Camper Water System Upgrades (T2499)

[JohnB]

Fellow Campers

For a Varity of reasons I have upgraded and customized parts of my camper water system and put them all in one post. Here are some pics of them. If you want more details, fell free to ask away.

Added a drain hose and blow off hose to the HW heater. I drain the water each trip and the blow off hose is to keep the drips when they come off the electronics.




Next area is the actual suction port and drain port on the fresh tank. By changing the suction port I can suck the tank down to less than 1 quart of water with out loosing prime on the water pump. Otherwise I loose several gallons of water that I cannot use as the original side port sucks air bubbles over the top of the water line and looses the pump prime so the pump will never shut off.

The larger drain valve allows to drain the tank faster than the stock shut off. I drain each trip any left and sanitize when needed so it helps.


You can see here the original suction port on the far right of the tank it is now plugged with a brass plug. It was 1” to the top of the water line when I sucked air into the pump. I could never use the last 1”.


And due almost burning up my water pump with a sucked in air bubble and leaving the camper with the pump on, I changed the pump for that and other reason to a variable speed pump. Now smooth, steady pressure and no wake the dead banging in the middle of the night after a flush.

A heads up, Allways shut off the pump when you go away from the camper. The pump will run forever if you loose prime. The smell of hot electrical insulation is not comforting upon return.


I also added foam pipe insulation around all the pipes anywhere close to the pump to reduce vibration.


I also added what most call an “under the sink” water purifier. Except in my case I mounted it in my outside storage compartment where I can get to it for servicing easier.

A close up. This is 0.3 micron ceramic carbon filtration.


And the fresh tap inside on the left side of the sink.


I’m also into pre filtering the water I put into my fresh tank when it is from a public water supply. At home I do not have to do this, but away from home I do. This is 0.9 micron filtration. I have it setup in parallel to allow faster flow when filling.


A close up of the filters


And the filter mount ½ swung shut


And all the way closed. It tucks neatly out of the way.


And the hinge when open and how it attaches to the camper


And the hinge when closed so the outer door fits inside it.


I also blow out my camper water after each trip. I have a pressure regulator, on/off valve and additional air filter. I have 2 filters 1 at the compressor and this one. I can attach the blow off fitting in the city water line. I use 50 psi to blow with so I do not stress the system. No real need for much above 50psi but I have found 30 psi is not really enough. My piping is rated at 150psi in the camper from Sunline. Just you really do not want to all that pressure as all the little washer fittings that use to not leak can then start leaking.


Or where I use it the most, here at the discharge of the water pump. This valve allows me to tap in easily to the pressure piping.


Here you can see the air hose on it. My layout blows out best starting from the pump verses the city water feed. I go thru a sequence of low point drains and gravity first then under pressure.


That about completes the fresh water system but I also have tank flushers and a hook up for them. This is how I dump and flush. I use a combo of tank flush and RV hydro flush plus the clear fitting allows me to see that all the paper stops coming out. I have flushers in both fresh and gray tanks and valve to each supply.


And the RV hydro flush


And the flusher valves. I put quick disconnects on these water hoses and this one old one is leaking around the O ring. That is the water you see.


And where I store my sewer hose. There are 2, 10 footers in there


Close up of fitting in 4” PVC Tee


And that is my water upgrades in and outside of the camper. Hopefully these will spark ideas others can use or parts of.

John

[PTHutch]

John,

Great job and excellent pictures.

Thanks for sharing.

Hutch

[rich2500]

great craftsmanship john,keep up the great work

[Poppy & Nana]

Every time I show DH one of your mods.....he says, "Put it on the Honeydo list"....boy John his list is getting real long!

[emam]

WOW John, thanks for the tips and Ideas on how to install the water filters!!

We just had a dilema at Camping World where we were trying to have a system installed just like you have in the storage locker, and they told us there was no room for it under the sink. When I mentioned that they put it in the smae spot you ahd yours, they told me they wouldnt be able to.

I cant wait to figure out, using your pictures as guide lines how to do this!!

Thanks, and if anyone else has pictures of their personal mod's, they should post them, as pictures really make all the difference.

Thanks again
Pat

[JohnB]

Pat

If you need, I can pop a pic of underneath the sink to show how I did the hoses. It really was not that hard to do. Let me know if you want the pics.

While the filter will fit under the sink.... I would not want it there. Servicing it would be a real bear.

John

[PTHutch]

Pat,

I agree with John. In our previous Sunline I had installed an in-line water filter under the sink. I had to remove multiple drawers to access it.

John,

If you would be so kind to post the pictures I would also be interested in them. I DID NOT install an under sink in-line water filter on our new Sunline just because it was a pain to access it on the other trailer. But, once again, you’ve given me a spark. I could install an in-line water filter in my storage compartment also.

However, we always use an exterior double stage filter when ever we’re hooked up to water. First filter is a sediment filter, 2nd filter is for taste and odor, so I’m not sure if I need an in-line water filter.

Thanks
Hutch

[Sunline Fan]

I know this isn't in a Sunline, but my dad just created this for our MH:





The parts all came from Home Depot and we can now just replace a filter, not the whole housing too. We used to use one of those white tube type filters from Camping World, but we had no water pressure in the shower. It was just a trickle. Between this filter and a new, non-restricting shower head, showers are now high pressure. The only downside is the HW runs out quicker! As you can see from the pic, our water pressure coming in is about 40 PSI- we were lucky to get 15 in the shower.

Jon

P.S. Notice how Fleetwood includes two (2) dust caps for the city water in port .

[emam]

Hey John, I'd love to see some photos.

I was argueing with the guy saying that I didnt want him to put it behind the kitchen drawers as it would be impossible to service. That's when he told me that was the only spot, or he couldnt hook it up.

He told me it was impossible to hook it up in the storage locker where you have yours and where I told him to install it. I even told him, "I dont care how much it's going to cost, that's where I want it!"

I really hate when service people think they know better then you.

Hutch, I too use a Class A filter for filling our Fresh Tank, which I cant use while hooked to city water, due to dropping the pressure too much. But I'd love to know that anything coming out of that little spigot is clean and pure. Especially once we head south of the border and really have to start worrying about the nasties.

Pat

[PTHutch]

Here's a picture of what we use to filter the water when hooked up at a campsite.

This is a picture of our previous Sunline, but we use the same filtering system with our new Sunline.


Here a close up of the water filters:


And with the filters labeled with the type of filter we use in each one.


This water filtering set-up has not affected the water pressure at all.

I use a T at the trailer's city water input with a small hose. This way I can get water from the outside, plus I can turn the water off to the trailer when we leave for the day.

Hutch

[JohnB]

EMAN (Pat) and Hutch. See if this helps any. Sorry this has taken a while. I have been doing what all good campers do, Camp! And while I was gone, WOW the forum has been busy.... it will take me a few nights to catch up.

Here see if this helps the cause for how to install a water filter in the outside peg board compartment.

Here is the outside filter mounting


A close up showing the holes drilled in the side wall measured from the floor up so I know where they will land inside. I also have added quick disconnect fitting for ease in removal and cleaning. I have the hoses long on purpose so I can pick up and remove the filter from the camper out in the open and then unhook the filter. This way the drips land outside the camper.


Now to the in side. Here you see the sink tap up top. It is up to you to put on left or right.


Now under the sink. This was hard to find the right angle to get everything at once. So I took a few shots.


And a shot looking up at the sink tap. The filter tap is to the left of the blue cold hose.


A shot looking up at the tee into the outside shower.


And the holes in the wall out to the peg board cabinet.


This was really not that complex. Take the pics to the installer and say: Can you can reproduce this?

Hope this helps

John

PS. Hutch to your question on if you need this or not under the sink. We need to get a good water post going and I have just the pics from this past weekend at the camp ground out of my fill up filters to kick it off. Stay tuned.

[JohnB]

Originally Posted by Sunline Fan

I know this isn't in a Sunline, but my dad just created this for our MH:

Jon

Jon, thanks for posting. The thing that sparked my interest is the gage. A spark is about to glow.

With a gage up stream and down stream of the filter we can measure pressure drop across the filter and tell how clogged it is or not. However the accurcay of the gage will need to be finer.

I'm thinking. Stay tuned.

[PTHutch]

Pat,

I installed my in-line water filter a little different than John. (Sorry no pictures because it was in our old trailer). I installed the filter in-line with the cold water line to the kitchen sink, because I didn't have a separate faucet like you see in John's picture of the kitchen sink (plus I was too lazy to install one). I cut the cold water line going to the kitchen sink, connected the feed to the water filter, than ran a line from the water filter to the kitchen sink faucet. If I remember correctly all hose/piping and connectors we provided with the water filter. Our kitchen faucet had separate hot & cold water knobs. So if we wanted only filtered water, we just used the cold water knob.

It’s just an alternative way to install an in-line water filter, particularly if you don’t have an extra water faucet already installed in the kitchen sink.

As John said, it’s not that complex to install and definitely a job you can do yourself.

Hutch

[Makers Mark]

Hey Hutch,
Sorry don't want to highjack this thread, but maybe you could show the hook-up for the blue tote that I see in the your pics. Maybe you could start a new mod thread for the tote holder. I hope you didn't do it already, I don't want to think I missed anything.
MM

[PTHutch]

MM,

Thanks - that was our old Sunline. Use an old bumper mount bike rack to make it into a tote holder. I'll take some pictures of if and post as new topic.

Hutch

[partimcmpr]

I know this thread has been idle a while, but I am new to the group and almost missed a great tip in one of the posts.

I believe it was Hutch who was showing pictures of his water filter and mentioned using a T connector. He commented that he turns the water off when away for the day. Great tip! I never thought about the mess that one could come back to.

One question about that - would you turn your hot water heater off? Or just trust that you are most likely not going to loose water? just curious...

Thanks,
David

[JohnB]

Originally Posted by partimcmpr

One question about that - would you turn your hot water heater off? Or just trust that you are most likely not going to loose water? just curious...

Thanks,
David

David

YES, I do turn off the hot water heater when I go out for a while. Especially for a day. I'm not as much worried about the lack of water as much as the thermal expansion issues if my air pocket in the top of the HW heater gets dissolved. When that air pocket goes, and it will go over time, the heated water creates a high degree of pressure in the system as there is no more expansion room left. Any joint in your system can get exposed to the higher then normal 40 to 50 psi the system sees on a normal basis.

John

[PTHutch]

David,

I agree with John, if you're away from the trailer for awhile, turn your hot water tank off too.

Particularly if you're using electric to heat the water. Besides what John mentioned as potential issues, if your running both A/C & electric hot water a breaker could get tripped while your gone.

We had friends let left their trailer with both the electric hot water tank and A/C on. They left the A/C on because they left their dog in the trailer, but forgot to turn off the electric hot water. Well with both the electric hot water and A/C on, it tripped the breaker while they were gone and they came back to the trailer at ~90° and a very hot and thirsty dog.

Hutch

[Sunline Fan]

I think some of those issues would depend on the size of the TT and the size of the AC unit. If you have a big trailer, say a 299SR, one AC is going to work overtime to keep the whole coach cool. If you have, say a 2499, the AC won't run as much since it doesn't have to cool as big of an area.

I've never shut off the WH or air when I leave and have never had a problem. Then again, I'm speaking from 50 amp and dual air experience. I think it would be a good idea, especially on really hot days when air is necessary and running more (like the '07 M&G!!!) to shut off the WH if you leave.

Jon

[PTHutch]

Jon,

The size of the trailer doesn’t matter, it’s the Amps that are drawn. If the HW electric unit is on and the A/C compressor kicks on, the two together will be drawing between 28-29 Amps. If power is low at a campground, that could be enough to trip a 30 Amp breaker. Also, when the A/C compressor kicks on, it could cause a momentary surge of Amps which could also trip the breaker if the electric hot water coil is drawing current at the same time. So it’s the # of Amps that the two can drawing at the same is the issue, not the size of the trailer or how much the units are working. If the two aren’t drawing current at the same time, there won’t be a problem. It’s just when the two start drawing current at the same time you have a potential problem. That also explains why with a 50 Amp service you’ve never had a problem.

Hutch