Date: Tue, 17 Apr 2007 23:25:43 -0700
Reply-To: Michael Elliott <camping.elliott@GMAIL.COM>
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From: Michael Elliott <camping.elliott@GMAIL.COM>
Subject: Ideas for lifting water into the Westy water tank?
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Putting on my gearhead hat again.
We don't camp in places that have hookups, so Mellow Yellow's tank is
our main source of water. I fill up the tank from the hose bibs that are
usually found scattered around CGs in the Southwest using a 30' chunk of
3/8'' refrigerator icemaker hose with a threaded fitting on one end. For
those campgrounds which have faucets that don't have threads I use a
"water thief."
But what if there is no faucet nearby? Many campgrounds in the Southwest
have open water, in the form of streams or lakes (like this one:
http://www.blm.gov/ca/st/en/fo/bishop/camping/tuttle.html ). As an
experienced backpacker, I know about using natural supplies of water and
treating it to make it potable. (Discussions about giardia, crypto, and
water treatment techniques should start their own threads.)
I'm thinking about how to get water from a stream up into the tank. I
bet that a little submersible 12V pump like the LVM107 at
http://tinyurl.com/3dsfsl and a gel battery would do the job.
A lower-tech method method would be to tote water to Mellow Yellow in a
bucket and either dump the water into a funnel rigged above the water
inlet on the side (slow), or open up the tank inside and dump the water
directly into it (faster but potentially messier).
I wonder if a Westy owner who has worked up an easy way to do this might
share his/her solution?
(And again, I know about the risks of using creek water, I really really
know what I'm doing. I have used chlorine dioxide (not the same as
bleach) and UV (SteriPEN) for years to purify water. I don't know if
there is a 12V UV purifier that will work in the Westy water tank, but
chlorine dioxide works fine. This gadget
http://www.solardyne.com/uv1watster.html is VERY pricey, but could be
put inline with the filler hose, I guess. A 15-minute run time during
filling would only consume 1/2AH from the battery.)
--
Mike "Rocket J Squirrel" Elliott
71 Type 2: the Wonderbus
84 Westfalia: Mellow Yellow ("The Electrical Banana")
74 Utility Trailer. Ladybug Trailer, Inc., San Juan Capistrano
KG6RCR