How to fill water tank with TM folded

Here's some info from a long time ago - same subject. . . .

"A year or more ago, someone on this board suggested a rather clever idea. There are four fresh water drains hanging down under the TM. Find the one that drains the fresh water tank, and measure the diameter of the hose barb (the ridged round tube) on the downstream end of the shutoff valve. Go to HomeDepot/Lowes/etc and get a 3" length of clear flexible vinyl tube that will fit the hose barb. Get a female garden hose adapter (brass) with the same barb size, to insert into the other end of the tube. And get two stainless steel screw clamps. Finally, get a snap-on dust cap to keep the fitting clean while you drive (you may have to get this from an RV shop.) Put the garden hose adapter into one end of the vinyl tube and clamp it; attached the other end of the tube to the drain valve and clamp it. With this assembly in place, draining the tank still works as it always did, but you can now fill the tank via the drain line, simply by attaching a garden hose to the fitting. Fill slowly until water comes out of the overflow vent and runs down the outside of the TM.

As I recall, the downside is that filling the tank through this small hose is a pretty leisurely process - maybe 15 minutes? If you have something else to do - like check in to the campground, buy a few things at the camp store, etc - this may be OK. If you are in a hurry, it may be best to simply pop the shells and get it done, as Teresa suggests.

Bill"

Fill water tank with TM closed

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Here is the original message of mine Bill alluded to on this thread.
Not sure of the reason for all the confusing script in these old messages?

Bruce

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 Martin
Orlando, FL
2000 3124 KS/'96 Astro Van
160 watt solar panels and catalytic heater

[Speckul8r]

And, as luck would have it , the fill, and hence the overflow, are right at the front window curtain on my 2720. Rats!!!!!!!!! This is still a good idea but I'll have to reroute that dern overflow tube. Sounds like another fall project.

There are nippled brass hose fittings to fit just about any size tubing available at home center and hardware stores, if not specialty plumbing stores. Check there for the fittings you need.

(This is still a good idea but I'll have to reroute that dern overflow tube.)

Why not put a "T" in the overflow tube and run an additional hose out a hole in the floor? Obviously, the "T" would have to be lower than the regular overflow vent, but not so low as to allow water to flow from the tank.

[Speckul8r]

That is a thought, Jim, but it's hovering around 100 right now so that project will sit on hold for a bit.
If I do this, I'll probably totally reroute the tube so I'm sure not to splash that curtain. A small hole, a little foam sealant, shouldn't be a terrible job.

How about if you disconnect the original vent, (maybe plug it) put a new hose that is long enough to reach up high enough to fill the tank completely, then go back down and through the floor? With a loop in it the water wouldn't syphon out and it would also work when filling through the original filler tube.

[Speckul8r]

The overflow should be at the top of the tank so I don't see a problem with siphoning. When I have chance, and it's cooler, I'll stick my head in there and see what gives. I'm pretty sure that I could just disconnect that little tube and stick it thru the floor with minimal effort.

[CAmark]

Sounds simple and convenient. The question that comes to my mind is for the need to disinfect the line prior to using this great solution. It seems that there is a risk of "undesirables" living on the drain valve since it is unprotected during driving, a quick Lysol job would do it I think.
Only my $0.02

I sure wish I had seen Charlie's simple idea before I did this, but I got the idea from another post on this forum in early 2006 and finally got around to doing it this week.

Here is the photographic results. All parts were found at Lowe's. You start by stepping up the 3/8 flex tube to 3/4 and keeping it 3/4 all the way to the hose connection. I did not want screw into the floor, so I epoxied a board to the floor to anchor the fittings with AL angle pieces.

[countrygirl]

Cool pic...thanks.