Date:         Fri, 16 Aug 2013 18:40:50 -0700
Reply-To:     Don Hanson <dhanson928@GMAIL.COM>
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From:         Don Hanson <dhanson928@GMAIL.COM>
Subject:      Re: Filling water tank when no hose is available (GoWesty
              connector)
In-Reply-To:  <CAHTkEu+MrRj56ijnf57B9tgy4T-pjBiS-v+H-tDYUKBWZ3ZAvg@mail.gmail.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1

   I also let all the water out of my tank quite often...I usually try to
combine the tank draining with a vehicle rinse off....I pull up onto the
area we optimistically call our lawn...Open the tank drain and squirt off
the vehicle then stick the hose (with it's special attachment in the tank
and fill up with good fresh well water...Irrigate the 'lawn' and fill the
tank and get a somewhat clean van, all in one operation.....Oh yeah, our
Chessie dog, Lucy, she simply loves chasing through the hose....we have a
blast playing in the water....
  Though we are in the Northwest, we're on the Dry Side of the Cascades
where our annual rainfall is around 10" with sage and wheat farms and
Ponderosa pines, so water conservation is important, even if the Columbia
is just right there....


On Fri, Aug 16, 2013 at 6:30 PM, Don Hanson <dhanson928@gmail.com> wrote:

>    I  dry camp for a few months each year and fill mine from a 5 gal.
> jug.   My  SO has daily commitments to a barn where there is water, so she
> brings backs a 5 gal jug or two whenever we need them, both for the vanagon
> and the small camping trailer we use as our main quarters.   I made a
> funnel from a Techtron bottle, the ones with the really small neck that is
> offset a little.    It just pushes right into the filler door on the
> outside and is quite stable.   Easy to pour water in quite quickly...more
> so by far than with a normal funnel.
>    For filling with a hose, I made a fitting that has a 1/2" hose, quite a
> stiff section about a foot long, this is mounted to a screw-on nozzel with
> one of those lever controls to regulate or shut off the water flow, right
> there...So I go to the water source and turn it on, then insert the stiff
> piece of hose down into the filler (and past the air vent exhaust, that is
> the key to fast filling)...then I open the valve right there and walk
> away...takes about 2minutes to fill right up....
>
>    The whole key is to get the water going past the air vent exhaust,
> enclose inside something so the escaping air doesn't blow the ingoing water
> around or back out of the filler door........either my smaller diameter
> hose or that dri gas/techtron homemade funnel does that...If you look
> closely inside the filler you will see what I mean.
>
>
> On Fri, Aug 16, 2013 at 5:53 PM, Robert Stevens <mtbiker62@gmail.com>wrote:
>
>> On Aug 16, 2013, at 6:07 PM, Stuart MacMillan <stuartmacm@GMAIL.COM>
>> wrote:
>>
>> This also gives you a chance to inspect and clean out your tank with a
>> good scrubbing and disinfectant!
>>
>> My tank was a biology experiment gone berserk when I bought the van.  It
>> was about a quarter full when the faucet was broken off and it sat in the
>> Eastern Oregon sunshine for a year, and then here in the damp Northwest at
>> a repair shop for 18 mos.  Scrubbed and bleached the biomass out of it and
>> it's fine now!
>>
>> I've never needed to disinfect the potable water tank because when I get
>> home, I open it up and leave it that way until it dries. Taking the drain
>> plug off and purging
>> the faucet line of water and leaving the tank lid off, lets the system
>> dry completely.
>>
>> and:
>>
>> In fact, that is how I fill the tank whether with a hose or a jug.  I
>> have a five gallon jug with a spigot.  I can rest it on the lip of the
>> cabinet above the tank, open the spigot, and drain the water into the tank.
>>  If using a hose, I have a valve that fits on the end of the hose, so I can
>> control the flow.  Much better than trying to fill through the outside
>> port.  That is very slow.
>>
>> I don't know what it is you're doing when trying to fill from the
>> outside, but apparently very different from what I'm doing.
>> The GoWesty filler nozzle, inserted into the filler tube, will fill the
>> tank (13 gallons) in about 5-6 minutes.
>>
>> I carry a hose with me so I can always find a place to fill up when I'm
>> out traveling/camping, and I'm often out for
>> 3-4 weeks at a time. I sometimes fill from the inside using the hose, but
>> that is no faster than from outside.
>>
>> bob
>
>
>