Adding water to fresh tank question

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shorts

shorts

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Ok we have searched YouTube videos and I searched this forum but haven?t found an answer. We are trying to add water via 5 gallon collapsible jugs. We don?t have a gravity fill port just the city inlet with the switch for city or fresh tank. We do have the winterize feature in the bay where the water pump is supposed to pull antifreeze up out of a jug but we have never used it since we are fulltime.

I read where we could use that feature to pump water from our jug into the tank but we have not been able to get it to work. Unless we are hooking up something wrong or leaving out a step, we can?t figure out where to go from here other than buying a pump.

Has anyone here used this method and could give some advice?? Thanks

Vicki

 
Yes, I've done that numerous times. However, our rig has a series of valves that are positioned to select water source and destination. The correct combination causes water to be sucked out of a container and delivered to the fresh water tank.

Lacking a valve to divert water into the tank, you might not have any option other than an external pump.
 
Generally the "winterize" inlet (if you have one) is only an alternate inlet to the water pump suction side. That in itself doesn't push water into the tank. Since you also have a "fill tank from city inlet" valve, you should be able to open that (tank fill position) and then the pump will suck from the 5 gallon jugs and the open city fill valve lets it backflow to the tank.  However, if that path shares the same water line with the pump inlet, the water just goes round & round!  Plumbinf details vary a lot across Rvs, so you will have to try yours to see.

Another alternative is to use a small 12v pump to suck water from the jug and push it into the city inlet, with the city-to-tank valve open.  It doen't need to be fancy or big pump - I used a boat bilge pump pump from Walmart and a fitting to connect the pump to a standard hose male. Powered it with a pair of wires with alligator clips to the RV battery. You can make that set-up a simple or as elegant as you like.  The pump needs enough of a gpm rating to push the city inlet check valve open, but in my expereince about 500 gpm was sufficient.  More moves the water a bit better, though.
 
Thanks for the replies. We opened up the inside and determined that the witerization input just put it into a loop like Gary mentioned so it is going to take an external pump. Off to see what we can get.

Thanks again,
Vicki
 
Lou Schneider said:
Harbor Freight has a nice little water pump with dual female hose barbs.  All you need is it and a female-female hose adapter to put it in the middle of two garden hoses to suck out of a container and send water into the RV's inlet.

https://www.harborfreight.com/12-volt-dc-transfer-pump-63324.html
Click to expand...

Cost more, but you could also buy a duplicate of your current water pump and plumb that to work. That's what I did to setup a bladder I carried in the toad. By doing this you have a spare pump for the coach should that ever fail.
 
    shorts, We boondock at bit, especially in the fall...
for 3 weeks at a time,while hunting.  We tow a trailer behind our 5er (UTV, 55 gallon drum of H2O, and 50 gallon propane tank), and will refill about twice. 
  We have a typical 12 volt RV pump ( also can be a spare), with water hose fittings (local hardware store), so we can use our regular hoses. I made a suction pick-up out of 1/2” pic pipe (to reach barrel bottom), putting on the appropriate water hose fittings.
  The pump is wired, as to use the trailer plug on the truck...wired to the “running light” pole. Turn on the parking lights, and the pump runs. The truck tail gate serves as a great work bench.
  If a drum is impractical....there are many shapes and sizes of plastic water tanks that you could put in the truck bed for an auxiliary water storage! You could use a similar pump set-up, fitted to your tank!

      Picture of our drum on the trailer!
      https://i.imgur.com/DCT5h3y.jpg
 
Two thoughts - add a hose bib to the output of the pump and use a garden hose to connect to the city water fill.
Plumb a t into the output of the pump, insert a valve in that line and t into the intake line to the pump between the antifreeze intake and the water tank. You might need a valve between the new t and the antifreeze inlet if the winterize valve isn't a three-way valve that closes the fresh water inlet when you winterize.
 
Another way, maybe. Do you have an outside shower near the city inlet? If so, adapt the shower hose to the city inlet and use the winterize system.
 
Here's a photo of the mod I made to my pump to add the suction line after I relocated the pump from our bedroom. All I do is switch the 3-port selector valve to the suction hose and open the fresh tank fill valve. With the fill valve closed, the suction line serves the coach plumbing for adding antifreeze or drawing water directly from the portable container for use. The 3-port valve and the other fittings are Watts/Sea Tech quick connect fittings.
 

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Lots of good solutions here, especially for those who do this regularly or don't want to carry loose parts.  I lean toward the built-n methods, but for once-in-awhile use, or for those less handy, a submersible pump and a short length of hose will be adequate.  When using the collapsible water bags, you can drop a submersible pump into a bucket and pour the bags (or whatever containers you have) into the bucket as the pump runs. Somebody can be fetching the next container while the pump drains the bucket., sort of a bucket-brigade.
 
Thanks for all of the ideas!! I especially like the modification by liveworkdream. I?ll show these to Mark and see what he thinks as he?ll be the one doing them  ::). We did buy a cheap drill powered pump at Menards yesterday ($10) as a temporary solution but as we plan to do a lot of boondocking as we begin to head westward we do want a more permanent solution.

Vicki

 
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