Date: Mon, 12 Jul 1999 06:59:56 -0400
Reply-To: Bulley <gmbulley@BULLEY-HEWLETT.COM>
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From: Bulley <gmbulley@BULLEY-HEWLETT.COM>
Subject: Re: Westy Water Tank Fill
Jim-
Ours fills pretty easy using the method you described. Here are a few
details that may help.
During filling, the tank discharges air through the filler neck, kinda like
your fuel tank. You can't completely block the filler hole with incoming
water or else you will be the Aamaco dork. I turn on hose with a decent
nozzle on it, point at open filler hole, and concentrate the stream of
water at the "Six o'clock" position. You can do this without the nozzle it
your hose cuts a straight columnar stream.
We don't typically fill up until within a mile or two of where we will
camp, as water weighs something like 10 lbs per gallon, and who needs to
haul an extra 150 lbs around? We always carry three things in the van
regarding water fill-up...a 5-gallon collapsible water bladder, a 15-foot
length of common garden hose, and a large, long necked funnel.
The hose is useful at spigots that don't have hoses (there are increasing
numbers of these, as stations have had their hoses stolen. The bladder and
funnel can serve to ferry water from spigots too far from the van. The
bladder can also serve as a reserve container when camping remotely for a
few days.
When we get back from camping, I drain the tank completely, and open the
top for a day to allow it to dry completely(inside the rear horizontal bin,
under the little screwed-down panel). The water line from the pump is
self-draining, but in the winter, just to be safe, after draining the tank,
I turn on the faucet and BLOW back through the faucet to get most of the
water out of the line, to prevent freezing problems with the pump.
You can search the archives for how to clean and sanitize the tank and
water lines, we've had that discussion a couple times. We sanitize ours at
the beginning and end of the camping season (October and May).
Cheers,
G. Matthew Bulley
Bulley-Hewlett & Associates
www.bulley-hewlett.com
Cary, NC USA
888.468.4880 tollfree
-----Original Message-----
From: j fritz [SMTP:jfritz@DECORAH.K12.IA.US]
Sent: Monday, July 12, 1999 12:49 AM
To: vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM
Subject: Westy Water Tank Fill
Volks,
OK, first an admission: Don't do the dumb stunt I did....trying to get
bleach into the tank through the filler tube on the outside (wanted to kill
anything living in there....its our first fill-up with the the water tank).
Anyway, overflowed the bleach, it ran down the side and left brown streaks
on the paint job :-( I'm hoping rubbing compound will take it out.
Now for some questions: I hooked up a hose to the city water fill adapter.
Only about 40 lbs. of city pressure but the faucet couldn't hold it. Is
there a washer kit for this thing to get it so it will stop the water flow?
It was either turning on the electric pump or dripping.....there was no
definitive shut-off.
Second question: How in the h*ll do you fill the water tank from the
outside? I stood there like an idiot holding the hose and watching the
water run down the side of the van. I felt like the dork in the old AAMACO
transmission commercial. You the know the one...some geek with his hat on
sidewayssaying,"let me fix it boss, I was born to fix a tranthmithion"
Jim in Iowa
91 Passat Wagon GL
89 Westy
66 Beetle
