the battery. Thanks.

[MudDog]

I think you want +12V and ground.

Click here and scroll down to '7 Way vehicle connector'

Looks like you want pin 4 (1-2 O'clock position when looking at the outside picture) for +12V and Pin 1 (7-8 O'clock position) for ground.

Assuming you have a 7 way connector with the flat blades...

--jim

[Bill]

Hmm. I'm not sure which pin is referred to as "AUX". However, it is possible that this is the pin also referred to as "12 volts" (as mentioned by Mud Dog) or "battery charge". In this case the pump should have worked. However, several of our members have reported that their Chevy tow vehicle came from the factory with no fuse inserted in this line, and hence no charge current flows to the trailer battery. This might be what you are experiencing. Check this out using the fuse locater in your Chevy owner's manual.

Bill

Bill and Mud Dog, Thank you for your quick replies. By the e-trailer diagram for the seven way connector it was the 12Volt and ground that I had it wired to. It is labeled auxillary on the instuction pamplet. I will check to see if my truck has a fuse for the 12 volt tomorrow. Thanks again, you guys are the best.

In my 2005 Silverado, the fuse you are looking for is called aux 1 and is a modular fuse ( not a spade lug fuse) in the engine compartment fuse block. The wire going back to the 12V pin on the trailer connector was taped and hanging on the side of the fuse holder I had to connect the wire and add the fuse. Also the silverado has separate fuses for the trailer turn signals and running lights and that is in fuse panel on the side of the dash ( drivers door side) Just in case you ever need to find it.

Rumbleweed, thank you for the information. I did, finally, find out that I had already hooked up the wire when I installed the brake controller, but I didn't add a fuse. It's called Stud 1 in my manual. I bought a 40amp fuse and it's all good! Everyone here has great information and is always willing to share it. Thank you all and thank goodness for this forum.