I am a new owner, so please understand the basic nature of my questions.

There appear to be two water inlet fittings on my coach. One is curb side, behind a locked door. The other is street side and is not lockable.

Do these both feed the fresh water tank? Or what? Is one for constant use, while parked and the other to fill & go?

Thanks,

John

1988 Regal, 28 Foot

Hi John,

No elementary questions here.

The curb side goes directly into your water tank. Which on coaches like yours is usually under the curbside twin bed, (assuming you have center twins) in some cases it is actually under the refrigerator.

The street side is where you hook up to campground water. This water goes straight to your plumbing system bypassing your water tank. Two major cautions here: 1. Always use a water regulator



They are available at any RV dealer, Camping World store, or you can buy online at www.campingworld.com. The water pressure at a campground can vary so much that it could cause your plastic rv plumbing to fail.

2. Always use a white hose which is specifically for drinking water



A regular green or black rubber hose when heated by sunlight give off chemicals into the water which could make you ill over time.

Now if you look on your coach information board which has your tank levels etc. you should see a switch for water fill. When you have water hooked up to the city water side, (street side) this will open a valve which will fill your tanks. I have found that these work about 1/2 the time. Mine never has so I don't know, but I think it beeps which the tank is full. Someone else can chime in on this.

But my one big rule is!! Never start filling your tank and walk away When I am filling my tank, I turn it on put a CD in the CD player and sit on the other bed until it is at the level I want it to be at.

Finally, I think that most folks will only put enough water in the tank for flushing while in transit. You probably have motoraid hot water, so that your hot water is being heated while you are traveling. This water gets really hot, so be careful if you are stepping into the shower or washing your hands.
Hope this helps,

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[This message has been edited by davebowers (edited September 07, 2004).]

Oh boy! More "stuff" to buy. I love it. Having a Barth is just like a Barby doll for men--there's always something ya gotta have.

Seriously, thanks for the help Dave.

John

Thanks John for asking this question...we figured the streetside and curbside water fill ups last weekend...but Dave's answer begs another question.
For the last two weekends we have hooked up to the campground water, started auto fill, filled up the 46 gallon water holding tank, turned off auto fill then turned on the house pump and hot water heater. Each time we drew water the house pump kicked on. As the water holding tank got low we would fill it up again with auto fill and start the process again.
If I understand the explaination correctly, if we are hooked up to campground water the pressurized water from the campground should go directly into our plumbing and by pass the need for the water holding tank? This would make sense and explain the need for presurized water entering the coach. If I have totally missed the mark here let me know. Clueless newbie...

You got right Wendy. When you are in a campground turn your pump off you don't need it. The water from the city (campground) will go straight into the plumbing system, water heater etc.

Now I have met a couple people, (just a couple) who are paranoid about a campground water blowing their plumbing that they have done just what you have been doing. But unless the they have substantially upgraded their pumps and tanks they are destined to have lower water pressures and have to refill the tanks.

By the way we can also have a pretty intensive discussion on various filters and souped up custom regulators to add to the system to increase water flow and make you water taste good.

Oh, and by the way for your pumped system to work well it has to be a sealed system. When you remove you hose on the city side you will see a little spring valve that close that inlet. They invariable leak. Some time the little valve will get kind of sideways. If so just hit it with the tip of your finger. IF it still leaks then either replace it or you should have a little cap that goes on it.

And all the old timers are chuckling and saying, hey look Bowers is talking about something he knows something about. Any more complicated than this I'm lost...

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[This message has been edited by davebowers (edited September 07, 2004).]

This thread has tought me a ton about my water system. One question, where does the water go if you fill the tank and some time later it's empty and you can't find any leaks, or sign of dampness. When we had people staying in the coach we had it hooked up to house water and thought they were using that, but after they left we learned the pump was on and the tank was dry. How much damage may this have caused? And is there a valve that has to be switched to go from tank to house?

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Dan & Suzy Z
'81 Euro 28

Thanks Dave...I'm not laughing a bit. I'll take all the heat for being a newbie who wants to learn. I would much rather learn from others experiences then to have to make every mistake at least once to learn. :-)

As always thanks for the valuable information.

Hey Danny,

Well it is not good if you have a standard impeller type pump and it runs dry. I have a diaphram pump which can run dry for a year. If you are losing water and the pump isn't on then obviously you have a drain open somewhere. If your pump was on and you lost water the first question is, did you black water tank fill up? If so, and assuming that a faucet wasn't left open I would pin it on the toilet. In your toilet you should be able to hold a half an inch or so of water above the flap valve, (what is the real name for this thing anyway? If you have toilet paper or stuff in the groove that your flap sits in and if it is open enough to keep your pump going then there is where your water goes. There is also another valve in the guts of the toilet that can keep it running. I had mine replace in a campground my a mobile rv service.

I also have to tell you, and will all the women who read this please forgive me...

My inlaws stay in the Barthmobile when they visit. They were only here three days and two nights. They spent all of the day in the house and even took showers in here. I dump all of the tanks and clean them out before they come. I did have it hooked up to the house water but when they left the black and gray water tanks were full. I MEAN FULL Plus when I emptied it, man there must have been two rolls of toilet paper in there. No I didn't say anything, I do not want to even know and my sister-in-law does not read this website...I hope. I will tell you one thing. She would be one horrible boondocker.

Check that toilet. Now put some water in your tank, unhook your water from the outsite, (or just turn off the outside fawcet). get a good book and lay in the bed for around 2-3 hours and see if the pump just comes on by itself. You pump should only go on when you are flushing the toilet or turn on a faucet. If it comes on by itself even for a second or two you have leaking somewhere. And you want to work on that or it will really screw up your sleep pattern...

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