Date: Wed, 18 Apr 2007 11:50:17 -0500
Reply-To: vt <samcvt@COMCAST.NET>
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From: vt <samcvt@COMCAST.NET>
Subject: Re: Ideas for lifting water into the Westy water tank?
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You could buy a sump pump and an inverter (DC to AC) and run the pump right
from your onboard power source, and it would probably pump faster than other
systems.
SamC
N1PDL
----- Original Message ----- From: "Michael Elliott"
<camping.elliott@GMAIL.COM> To: <vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM> Sent: Wednesday,
April 18, 2007 1:25 AM Subject: Ideas for lifting water into the Westy water
tank?
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
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