Fresh water addition?

[Newfang]

Has anyone considered installing a second fresh water tank?

Dan and I are wondering if the 12 gallon tank is enough for the two of us, or if it would be worthwhile considering a second tank.

We would be interested in hearing what your experiences are with water consumption. (gallons per person/per day)

I suspect many of our trips will be to places without hook ups, so it got us wondering.

Sandy

[Gina D.]

That depends on your methods of consumption and conservation.

I live for months on end with no hook ups. The last year and a half it was with a 20 gallon tank. I am making a "Guesstimate" here that out of that 20, my pets drink about 3. The other 17 lasted me about 3 days of cooking, washing AND bathing. I drink bottled water.

I have learned to be conservative with usage..all common sense things apply..don't leave the water running to brush teeth, wait until I have a sinkfull of washed dishes to rinse, Navy showers etc.

That said, the Leocraft I just moved into has a 60 gallon tank. I thought that was kind of a dumb mod by the former owner.. it takes up LOTS of space and certainly, I can't tow with it full..but after living with it for awhile, I LOVE the extra capacity. I am keeping it. My habits have not changed, but I sure tote water to fill it less often this way. I can go over a week without filling.

I am just one small person.. you can calculate based on the way you use your water.

[Carol H]

Pretty sure the fresh water tank in my scamp is also only 12 gallons and I can normally get by dry camping between 2-3 days if careful with water use - if I use the shower 2 days is the max if two people are using the trailer. I do not drink the water from the tank and I carry a water tote so I can go off and get water elsewhere to refill it as necessary.

[Daniel A.]

I have a 30 gallon tank and hardly use it. I also only drink bottled water and carry a couple of cases with me.
A dip in the lake usually keeps the flies away.

[Donna D.]

Remember, water in... water out. Gray water tanks are typically matched to capacity of fresh water tank + hot water tank. If you add another fresh water tank, you have to have some method of storing (or dumping) the extra water going into the gray water tank. There have been several people that made mods for extra fresh water tanks. Typically by changing the dinette into a U-shape... like peterh and Lynn's Scamp 5th Wheel mod

[cpaharley2008]

I carry a 5 gallon container of water from my home, it tastes better and the dogs do not get sick. I use the on board water for other things.

[Eddie Longest]

I'm agree with Carol, Daniel and Donna. With 26 gal graywater tank, just a couple of trips with a 6 gal. blue water container and you are almost full. If you install an additional 12 gal tank, that's another 100 lbs on the rear of the trailer. That will lighten the nose weight and could affect towing stability on a 13 or 16. But adding that much weight on the rear of a S-19 would have hardly any effect on a S-19 towing stability.
A blue water jug is a lot cheaper than installing a second tank.
Eddie

[Carol H]

Eddie is correct that if you also have a hot water tank - make sure the lines are open to it and turn the pump on when you fill the fresh water tank so that it fills up as well - so you have that extra water as well. As he says you will only be able to refill your fresh water tank part way again before you end up with a full grey water tank - I have a 7 gallon tote I use for draining off the grey water tank if I am dry camping for more then 3 days. The grey tote is that small as anything bigger is to bulky/heavy for me handle.

[honda03842]

Our Scamp 16 has a 12 gallon water tank and a 6 gallon hot water tank. This is well less than the capacity of our gray tank and black tank.

As a result I am considering replacing our 12 gallon tank with a 20 gallon tank. This will more closely match our waste tank's capacity and give us 26 gallons of water. We have shown that we can dry camp for about 5-6 days without using extreme measures with no addition of water.

It looks like a 20 gallon tank will fit in place of the 12 gallon tank assuming I eliminate the internal power cord storage.

[Reid Larsen]

Our Trillium has a 10 gallon fresh water tank and a six gallon hot water heater. It seems we run out of water in about four days of conservative water use. A funnel and 5 gallon water can makes for an easy refill and we are not packing the extra weight of a big water tank and for a long week end trip we have all the water we need if we end up in a dry camp ground. YMMV

[john warren]

well,,, i have no idea, but i will chime in anyway,,,cause thats what guys do.
i have for the last few years been camping in a tear drop camper,,,no water tanks.
i have been using a five gallon water jug to fetch water. it lasts a day or two for cooking and cleaning. we shower and such at the camp ground facilities. drinking bottled water.
so if your dry camping, i would estimate at least 5 gallons each per day if your carefull. now you gotta do the math.
i dry camp a lot with just me and my dog, and one 5 gallon jug lasts several days. but we don't mind if each of us stinks a little,,,

[Donna D.]

Originally Posted by john warren

i dry camp a lot with just me and my dog, and one 5 gallon jug lasts several days. but we don't mind if each of us stinks a little,,,

John, you crack me up

[peterh]

We upgraded our Scamp 5er to a 20 gallon tank; when we're not working too hard to conserve that'll last me four days, three days for the both of us. If we're careful we can extend that by another day-plus. That covers daily sponge baths (and hair washing for me) at the sink, drinking water and meal prep, pots-n-pans-n-dining-utensil cleanup (but using paper plates to eat off of) .

A word about my U-shaped dinette with a 20-gallon tank mod: This mod works fine for our 5th wheel, which has 700lbs of tongue weight when we're fully loaded, but not a good idea for a traditional hitch trailer, because a full tank of water will pull 80 lbs or more off the hitch, destabilizing the trailer when you're towing it.

It takes a little practice to learn how to live on a small water budget, so my advice would be to do some "dry" runs in a park with hookups or water within walking distance first.

[honda03842]

I made a mistake in this thread. It's true that the typical Scamp has a 12 gallon water tank and a 6 gallon hot water tank. However when the water tank is empty, the water in the hot water tank is not available via the pump.

We still intend to add the 20 gallon water tank under the dinette. When full this would lighten the hitch weight significantly though we rarely ride about with a full water tank, only when going into boondock.

As well we will mount the tank as far forward as possible to reduce the effect of the extra water.

[Thane]

If you need a custom tank made, I suggest these guys George's Custom Plastics Inc.

They did a great job making the extra waste tank I added to my trailer. Their tank walls are pretty thick so you will lose a little capacity but you can design a tank that will fit well in the space available to compensate for that.

For extra fresh water I have a 6 gallon military water can that I take along if I think it will be necessary and I always keep a 3 gallon collapsable water jug in the trailer just in case we need it.

[Marv]

When we will need more capacity, I take one of those 7-gallon cube-shaped containers (from WM). I replaced the faucet on the container with a 3/4-in to male hose adapter. To transfer the water, I set the container on the tailgate or on a table, connect the fresh water hose and gravity fills the internal fresh tank.

Marv