I’m just going to get this out of the way …
… filling your water tank isn’t that hard to do.
Make sure you put the hose into the proper entry point and turn on the water. Just make sure you know the difference between your city water port and your black water flush port. Your city water is where you put the hose when you want water and you don’t want to use your freshwater tank. Your black water flush port (if you have one) allows you to blast the inside of your tank with water to clean it out and remove the bits in that black water tank you want to stick around.
But, if you’ve never filled your freshwater tank before, there are a few things you should know …
… at least I wished I’d known these things.
Tip #1: Don’t freak out if the freshwater tank overflow valves begin spouting out water
I freaked out …
… I’d never filled my tank before, and I have a big tank–it’s 90 gallons. When I began filling it up, the thing was completely empty. I figured it would take about 15 minutes to fill, so I went inside for a few minutes later.
Five minutes later I walked outside to my horror the ground was completely soaked. I ran to the hose side of the rig and saw two small hoses I’d never paid any attention to spouting out gallons of water. Assuming the worse, I figure my fresh water tank was cracked and that those two small hoses were for something not related to my freshwater tank.
I turned the water off and looked in the undercarriage of my rig but I didn’t see any water.
Then I called over my buddy who also happens to be an RV tech and he told me something that blew my mind. Those two small hoses were actually the overflow for the freshwater tank, just in case the water pressure is too high, or you forget to turn off the water because your kid ran through the house and broke something.
The next thing I did was try to figure out how my 90-gallon tank had filled up in five minutes. It turns out, the park we were at (it’s called Wilderness Lakes RV Park in Temecula, CA) had insanely high pressure–pressure that could fill a 90-gallon freshwater tank in 90 minutes.
That’s insane; now you get another tip just because of that experience.
Tip #2: Use a Water Pressure Regulator
Fortunately, I had a regulator on my rig at the time, or that water pressure could have done a number on my plumbing, and then I would have really been in a world of hurt …
If there’s one thing I can guarantee at EVERY SINGLE RV park or campground you visit it’s this: none of them have the same water pressure.
Some of the are really low, like 10-15 psi, and some of them are ridiculous, like 70 psi; some of them are different depending on the time of day you’re using the water.
You can pick one up at just about any hardware store like Ace, Home Depot, Lowe’s, or True Value. Just make sure you have it there to protect your pipes, and make sure you have it dialed in to 45 psi–55 if you really want good pressure when it’s available.
Tip #3: Don’t Forget your Water Tank is Full
A friend of mine (Let’s call him Garmin) was traveling for a few hours. He was in a Ford and he was pulling a travel trailer with 2 axles. As he was driving on one of the US’s trusty interstates, he came across a bridge.
It was just a regular bridge, no different than any of the other bridges he’d crossed on the interstate, but this time, something was different.
If you could believe it, the connection of the bridge to the road was more off-balance than normal. Under normal circumstances, Garmin wouldn’t have had anything other than a slightly stressful realization that his rig was bouncing. Unfortunately, these circumstances weren’t normal.
You see, he’d just finished boondocking and was hurriedly trying to get to his next location: an RV Park with full hookups.
So, instead of a moment of butt-clenching stress, Garmin heard a loud snap, looked into his side-view mirror, and noticed the trailer was riding uneven. Imagine his horror when he looked under his trailer and saw a bent axle and several busted shock leaves …
Lesson learned, don’t travel with a full tank of fresh water.
Bonus Tip: Clean your tanks with something
It doesn’t take much, but you will want to make sure you flush out your fresh water tank and your interior pluming at least once a year. The last thing you need is some mold growing in your tanks.
We use vinegar; others use bleach or some other cleaner.
Just make sure the thing you’re using to clean it out doesn’t eat away the plastic in the pipes.
Hopefully, you feel a little more confident in filling up your freshwater tanks. If you have any questions, drop us a line. And, as always, here are a few links to some of the products I covered.