How many of you travel with a full fresh water tank?

mountainlovers76

Mississippi Chapter Leaders
I always travel with the fresh water tank at least half to three quarters full and have never had any problems over the years so far.
 

Bogie

Well-known member
I always travel with just 10 gallons or so in the tank. Mostly, because I prefer not to carry the extra weight. I have never stayed in a place where water was not available. I did however stay at a campground once where the water faucet near the camp sight was not working and the next closest was too far away for my hoses. That's when the back up plan went into action. A funnel with a short hose and two gallon jugs. It took a little time to fill the tank half full, but it was better than hitching up again and moving the 5er just to fill with enough water for a two night stay. :)
 

ramdually4100king

Well-known member
Water weights 8.35 lbs per gallon. My tank holds 100 gals then add 12 gal in the water heater and probably 3 gals running around in the water lines = 115 gals X 8.35 = 960.25 lbs. I worry about that much weight (835 lbs in the tanks) bouncing on the straps and plywood that is hold the tank in. Especially when traveling some really bad roads in some states. A small amount in the tanks for flushing while on the road is ok but that much weight is a worry. JMHO

+1

Without the water my hitch weight is 4200lbs. With 100+ gal of water I would be over 5k the weight limit for my hitch.
 

mlburst1

Well-known member
We have traveled with a full tank numerous times, including most of last summer in Alaska, with no problems.
 

Cjackg

Well-known member
I always travel with just 10 gallons or so in the tank. Mostly, because I prefer not to carry the extra weight. I have never stayed in a place where water was not available. I did however stay at a campground once where the water faucet near the camp sight was not working and the next closest was too far away for my hoses. That's when the back up plan went into action. A funnel with a short hose and two gallon jugs. It took a little time to fill the tank half full, but it was better than hitching up again and moving the 5er just to fill with enough water for a two night stay. :)
The newer trailers seem to mostly have the 4-way valve instead of a separate gravity-flow water fill pipe. Is there a technique for adding water through the 4-way valve without using a water hose?
 

Wrenched

Member
We always travel with a full water tank and empty black and grey tanks. Most places, the water is just not as good as home. Most places we end up at do not have water or sewer hook up.

Others have mentioned that the weight in the tank adds pound for pound to the load on their TV. Not so - the load is shared between your trailer and TV. Depending on the length of your trailer and the location of your tank, there could be quite a difference in weight shared. One would have to weigh the rig before and after a full tank of water - would be interesting to see what the difference was,...
 

danemayer

Well-known member
Others have mentioned that the weight in the tank adds pound for pound to the load on their TV. Not so - the load is shared between your trailer and TV. Depending on the length of your trailer and the location of your tank, there could be quite a difference in weight shared. One would have to weigh the rig before and after a full tank of water - would be interesting to see what the difference was,...

On most rigs, the fresh water tank is over the axles. The increase in pin weight is probably well under 20% of the water weight. So 800 lbs of water would probably add less than 200 lbs to pin weight.

But other comments about water weight have to do with the cost of fuel for towing the extra 800 lbs.
 

MikeR

Well-known member
The newer trailers seem to mostly have the 4-way valve instead of a separate gravity-flow water fill pipe. Is there a technique for adding water through the 4-way valve without using a water hose?

I don't have a technique for filling without a hose, but I use the following method for filling my BC without moving from the campsite. I purchased a 40 gallon fresh water bladder from Camping World and a 300 gph, 12V fresh water pump from Harbor Freight. I added a seven pin 12V connector to the pump with an inline switch. After filling the bladder, which lays in the bed of my truck, I return to the campsite, hook a short hose to the inlet side of the pump, connect the outlet side with a hose to the 4 way valve and then plug the pump into the 7 pin connection on my truck and pump the water into the storage tank. It's an easy method to refill the tank without moving my unit.
 

jmgratz

Original Owners Club Member
I wonder how many of you carrying a full water tank have had your rig weighed the way you travel? Although we do not travel with full tanks we have had our rig weighed and are right at the max weight limit for our rig. If we traveled with a full tank we would be way over weight.
 

whp4262

Well-known member
How much water I carry depends on where I'm going. On shorter trips to camp grounds with full hookups I carry just enough for the basic needs. On long trips I carry near full so we have water if we break down or stop for the night at a place without water hookups. I don't like to travel with the tanks completely full. The owners manual for my class A said not to fill the tank to the top because it could damage the tank while traveling. The tank monitor system in the class A was pretty accurate but unfortunately the tank monitor system is pretty much junk in my cyclone so the tank ends up full many times. I haven't had any problems with the tank leaking though.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 

gebills

Well-known member
I wonder how many of you carrying a full water tank have had your rig weighed the way you travel? Although we do not travel with full tanks we have had our rig weighed and are right at the max weight limit for our rig. If we traveled with a full tank we would be way over weight.

For this specific reason, we travel with only enough water for pit stops along the way. I'm close to my limits weight wise and simply don't need the added weight on my springs or reducing my mileage. To my knowledge, there are no baffle plates in the holding tanks which would cause more momentum issues if the tanks were partially full while traveling. When I fill the f/w/t prior to a departure, I work from an empty tank and then turn on the city water supply to put in 6 to 8 gallons in the tank,,,, and then hit the road....
 

ICamel

Active Member
Unless destination has water hookup, I always leave home with a full fresh water tank. Never a problem in over 20 years of RV travels.
 
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