Newbie motorhomer

 

What is a non 'normal filller' arrangement? I can't imagine what it must look like. My 30 Litre m/h onboard tank is filled via a lockable petrol filler cap type of arrangement on the side of the body into which I can easily empty a 5L container in about 20 seconds.

I cannot see why all m/h wouldn't be designed like that.

Correction...

It has a 60L tank and I fill / top it up using 2 x 10L containers.

Ant Kenny - the logical answer is, as stated earlier, use a hose pipe from the fresh water tap directly to your Autotrail MH,

Remove the fresh water cap, insert a HEOS water filler cap, connect hose to filler cap with a Hozelock connector, the other end of the hose pipe to the fresh water tap using another Hozelock connector, turn tap on, stand and watch for ten minutes while 100 litres pours into your tank – and repeat every three or four days depending on how many showers you take.

I've done that for years with a 5 metres hosepipe in the UK and abroad and never once needed a longer pipe or had problems obtaining water.

It seems too simple an operation for many but as I'm on holiday the minimum effort expended the better.

Why complicate it?

 

What is a non 'normal filller' arrangement? I can't imagine what it must look like. My 30 Litre m/h onboard tank is filled via a lockable petrol filler cap type of arrangement on the side of the body into which I can easily empty a 5L container in about 20 seconds.

I cannot see why all m/h wouldn't be designed like that.

Correction...

It has a 60L tank and I fill / top it up using 2 x 10L containers.

The idiot who designed the external filler system for a MH must have been on the design team for caravans at some point. The filler cap is the simplest system on the planet. How can you inprove on it. The only working part is the lock.

What is a non 'normal filller' arrangement? I can't imagine what it must look like. My 30 Litre m/h onboard tank is filled via a lockable petrol filler cap type of arrangement on the side of the body into which I can easily empty a 5L container in about 20 seconds.

I cannot see why all m/h wouldn't be designed like that.

nor can i, S, but some ('clever' ones) aren't.....

some manufacturers think we all want to wheel some other contraption around and then stand it outside the van (remind you of anything.....?..think freezing weather.....) and then rig up a pump with a small bore pipe with an odd shaped fitting on the end, as the filler only has a tiny odd shaped (could be square) hole.

apparently, you can use a hose....but of course it needs to be a special hose with the same special connector on the end to fit in the odd shaped (square) hole....

so, extra kit, extra cost, extra complexity.....as you say, whats wrong with a hose and a 'normal' filler...

as a pal of mine on another forum might say....'progress, eh?'

Quite BB. I thought I was being dim, not knowing they don't all have 'normal' filling arrangements. It not as if by fitting his own style filling connector the m/h manufacturer or dealer will enhance his sale by tying the owner to buying a special hose and connectors or enjoy an ongoing after-sale income stream by forcing the owner to use only the manufacturer's own extortionately priced water.

Our motorhome comes with one of those funny square filler things that you refer to BB. We quite like it, the M/H came with the special hose, it also came with the short filler hose should you require to fill the tank using a container, so no extra cost involved. We fill as normal from a tap using the hose provided, its a flat hose and takes up no space what so ever in the gas locker. Should we be on site for long enough to use a full tank then we can if we so wish fill up using a longer flat hose and connect the 2 together giving us a hose many metres long (like yours) we could of course like DK fill it using an aqua roll (but we don't have one) We don't mind using this method its not caused us any problems and it does prevent someone tampering with your water supply IF you don't have a lockable filler cap. 

Unless it comes as supplied as original equipment?

David

I can see the need for a sealed connector on a caravan since as far as I know (never having had a caravan) caravans don't have an inboard water storage tank and must have an external portable reservoir (which is known as an Aquaroll I think) which feeds an inboard pump for the caravan's water system. But all m/homes have inboard tanks...........don't they?

I can see the need for a sealed connector on a caravan since as far as I know (never having had a caravan) caravans don't have an inboard water storage tank and must have an external portable reservoir (which is known as an Aquaroll I think) which feeds an inboard pump for the caravan's water system. But all m/homes have inboard tanks...........don't they?

As far as I know they do, but some (not ours) don't have a lockable filler cap to them, just a twist and its off kind. With that anyone could (if they so wished) tamper with your fresh water. 

i do have a lockable filler, uses same key as other van lockers.

im guessing the reason for the Whale-type install is not so much to protect your water supply, which is easily sorted by buying a lockable water filler cap, but more to do with giving more versatility to the filling process...