boler 1700 tank capacities.

[Herb P]

This is probably a Brian question but I throw this out for anyone...

We're back from our second trip... Before we left, I dribbled the hose into the fill spout for a good long time until it eventually burped, said excuse me, and then refused to swallow anymore... Then I filled the hot water tank using the pump, and strapped her down and forced her to take more sips off my big hose ....

Just after breakfast of our first night, Shari tells me we're out of water. How can this be? So I take the collapsible jug and make 3 trips to the tap and fill the trailer... She glugged a few times but finally I got 24 liters into her and then we were good for the rest of the week... At the end of the week, there was still a few liters left because I had Shari fill the toilet with it until the pump was dry...

Thing is, the grey water tank wasn't anywhere near full, I don't think, nor the blackwater tank...

So, how big are the various tanks? I'm wondering if there was some sort of vacuum preventing the pump from sucking anything...

[Brian B-P]

In my B1700RGH (rear gaucho), the fresh and grey water tanks are nearly the same size, but I don't think this is true of the B1700SGH (side gaucho). In mine, I think the freshwater tank has a capacity of 120 litres, the grey is similar, and the black is "5 gallons" (maybe 18 to 22 litres). Without city water, the only issue is running out of fresh water supply.

There are two vents on the freshwater tank in mine: one tube in parallel to the fill hose, which must be unobstructed to allow air out while filling (a potential problem source in this case?), and a vertical pipe (typical DWV materials, in the cabinet under the refrigerator and closet) with what appears to be a valve to allow air back in while drawing from the tank. The manual (see FiberglassRV Document Center) does not show the second vent.

I have not had any problems getting water out of the tank, and once I switched to using a flexible hose extension inserted right into the fill port the only issue with filling is knowing when it is full (I look at the translucent tank).

[Herb P]

That's interesting. 120l is really a _lot_ of water. I'm positive we didn't use that much. One thing I noticed when we "ran out" was there was some water still filling the fill spout. I went in under kitchen and saw the fill hose was almost perfectly horizontal. I pushed it down through the hole and then it was much easier to fill the water. So maybe I put hardly any in, in the first place...

When you say you don't think the SGH is the same, you think the tanks are smaller just based on placement? My fresh water tank is just in front of the axle.

What do you mean when you say you went with a flexible hose extension, what is that? Just a funnel with a hose on it?

Thanks Brian.

[Brian B-P]

120 L is a lot of water compared to a 13' egg tank, and lot if you had to carry it, but with a flush toilet, shower, and running hot water for washing, it's easy to use a lot. The tank size is similar to that in Bigfoot trailers of similar size, and tiny by big RV standards. It is a significant amount, and should certainly be enough for a day!

I assume that the tank layout is driven by the grey tank location, which in turn determined by the bathroom (specifically the shower). In my RG, the shower is across from the door, ahead of the axle, so that's where the grey tank is; the fresh tank is thus just behind the axle. In the SG, the shower is in a rear corner, so the grey tank is presumably rearward, and the fresh tank forward. Since underfloor area is entirely open other than the tanks and axle, and the RG tanks are about the same size as each other, I don't know why there would be a size difference between RG and SG... but I've missed the logic of some other trailer design decisions.

I adjusted my fill hose position to help it fill better, aiming for a continuous drop (no accidental U-traps) and not letting it go above the fill port (as the broken remaining piece hose was when I bought it).

My flexible extension is a hose barb with female hose thread as an adapter, with a short piece of clear vinyl tubing hose-clamped to it. I have a hose-threaded elbow and shutoff valve between this extension and the hose end, so I can leave the faucet on and control filling with this extra valve. The elbow (a nice large radius bend) allows the hose to hang down without its weight kinking the vinyl section. I later found essentially the same thing (although not clear and less flexible) as an inexpensive commercial product in the Canadian Tire RV section - I'm sure it wasn't there when I assembled mine, or at least that's what I tell myself!

[Herb P]

Thanks Brian. I actually rather wondered about creating a connection between the city-water side of the circuit and the fresh water fill tube that I can control from inside... That way I could just hook my house hose up to the trailer, open the valve and fill the tank; then close the valve again. I figure there's some reason it's not done that way.

[Brian B-P]

I had the same thought, and apparently some RVs are done that way. The slick version of this setup would use a float valve and shutoff automatically when full.

I can think of two reasons why it isn't already done in our trailers: the large-diameter fill hose and outside port allow filling from a hand-carried jug, which is good to have as an option, and providing both connections would be more expensive.

[Frederick L. Simson]

...the large-diameter fill hose and outside port allow filling from a hand-carried jug, which is good to have as an option...

I wish that could be a tidier proposition.

[Herb P]

Brian: I think that's the deluxe version but the low-tech version would end up just spewing out the fill hole when it was done which is a decent enough indicator for me...

Frederick: I had that too until I shoved the fill hose down the hole a bit to make it more of a slope down to the tank.. I wasn't carrying all that water all that way just to pour half of it on the ground.

wow. 120l... That's a lot of weight.