Teardrops n Tiny Travel Trailers

Sandi and I have been going over a water system design the last couple of days. We've gone back and forth, full circle about 3 times and I think we've landed on a design. I wanted to run it by the group for any input ya'll may have.

Our TD is a 5x10 design. The galley will have a sink & stove. When we are in a modern campground with elec/water hookups we desire running hot/cold water. In more primitive camping scenarios, we'll rely on a portable water container.

Shore Water/Power Available Design:
* Water supplied via hose to fill port on TD side.
* Bosch 4-Gallon (maybe 6gal?) Point-of-Use Electric Mini-Tank Water Heater mounted in galley. (110v-12.5amp)
* Sink plumbed to water heater and cold water supply.
* Grey water drained into a tank/bucket of undetermined size/location.
* A shower head (spray nozzle?) will be connected to the sink faucet via a portable dishwasher adapter. (and shower tent)

Again, when there is no water source available, we'll use a portable tank to haul water and heat it on the stove. No running hot water/shower.

Anyone see an flaws/holes/issues with this design?? (Without debating the merits of how primitive or fancy one's water system should be in a TD!)

Thanks![/list]

Just one question if I may .......

If you are in a modern campgrounds why do you need
your own shower? Surely a "Modern campground" will
have a modern restroom with shower facilities.

It's been 3 years and I have the 4" pvc on hand I was
going to use for tanks I have a 12 volt DC and a 120
volt ac water pump. The sink is installed and yet we
happily use our "Redneck hot water heater"
(32 cup coffee maker). All we need is an electric
hookup and a pot to carry the water from a hydrant.
We use it to wash dishes, wash off ourselves ,make
on demand hot cocoa ,and find it quite convient.
Some times less is more.

Honestly... I'm not that particular about where I shower... if a spider wants to shower with me so be it... the wife on the other hand has higher standards. :0-) Our camp shower experiences have been hit/miss over the years and the idea of a 'personal' shower appeals to her quite a bit.

bobhenry wrote:Just one question if I may .......

If you are in a modern campgrounds why do you need
your own shower? Surely a "Modern campground" will
have a modern restroom with shower facilities.

It's been 3 years and I have the 4" pvc on hand I was
going to use for tanks I have a 12 volt DC and a 120
volt ac water pump. The sink is installed and yet we
happily use our "Redneck hot water heater"
(32 cup coffee maker). All we need is an electric
hookup and a pot to carry the water from a hydrant.
We use it to wash dishes, wash off ourselves ,make
on demand hot cocoa ,and find it quite convient.
Some times less is more.

That explains it all !

You could have hot water (primitive) camping.........

http://www.campchef.com/triton-hot-water-heater.html

Plus they seem to have a lot of other interesting items...

Dale

We looked at the Eccotemp L5 version but decided against it as it is propane powered and needs to be mounted on the exterior or hang somewhere. In the end, I didn't want to hassle with it. Oh.. this one also requires a pressurized water feed ala garden hose or a water pump... so not so primitive.

FYI, the L5 can be had for $120 at Overstock.com

Dale M. wrote:You could have hot water (primitive) camping.........

http://www.campchef.com/triton-hot-water-heater.html

Plus they seem to have a lot of other interesting items...

Dale

Our Mega-Mini has a 6gal gas electric RV water heater. We had a 4 gal gas only in MM#1 and I felt why not use electric when it is available. Nancy loves having hot water on demand as it means meal prep and clean up are the same as at home. The sink is larger in MM#7 and it has a pull out sprayer faucet. The conventional arrangement used in RV's with a pressurized system for use with a hose ( be sure to use a pressure regulator) and an unpressurized water inlet feeding a water tank which in turn uses a prompt to pressurize water lines.

SC,

I'm counting on the shore water supply via hose to provide 'pressure' to the system. I think the Bosch limits at 150psi. Is there a need for a pressure regulator?

Matthew

Shadow Catcher wrote:Our Mega-Mini has a 6gal gas electric RV water heater. We had a 4 gal gas only in MM#1 and I felt why not use electric when it is available. Nancy loves having hot water on demand as it means meal prep and clean up are the same as at home. The sink is larger in MM#7 and it has a pull out sprayer faucet. The conventional arrangement used in RV's with a pressurized system for use with a hose ( be sure to use a pressure regulator) and an unpressurized water inlet feeding a water tank which in turn uses a prompt to pressurize water lines.

More for the other hoses and connections, we have one of the less expensive ones as insurance as we do not need lots of flow.
http://www.macandchris.com/WaterPressureReg.htm
As mentioned in the article the individual found 100psi at one RV park. I also run a water filter (I know a bit paranoid) to take out nasties and use a second NBC (nuclear, biological, chemical and everything else) rated filter for when filling from streams and lakes.
The Watts N45BU pressure regulator can reportedly be picked up at Lowes or Home Depot. Just checked at Lowe's and it can be picked up for about 28$ (I may switch). Looking this stuff up I get an education too

I found that article as well and was shopping around for a Watts regulator.

I'm curious about your water filters. We'd like to do the same but my concern is the water that sits in the system between camping trips going bad and making things nasty. Do you blow out you system??

Shadow Catcher wrote:More for the other hoses and connections, we have one of the less expensive ones as insurance as we do not need lots of flow.
http://www.macandchris.com/WaterPressureReg.htm
As mentioned in the article the individual found 100psi at one RV park. I also run a water filter (I know a bit paranoid) to take out nasties and use a second NBC (nuclear, biological, chemical and everything else) rated filter for when filling from streams and lakes.
The Watts N45BU pressure regulator can reportedly be picked up at Lowes or Home Depot. Just checked at Lowe's and it can be picked up for about 28$ (I may switch). Looking this stuff up I get an education too

Matthew,

I appreciate your thread and discussion. I had planned on using a 6 gallon gas hot water heater, the smallest one I could find, but at nearly $300 I seemed silly for just kitchen sink use and washing myself.

But, your suggestion that the only you would use your heater was when at sites with water and electric has caused me to rethink the situation. An 110 electric self-contained unit sounds interesting. No gas hookup, simple plug in, smaller size, instant on, and about half the price.

I'll look into the Bosch units and may go with the smallest one of only 2.5 gallons, which should be more than adequate for my needs.

I have two water filters a Taste Pure CX300 good down to 3 microns and a General Ecology Trav-L-Pure Camper Canister. The Trave-L- pure is only good for about 125 gallons but will get out cysts etc. The Taste Pure is good for a season and is carbon inside a ceramic (which can be scrubbed) shell.
The 14 gal water tank is inside the cabinet/headboard, inside the trailer with the water pump next to it, and has a drain valve to the exterior.
RV water heaters have an anode in the bottom of the tank and it is a simple task to pull that and drain the tank, which you do to winterize. To make sure no nasties are growing I periodically flush using Sodium Dichloro-s-triazinetrione Anhydrous which is 62% chlorine (pool supply) 1 Tsp does the trick and dirt cheap (dry powder). I plan on boondocking on Canadian Crown Land and BLM land out west. If we camp in a state or national park with hookups a number of things get left at home.

I'm toying with the idea of a solar water heater. I'm going to try to find a big orange beverage cooler at a thrift shop and run some copper tubing from it into a black box. Planned on putting it on the TD's roof and using gravity to feed the faucet and shower. I'll have to let people know how my experiments go.

slowcowboy wrote:Bobhenry. been doing some thinking about your redneck water heator the good old extra big coffee maker.

How much juice do you think that thing pulls. I got one in the back storage room?


Do you think a power invertor would run the thing? I fight a bit with my tea kettle and the propane. the fire old fashon wood will speed things up for washing dishes a bit but is a pain to light and maintane. I get in a hurry to hit the road in the morings a lot of times. Just thinking hard on that redneck machine of yours. Slowcowboy.

Don't think it is gonna work for ya.

The neatest simple one I have heard of was just a clean
new steel garbage can with a fiting placed in the bottom
that attached to a coil of copper tubing that was placed
in the campfire and the other end was returned to the open
top of the can. As the water boiled
in the tube in the fire it perculated out the tube at the return
line just like a coffee pot. I was told it was a 30 gallon set up
and took a little less than 2 hours to get hot. A smaller similar setup
would get to temp much quicker.

Here is a thought you like to tinker ~~ What if you took
the big coffeemaker and used it as your "Garbage can"
It should have a dispenser spout and most of these can be
locked open so slip on some rubber tubing over it and
add a coil of small diameter copper tubing to the hose
splice and run it to and from the pot as described above
and light off 10 - 12 charcoal bricketts in a old skillet or
pie pan and place the coil portion in the pan and toss
on the coals. This should get you 3 gallon of hot water
in short order and just add make up water as you use
it up. Should stay hot for 60 - 90 minutes, even longer if
you add make up coals.

bobhenry wrote:Don't think it is gonna work for ya.

The neatest simple one I have heard of was just a clean new steel garbage can with a fiting placed in the bottom that attached to a coil of
copper tubing that was placed in the campfire and the other end
was returned to the open top of the can. As the water boiled
in the tube in the fire it perculated out the tube at the return
line just like a coffee pot. I was told it was a 30 gallon and took
a little less than 2 hours to get hot. A smaller similar setup
would be quicker.

I've seen this where someone used two 3 gallon tanks set on top of one another. The top one was full, ran to the copper coil in the fire, and then into the empty bottom one. Slowly heated the water in the bottom tank as the top one emptied. Can be flipped to heat the water a second time if you like it hotter.