TrailManor water treatment options under boil water advisory

[rich2468]

Hello fellow TrailManor owners!
I'm considering heading north next summer into Canada for an extended camping trip and have found that different provincial parks may or may not have boil water advisories in place.

I've never run into a boil water advisory here in the US (although I know there is always a possibility, too) and I typically carry a couple of 5-gallon water cubes on extended trips to use strictly for drinking.

It's not always convenient to find a place to fill those 5-gallon cubes when in-route from one destination to the next and I'd rather not run boil water advisory water through my interior water lines (and later need to disinfect them)- so I'm looking for ideas of what others have done.

I always use a Camco inline water filter to help with particulate matter and taste when using a "city" water connection or when filling my onboard freshwater tank, but that's not going to cut it for biological contaminates.

Due to the limited space in our campers and the likely limited need, I'm considering just picking up some Aquatabs (or something similar) and trying to figure out a way to get them into my freshwater tank to treat water there...
but I'm not completely opposed to investigate installing an inline LED Ultraviolet Water Filter Purifier as it looks like the power needs are realistic (for running one off 12 Volt DC).

I know that I'll need to match a water flow restrictor to the capacity of any Ultraviolet Water Filter and realize that doing that will have to align with the needs (requirement) of my DW who has to have sufficient water pressure/volume to shampoo her hair every so often or else that solution will be doomed.

Does anyone have anything that they use (or are prepared to use) when you have to take on water from a source under boil advisory?



Thanks,
Rich

 

[Shane826]

No sure about what to do with the boil advisory but you should also use the Camco online filter when filling the fresh tank. You don’t want all that sediment in the tank, pump, or plumbing.

 

[Kidkraz]

Try searching for survival/off grid water filtration systems. Or after disasters. The link below is one of several filtration options out there. Years ago, I went white water rafting and the tour folks had a large hand pump style water filter. It was about 30-36 inchs tall, and could pump a gallon or so from a stream for drinking. I'm sure technology has reduced the sizes of quality filtration. Good luck, post what you find. I could be useful to other here in case of emergencies, not just camping.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00QFXGSIY?tag=bestwelding-20&linkCode=ogi&th=1&psc=1

 

[rich2468]

Thank you Shane and Kidkraz for the thoughts.
In looking at what's available vs. what's practical (ongoing maintenance/ cost/ complexity) for a 4 to 6 week trip where water coming out of the tap may be under a boil advisory has led me to decide to just pick up a two or three stage external (canister) filter system to use when filling the fresh water holding tank followed by putting in an appropriate amount of Aquatabs in the freshwater holding tank (via yet to be installed access hatch). For any drinking/ cooking use of the water coming from my TM's kichen faucet, I'll use a Brita pitcher to ensure that residual Aquatab taste is minimized.

Ronco Plastics sells what I think will be an appropriate inspection hatch for the Polyethylene freshwater tank and I believe I can find a food grade gasket material to ensure the hatch doesn't leak.

Trying to add a LED UV purification filter system to my TrailManor's plumbing system would add a lot higher cost and need for maintenance (ongoing and end-of-season) than I'd want to deal with, but can see why the guys who do overlanding adventures (for months on end) would use UV.

 

[Dan3023]

I would just buy some of those big bottles of water. I'd just feel more safe than hoping the filters worked.

 

[rich2468]

Following up on this thread:
My Newfoundland trip last Spring/ Summer ending up lasting 56 days with 32 days of boondocking/ dry camping, so taking the "boil advisory" water that was available at their Provincial parks and being able to safely run it through my TrailManor's plumbing was critical.

The flow rates of 12 volt powered Ultra Violet sanitizing solutions I found proved to be much too low and I'd still have to filter water quite a bit so that the UV rays could effectively kill smaller biological bugs, so I ended up purchasing a mini-sized 3 stage filter which worked well for the trip.

The Clearsource Ultra Mini RV Water Filter System (which includes a virus filter) that I used was completely effective, but the first-stage sediment filter became clogged much sooner than I could have ever imagined. By the 6th use it looked like it had been rolled in mud and the flow rate was miserable (below 2 gallons a minute), so I resorted to having to use a standard Camco Taste Pure as a make-shift prefilter as I began use of my second set of Clearsource filters for the trip.

Putting the Camco filter in place before my Clearsource 3 stage allowed me to stretch the life of 2nd set through the remainder of the trip.

We used municipal water in my two 5 gallon water cubes as much as possible for drinking, but used the Clearsource filtered water in my fresh water tank for cooking/ cleaning/ washing and then finally drinking as the water cubes were emptied. We didn't pick up any stomach bugs, so feel that the Clearsource filters did their job (but were definitely expensive).