Empty or full fresh water tank? - RV-Dreams Community Forum

cherylbrv · RV-Dreams Family Member

Empty or full fresh water tank?

Terry and Jo · RV-Dreams Family Member

Cheryl,

Considering that yours is an older model, some of the others may better answer this question. However, prior to our move to Colorado, we had some "old" water in the fresh tank. There was no issue with it having any odd taste or anything. Now, having said that, some may say that if the fresh water tank had been sanitized, there may be no problem at all. I can't answer to that as we've never needed to sanitize ours, but it hasn't been sitting all that long with water in the tank. If you do want to drain the tank, it may take some time for the 100 gallons to drain, so if you don't want a puddle under your trailer, consider putting a garden hose up over the drain line and let it drain away from the coach.

Keep in mind, that water weighs roughly 8 lbs per gallon. If you are traveling with your tank full, presuming your Mobile Suite also has a 100-gallon tank, that is more than 800 extra pounds you will be pulling. Do you really want to carry that much extra weight? Now, having said that, it is "confession time" for me. When we made our move, I added water to the fresh water tank so that we would have water, if needed, on our travels. I got distracted while filling it. When I realized that I had been distracted, I shut the water off and went in to check the tank level indicator lights, and those only showed me two out of the four lights. I thought I was safe to go without having too much weight.

During our moving though, I checked the tanks one day and the fresh water level lights indicated ALL FOUR of the lights to be lit. While the 800 pounds normally wouldn't have been there, we didn't really have any issues. It was explained to me one day that the Mobile Suites and the Elite Suites by DRV Suites both have the same "foundation" of frame, axles, suspension, wheels and tires. However, since the Elite Suites has almost 2000 pounds more in GVWR, I was told that occasionally getting overweight wouldn't be a huge problem.

Terry

cherylbrv · RV-Dreams Family Member

We did sanitize the tank before leaving the seller's driveway.

GENECOP · RV-Dreams Family Member

Dump it, flush it, and start fresh......water gets funky after a pretty short time....

Dave Buck · RV-Dreams Family Member

I drain mine anytime I'm going to be sitting for any length of time. It doesn't take long to refill when needed. I try to never travel with more that 15-20 gal. of water in the tank. Just enough for a overnight stop. Don't need that extra weight. We only filled the tank when staying in a location where we only have electric hook up, and then only pulled it from the water source to the site.

The Bear II · RV-Dreams Family Member

Whatever water is in the tank when we get back from a trip stays in the tank until I fill the tank for the next trip. For the last couple of years our 5th wheel sits for 8 months in the storage lot and gets to play for 4 months. We have never had funky water.

It's my understanding (I'm no scientist) that light is what causes water to go bad. Since the RV tank is always in the dark the water stays good for the 8 months it's in storage.

Clay L · RV-Dreams Family Member

You say the trailer is at a strange angle. Does that mean unlevel?
If the trailer is off level more than 6 degrees front to back or 3 degrees side to side you don't want to run the refrigerator. That assumes it is a RV unit and not a residential one. The degrees given are for my Norcold but I would be surprised if the other popular brand is much different.

lindy · RV-Dreams Family Member

A lot will depend on the source of the water. City water will be chlorinated (usually) thus it will KEEP better longer then say straight from the well water that is untreated.

cheryls-other-half · RV-Dreams Family Member

cherylbrv wrote:
mitch sez... snip...Gray and black were emptied before we left seller's and fresh was filled.
For the record, it is still hitched to the truck although the levelers are down (it's parked at a really strange angle. Unhitching is not an option because we need to back up straight in order to hitch it again, and we don't have the clearance to be able to do that.)

The CoW was originally in their back yard, and when we had the bolt fall off of the Kitchen Slide out, had it moved to the driveway for the way out. Now sitting ready to pull onto roadway.

At any rate, Cheryl and I disagree, I am leaving the CoW attached to the BULL, (F-550), because she insists, but I do believe that we COULD move it if needed.

Also WRT the water in the Fresh-water tanks, We are NOT using it, I do NOT think (please correct me here) that it is an issue, because all it is being used for is a weekly toilet tab into the black-water tank, (and a gal/two to flush it...)

And once we get moving, I will go to a campsite, and dump everything thru the sewer line.

at that time, I am guessing that i will empty the freshwater and re-sanitize with chlorine,

Is this not a sane tactic?

essentially I am just sitting on all the water, with no real (good) place to dump it.

...added... Oh yeah, I did level the trailer, so it's pretty good.

-- Edited by cheryls-other-half on Tuesday 29th of July 2014 10:14:33 AM

-- Edited by cheryls-other-half on Tuesday 29th of July 2014 10:17:03 AM

Barbaraok · RV-Dreams Family Member

I'll bet your fresh water tank has a low point drain that you could open and let the fresh water run down the driveway.

Barb

sirwinston21 · RV-Dreams Family Member

It does have a low point drain but it is hidden under and behind the water manifold, often covered by the insulation but it is there.

Lucky Mike · RV-Dreams Family Member

On most newer models the low point drain will have a valve in the water control area if your unit is set up with a multi shut off manifold..

Terry and Jo · RV-Dreams Family Member

Cheryl and Mitch,

With regards to the "low point" and fresh water drains, the picture below is of our 2010 Mobile Suites. The red and blue lines at the bottom of the water manifold are the low point drains, and you can see the valves on those for draining the lines. The valve to drain the fresh water tank is to the left and back further, and it is located down in the insulation. When I first drained our fresh water tank, I literally had to dig around with my hand in the insulation to find the valve.

When ours needs to be drained, I try to do as much as possible of using water from the fresh water tank with the 12V pump. The drain is very slow in draining from the fresh water tank. I generally take a hose that will go up over the exposed drain line under the trailer and snake the other end out away from the camper, and then I just let it do it's slow process of draining.

Terry

cherylbrv · RV-Dreams Family Member

Thanks, Terry. That is very helpful!