Tow Casita with water or not?

[Eggcentric]

Winterizing, we always drain the hot water tank, disconnect the water supply pipe & drain the fresh water tank, then put the end of the pipe into the jug of RV antifreeze, turn on the pump and run each faucet, shower and toilet until it runs pink. That way the tank does not need repeated flushing to get the antifreeze out and the system will clean itself very quickly next season.
I always travel with full water tank if possible, water is often hard to find in the desert, so we grab it when we can, we also carry a tank in the tow vehicle with a pump so we can go and get water if we run out at the camp site.

[David B.]

Upon Larry C. AKA “Beetlefreak’s” recommendation and after tasting the water from his Casita, we purchased a Dr Mercola under sink water filtration system from Amazon for drinking water from our storage tank. Always have great tasting water no matter where the water came from. It takes up very little room and a set of filters will last a long time.
Dave & Paula

[Jann Todd]

Originally Posted by Moquin

Hello,

Last summer we bought a 16' Casita and took it out only once camping . This summer we will be taking it where there will be no water hook up. Should we carry in water and fill the camper tanks once when we set up camp; or can we fill the camper tanks at home before we leave on our trip. It will be about a 3 hour drive. We towed last year in a 2006 Ford Ranger extended cab (6 cylinder). This month we are buying a 2017 Dodge Ram 1500 extended cab (8 cylinder).

Oh, and by the way if anyone is looking for a Ford Ranger mine will be for sale next month.

Tom Moquin
email, tamoquin@foxvalley.net
Tel, 847 683-0804

We always fill our water tank and hot water tank full before leaving home. That is why they have tanks. That way you can use a little more water to purge the air out of the hot water tank also. All of this is compensated in the trailer build. We've always done this for 11 years with our 17' Casita and our previous 16' Casita as well as our motor homes. We sterilize our water tank every year with bleach, run some through the pipes and let it sit full of bleach water for 2-3 hours, drain and refill plus run clean water through the pipes to rinse it out. Then we are sure we have clean water to brush teeth, cook with, etc. We do drink the water if necessary. We usually don't drink out of the first tank of the season since it may still have a little bleach in it. If you don't sterilize it then you can't use it to cook or brush your teeth at all. If you've been to Mexico you know how important it is to not use contaminated water and that is what is in your tank if you don't sterilize it.

[gordon2]

[QUOTE=Moquin;689275]Darwin Maring brings up a very good point about sanitizing the fresh water tank. What is the best way to do this? ..QUOTE]

With sodium hypochlorite (bleach). Here is another good guide.

[Jann Todd]

Originally Posted by Moquin

Darwin,
Thank you for the link. It was great advice.
Tom Moquin

The only thing I disagree with is putting bleach in the hot water tank. We have never done that. We do rinse it real good with a long tube made for rinsing them. High pressure from outdoor faucet making sure all crude comes out. With the heat from the hot water the water is sterile. It is very difficult to get all the bleach out of the hot water tank.

[rbryan]

Originally Posted by Jann Todd

With the heat from the hot water the water is sterile.

Not sterile - you'd have to boil it to do that. But, it doesn't really have to be, because if you're like most folks, you aren't drinking/consuming the water from the water heater. Like you, we just rinse out the water heater with a wand. There's no need for bleach.

[patrick crawford]

i've been towing a 16'er for seven years. the fresh water tank is behind the axle and the 16'er is famously "tongue light". i found that a full fresh water tank reduced that tongue weight to the point that it was prone to serious sway while underway (i always have the sway bar deployed). half full on that water tank was all i felt comfortable with. last year i added omw's over the propane tanks to mount the little honda 2000i permanently. that additional weight up front solved that issue. now that's a pretty expensive mod just to solve the problem however, having the genset at the ready when i pull into a rest area for a night it's so convenient to have that power readily available.

p@

[John in Santa Cruz]

Originally Posted by patrick crawford

i've been towing a 16'er for seven years. the fresh water tank is behind the axle and the 16'er is famously "tongue light". i found that a full fresh water tank reduced that tongue weight to the point that it was prone to serious sway while underway (i always have the sway bar deployed). half full on that water tank was all i felt comfortable with. last year i added omw's over the propane tanks to mount the little honda 2000i permanently. that additional weight up front solved that issue. now that's a pretty expensive mod just to solve the problem however, having the genset at the ready when i pull into a rest area for a night it's so convenient to have that power readily available.

p@

curious what you're towing with. I've never been able to make our SD16 even hint at swaying when towing with my Tacoma. I quit using the anti-sway bar after the first trip, and couldn't even tell the difference. now, it *was* very pitchy, strong tendancy to 'porpoise' on bumps until I used a WDH... Then I got better shocks on my truck and added airbags, and didn't even need the WDH, it rode just fine as-is with the airbags at a modest 30-35 PSI

[patrick crawford]

john,

i tow with a nissan frontier, stock suspension. when i say my rig swayed it was not a dangerous sort of sway, but i could feel it and if i feel even a hint it makes me a bit nervous. the easy fix was to lighten the load behind the axle and on longer trips i'd carry 3 or 4 gallons jugs of water on the floor in the bathroom. i've never felt the need for a wdh but i do use the sway bar reasoning that even tho it's not often needed but, if it is you best have it.

p@