Re-Filling the fresh water tank while boondocking

[1jessicastafford]

We have a 2018 Cardinal and we are boondocking for 10 days. We need to add water to the fresh tank. It does not have a gravity fill ability so the old funnel and external pump won't work. It has valves. I already have buckets of water and a hose... Can anyone tell me how to do this?

[Cypressloser]

Drill pump on a cordless drill doing >1,500 RPM and a rubber band to hold the trigger.
Another option is to connect a hose to the winterizing valve on the water pump and use it to fill the fresh water tank.

[rockfordroo]

If you have enough power to your on-board pump (like if you have a generator or enough solar cells) you can suck water out of a jug or other container using your anti-freeze connection and your outside shower. See attached PDF diagram of how to do it.

Note the diagram shows the water going into a gravity feed FW fill. See post #17 of this thread for the connection someone made to hook the outside shower hose to their threaded FW fill connection.

http://www.forestriverforums.com/for...-128573-2.html

Other people just buy another pump, put a 7-pin connector on it, plug the 7-pin into their tow vehicle, then pump the water from their container into a the FW tank with a hose that screws to the FW fill. Some just power it from their TT battery. See here:

http://www.forestriverforums.com/for...er-137042.html

Here's another option if you just want to pour:

http://www.forestriverforums.com/for...od-137369.html

[1jessicastafford]

That isn't working...

[1jessicastafford]

??

[rockfordroo]

Originally Posted by rockfordroo

OPTION #1: If you have enough power to your on-board pump (like if you have a generator or enough solar cells) you can suck water out of a jug or other container using your anti-freeze connection and your outside shower. See attached PDF diagram of how to do it.

Note the diagram shows the water going into a gravity feed FW fill. See post #17 of this thread for the connection someone made to hook the outside shower hose to their threaded FW fill connection.

http://www.forestriverforums.com/for...-128573-2.html

OPTION #2: Other people just buy another pump, put a 7-pin connector on it, plug the 7-pin into their tow vehicle, then pump the water from their container into a the FW tank with a hose that screws to the FW fill. Some just power it from their TT battery. See here:

http://www.forestriverforums.com/for...er-137042.html

OPTION #3: Here's another option if you just want to pour:

http://www.forestriverforums.com/for...od-137369.html

Originally Posted by 1jessicastafford

??

Yeah, Option #1 probably won't work for you. But Options #2 and #3 I think are still viable.

(Still possible Option #1 would work, but you'd have to trace all your piping and those 5 valves and figure out what the flowpaths look like.)

[Cypressloser]

You can still try the methods I explained earlier. With your setup however, keep the suction hose short and elevate your buckets off the ground to help the pump prime the line.

[1jessicastafford]

We bought another pump, tried to pump into the city water connection, burned up the new pump.

[Skyliner]

I have a cheap harbor freight water transfer pump that is powered by 12 volts DC. It works great sucking water put of 7 gallon (blue) water containers to fill my gravity fill for my fresh water tank.

At first, I powered it using my portable jump starter battery pack, then used my ATV while running to power it via a cigarette lighter, and now I finally hard wired a 12 volt plug next to the gravity fill hole to power the pump.

WORKS AWESOME!

https://www.harborfreight.com/12-vol...ump-63324.html

[rockfordroo]

Originally Posted by 1jessicastafford

We bought another pump, tried to pump into the city water connection, burned up the new pump.

Did you have the valves lined up for PowerFILL TANK??

[1jessicastafford]

We got it! Called the manufacturer of the water valve system and they walked us through it. Turns out I had to pour water into the hose to prime it before it could create a siphon. I'm back in business with water!

[redleg719]

Get another 12 v pump & hook it to city water connection. We do it quite often when we boondock.

[JR Smith]

Just leave the blue jugs in the pickup and put a hose on a 12volt rv wp that is rigged to plug into trailer 7 way on back of pickup.no strain no pain.done it for years works great.

[pmsherman]

I had this problem when camping in a national park that didn't allow attaching a hose to the hydrant. My solution was to install a hose adapter in the bathroom sink, a replacement for the aerator. I ran a hose from the faucet to the fill port for the fresh water tank.

To fill the tank, I set the system to winterize and put the intake hose into a 5 gallon collapsible water jug. Turn on the cold water at the sink and the RV's pump pulled water from the jug, out the faucet, through the hose then into the fresh tank. A few trips with the jug to the hydrant and I had plenty of water again.

Phil

[rockfordroo]

Originally Posted by pmsherman

I had this problem when camping in a national park that didn't allow attaching a hose to the hydrant. My solution was to install a hose adapter in the bathroom sink, a replacement for the aerator. I ran a hose from the faucet to the fill port for the fresh water tank.

To fill the tank, I set the system to winterize and put the intake hose into a 5 gallon collapsible water jug. Turn on the cold water at the sink and the RV's pump pulled water from the jug, out the faucet, through the hose then into the fresh tank. A few trips with the jug to the hydrant and I had plenty of water again.

Phil

Sounds basically like the outside-shower-to-the-FW-fill that I described in Post #3, only you used the inside faucet and a hose instead of the outside shower hose.

[extremebike]

I use a Uline 30 gallon barrel to refill. I don't have Power Fill so I bought a pump and pump directly into my fresh water fill inlet.

https://www.uline.ca/Product/Detail/...ed-Top-Natural