Water hook up questions?

[Kathy53]

Do you need a battery and pump for just hooking up to the water at the camp ground? If no water hook up at the site will just use jugs of water. My trailer has a holding tank, sink and faucet but no plumbing. The faucet is the kind that needs a pump. I don't want to mess with getting the holding tank hooked up at this time. Do you have to have a faucet made for a rv or will any standard faucet work? How complicated is it to add the plumbing and the right faucet?

I just had the RV place in town fix my electricity in my trailer. Last year while camping it just went out. They said that the wires were loose and was not hooked up correctly anyway, lucky it did not start a fire. (One breaker, one light one plug in) Took them an hour and a half to find the problem and fix it.

[MtnDon]

Do you need a battery and pump for just hooking up to the water at the camp ground?

Simple answer = no.

Do you have to have a faucet made for a rv or will any standard faucet work?

Any will work. RV specific are often cheap plastic things; many (most?) that are made for residential use are better made. Your choice.

You do need connections between the inlet port and the point of use though.


How complicated depends on what you already have and the space to work in. Photos could help.

The sink drain to holding tank could be simple. Camco makes a trap and hose thing that can be adapted to a holding tank.

[Shadow Catcher]

If ya got it why not use it? We have a home type pull out spray faucet, and a water heater and water pump. However a hand pump will allow you to benefit from your tank.

http://www.adventurerv.net/chrome-rocke ... OgodpXwA4w

[48Rob]

Kathy,

Don pretty much covered it, but here is a bit more;

First, if this is your trailer

The faucet is a "pump" style faucet that will draw water from the holding tank.
You can install whatever type of "house" faucet you like next to it. Many use a bathroom faucet as they are smaller and use less (of the) valuable counter space.
If you have no hot water heater, you can cap off the "hot" side of the faucet, and run cold water only.
The city water hookup at the campground will be at 40-90 pounds pressure, so no pumps, manual or electric are needed.
The city supplied pressure will push it to and through the faucet just like at home.
The connections can be fancy like a modern RV, or very simple, such as a hose connected to the faucet that hangs slightly below the trailer, that you connect a garden hose to when you get to camp.
Using a hose rated for drinking water is better, if you plan to drink from the faucet (regular garden hoses may or may not be the safest, chemical wise, for drinking from.)

Rob

[MtnDon]

I may have been confused about one thing.... a

holding

tank was mentioned. I interpreted that to mean a tank that holds the waste water from the sink until it can be disposed of in a proper manner, To my mindset that is a holding tank.

A tank that contains fresh water for use in the sink/shower, etc. is a fresh water tank, to me.

Hope that helps make sense of what I posted earlier.

[Dale M.]

A simple water hookup to me is a hose connector on outside of trailer, that is connected to a faucet in trailer.... AND you connect hose from RV park/camp ground hydrant to you trailer water inlet....

Other option is a fresh water tank under trailer and you use a pump (manual or electric) to move water from tank to faucet/sink...

You can even use local water pressure to fill fresh water tank if you have a hookup (hose connection) on bottom of tank and valve to open/close water access to tank.... Valve can also be used to drain water tank .... Be sure tank has a vent near top so you do not pressurize tank and when water comes out of over flow (vent) tank is full...

A holding tank under trailer can be a simple tub/bucket/tank that catches waste water from sink and and can connect as simple as putting hose from base of sink into the holding tank.... Most campground and RV parks have facilities to empty "holding tanks"...

Dale

[48Rob]

I may have been confused about one thing.... a

holding
tank was mentioned. I interpreted that to mean a tank that holds the waste water from the sink until it can be disposed of in a proper manner, To my mindset that is a holding tank.

A tank that contains fresh water for use in the sink/shower, etc. is a fresh water tank, to me.

Hope that helps make sense of what I posted earlier.

Don,

I shouldn't have mixed the terms...

In the RV world a "holding tank" refers to a waste water tank.
A fresh water tank refers to a fresh water storage container.

In my post, I said "draw water from the holding tank".
Of course I didn't mean waste water...
A "tank" that "holds" water, fresh or otherwise, in my mind, is a "holding" tank.

However, this is probably not the best place to mix and confuse.

Rob

[Kathy53]

Looks like the faucet is hooked to the fresh water tank but not to the city water. looks like part of the hook up is there. Just needs the right faucet and pipe etc to the city water connection. Am I guessing correctly? It looks like he went a little crazy with the what ever is all over the bottom of the sink. At least I think it is the bottom of the sink.

[48Rob]

Hi Kathy,

Yes, the hand pump line should go to the tank. When you pump the faucet water is drawn fron the "fresh" water tank.

The stuff on the bottom of the sink is likely silicone or similar goop used to make the connection from the sink to the drain line using parts that weren't designed for the purpose by someone that didn't know that a special "sink to hose connection" drain is available.

All you need for the city water is a faucet, with the hot side capped off, and a water line connection from the cold inlet on the faucet to the city water pipe coming through the wall (assuming the other end of the pipe has a hose connection).
You can also opt for a single faucet, no hot and cold combined, just a single handle and spout since you don't have a hot water heater.
It will take up a lot less counter space.

Rob

[Dale M.]

Looks like the faucet is hooked to the fresh water tank but not to the city water. looks like part of the hook up is there. Just needs the right faucet and pipe etc to the city water connection. Am I guessing correctly? It looks like he went a little crazy with the what ever is all over the bottom of the sink. At least I think it is the bottom of the sink.

Viewing what you have here, I think I would rip it all out and start over......

Lots of correct solutions to your questions without having to deal with previous owners mess....

Dale

[2bits]

I just fixed two of my campers water hookups and it was far more trouble to make the old stuff work than to get the few components new, and hook them together. In your situation, it sounds like you are not interested in the freshwater holding tank, and manual pump system and want a simple way to hook up to a park's system. In my own opinion, I wouldn't remove the existing plumbing, but completely ignore it and build a simple new system in tandem and here is a shopping list :

*Space saving style faucet and only use the cold side as Rob noted. you might consider a "One hole/one handle" faucet for additional space saving.
*Connector from the faucet cold side to a 1/2" inner diameter barb adapter.
*1/2" inner diameter hose rated for drinking (On the same isle at HD as the brass adapters at my store)
*Brass 1/2" inner diameter barb to garden hose adapter
*Two hose clamps
*Rubber PVC grommet that the hose will fit through with a lip that will grip the outer wall once in place (Auto part store)
*15' drinking water rated hose to hook to the camper and campground hook up.

Here is a pic of my recent rig up. I already had the faucet and pipe coming down, so I just flared the existing brass line coming off the sink and attached the hose and ran it out of the wall. The original hookup was through the floor and was a major pain, and going through the wall involves cutting but looks very clean, but you can go through the floor if you prefer. You can slide the hose into the wall for traveling so it looks nice and pull it out to give you a good hand hold when attaching it at a campground.

[Kathy53]

Thats right I am not interested in using the fresh water tank system. Just a seperate way to hook up to the park water. I found this at wal mart a single hole bathroom faucet http://www.walmart.com/ip/Ultra-Faucets ... e/19671593 or would this work as well ? Kitchen side sprayer?

http://www.walmart.com/ip/Elements-of-D ... e/15128388

[MtnDon]

The bath lavatory faucet will work as long as the un-used hot line is capped. Other wise water will squirt out from the cold side.

The lavatory faucet does not have a provision for hooking up a kitchen sprayer. Kitchen faucets have a special connection / valve the hose connects to so it is not under pressure all the time. IF you meant to use the hose as a stand alone I'd not do that. The hoses are pretty cheap and if hooked up direct to water pressure I'm sure will be a source of problems. If you want a sprayer as well as a faucet, IMO, you are better off to choose a kitchen faucet that has the hose sprayer.

My preference is for a higher rise on the faucet to make it easier to things under the water outlet; especially nice IMO with a small sink.