First Road Trip

[Roger Milne]

Getting ready for first major road trip and will be traveling for 5 days and would like to know what the general consensus is about traveling with the potable water tank filled?? Is there a general rule of thumb everyone uses? I am very nervous about driving with the tank more than 1/3 full. To me that seems like a lot of extra weight to be lugging around plus the strain on the mounts. I'm planning on doing our overnights at campgrounds across the trip, but wanted to have some spare in the case of things going sideways and not having access to water hook up at night.

Thanks for the opinions

Roger

[Fred Cook]

Should be no problem filling it up. They are designed to carry the weight. I fill mine up nearly 100% every time we go out which is right at 100 gallons. We have well water and we use it for drinking. We only use campground water for washing clothes, dishes and showers.

[Carl Boger]

Roger,

I almost always travel with a full 100 gallon tank.  I have traveled with about 1/4 tank of water,but honestly can not tell any difference in the way it handled or the fuel mileage.  On my MH the fresh water tank is located between upper frame rails and looks to be very solidly mounted. 

I also am on well water and it is very good water, better than I have found at almost all the campgrounds I have been to.
I typically carry a 5 gallon Coleman water container full of home water for the dog and for cooking.  We keep bottled water for drinking as it can readily be chilled in the refrigerator.  We wash dishes and shower with the fresh water tank water and refill it when it gets just below 1/4 tank.  The quality of the campground water dictates how much water I add, poor water I fill to just over 1/2 good water I fill it all the way up.

[Joel Ashley]

I used to be cautious about how much water we carried, but our engines don’t seem to notice much difference.  We stretched our home water as much as possible, starting with a full tank on longer trips, and worked it well down before adding the next fill.  I learned to be vigilant thereafter when I once filled at an older campground near Ft. Hall upon arrival without tasting first.  It took weeks to be rid of the awful stuff and its lingering odor. 

After that I not only check water before filling, but use a handy, portable On The Go brand softener as an effective filter.  It’s also good here at home for rinsing the cars after washing, to minimize water spotting.

Joel

[David Ciotti]

When I went to my one and only Beaver Rally several attendees told me that they would only use the street water connection to fill their onboard water tank.  Once filled they would shut off the street water connection and use the onboard water tank and pump for all water needs in the RV.  Whenever they would leave the site they would shut off the water pump thus relieving water pressure.

If a water catastrophe happened in the RV while they were away, there would only be a small amount of leakage until they returned.  Sometimes I remember to do that.

[Roger Milne]

Thanks for the advice gents. In all honesty I don’t know how the tank is installed and mounted which was my main concern. I’ve seen horror pictures of tanks ripping out from the mounting location but also this was mostly in 5th wheelers etc. not on Motorhomes.
I am a pilot by profession and we are always worried about carrying extra fuel un-necessarily due to more weight equates higher fuel burn. But I also have to admit I’ve no clue as this is the first long distance trip I’ve taken this RV on and I don’t even know what fuel consumption is with or without the added weight.
Sounds like you all have done it successfully so I guess I’ll be doing the same and having the water available when needed.

Thanks.

[Gene Obie]

I normally travel with 1/3 fresh water if have park water at my next stop. My steer axle is rated at 15,300 and I've measured between 14,900 and 15000 at Cat scale with 1/4-1/3 water. I prefer not to carry the extra weight if I don't need it. Even though i periodically sterilize my RV fresh water system I don't use it for drinking and instead use a Berky filter for drinking. Also, most water I've had in southwest is crazy hard and i use portable water softener which has really helped with hard water stains. When I have traveled with full tank, as others have noted, I really don't see a difference in how the coach handles.

[Steve Huber]

As others have noted, carrying a full tank is no issue and has little to no effect on fuel mileage. The tank is amidship and solidly mounted. We avoided  well water and filled with city water whenever possible as well water contains no anti algae chemicals and we didn't want it sitting in the tank, lines, etc. for long periods of time. We always used water from the tank rather than shore water for a very simple reason. The water pump would alert us if the system sprung a leak. It was also more convenient to turn the system off when leaving the coach.  We also never used our icemaker and turned that water line off at the pump. Also suggest you always turn off your shore water source at the pedestal when leaving the coach. IMHO the ice maker line is very prone to leaks and they can cause a lot of damage if not discovered early. We had 3 Beavers and experienced leaks in all of them. With a residential reefer one can carry a lot of ice in freezer.
Steve

[David Ciotti]

It took me 2 years to find the leak in the water line to the ice maker.  It was a pinhole leak behind the kitchen cabinet. I could live without the device but I share this coach with an unnamed person who can't live without lots of ice.  Viva la differance.