Holding your water

[TIH211]

My husband was talking to some guy who told him he came up to the campsite with his own water. He said he travels with a full tank so he can stop along the way and use the bathroom or in case he goes where there is no accessible water hookup.( We were standing near a water hook up when he told us this.)
This seemed to impress my husband however, and he's planning on doing the same on our next trip. I feel this would just be more of a strain on the engine and take more gas. We live in Colorado and will be going up to Denver. Am I just being a worry wart?

 

[RichR]

I usually will fill the tank about a third of the way for use on the road if necessary. That is less than 100 pounds and you won't notice it. On short trips to the boondocks we fill the tank completely.

 

[Papa-HILO]

Water in the tank

As is should be obivious the more water (clean or dirty) the heavier load you are towing. And that cuts into gas mileage.
That being said I do put a few gallons in the water tank before leaving home. We normally use reat area rest rooms but you never know and it's good to have enough to flush the toilet a few times.
I normally try and empty the black and gray water tanks when leaving a camp ground. But to clean them I have put five gallons of water in the tanks with some calcon to help clean the inside of the tank. Then I empy upon finding a dump station and before setting up camp.
Hope this helps.
God Bless
Papa

 

[C317414]

Since my wife and I prefer to camp in undeveloped areas we have always traveled with a full water tank. We've done this with 3 RVs (2 trailers, 1 motorhome) without any issues whatsoever.

Raul

 

[RichR]

Since my wife and I prefer to camp in undeveloped areas we have always traveled with a full water tank. We've done this with 3 RVs (2 trailers, 1 motorhome) without any issues whatsoever.

Raul

The trailers are designed, I hope, to travel with full tanks. My main concern is with the weight of full tanks and how they effect towing. In HiLo trailers most fresh tanks are in front and the waste tanks are in the back. So traveling with a full fresh water tank adds to tongue weight. Having water in the rear tanks removes tongue weight which you don't want. Your hitch setup and the tow vehicle's towing capabilities are affected by this. If that is okay, traveling with a full fresh water tank should not be a problem.

 

[retiredcamper47]

On the road, I travel with 5 gallons of water in my tank. We utilize the restrooms at the rest areas while on the road. We have had to use our trailer bathroom on 2 or 3 occasions after we followed a tour bus into the rest area or when we were stopped for several hours due to traffic problems. We also carry bottled water with us when we travel and have been known to use that to flush with.

Bob

 

[C317414]

The trailers are designed, I hope, to travel with full tanks. My main concern is with the weight of full tanks and how they effect towing. In HiLo trailers most fresh tanks are in front and the waste tanks are in the back. So traveling with a full fresh water tank adds to tongue weight. Having water in the rear tanks removes tongue weight which you don't want. Your hitch setup and the tow vehicle's towing capabilities are affected by this. If that is okay, traveling with a full fresh water tank should not be a problem.

While the tanks are in the forward part of the trailer, the are a few feet aft of the hitch. I think that you will find that the effect on the hitch weight is not that much.

My Hi-Lo manual says that towing with full waste tanks should be avoided, but it does not state anything about fresh water tanks.

Raul

 

[TIH211]

Thanks for the quick responses. I really appreciate it. At this time in my life I'm experiencing more of a need to know the answer to this question .

 

[campthewestcoast]

TJH,

I think the real answer is "it depends" as there are many factors. Is there water easily accessable at the camp site? How close are you to the maximum tow rating of your vehicle (when you add up all the stuff that you are carrying)?

We choose not to tow with water in our tanks. In case we need to use the toilet in an emergency, we have a 2 liter bottle of water in the cabinet under the sink. We also plan our trips to make sure that we have accessible water when we reach our destination.

We are towing with a 2006 Toyota Tacoma Prerunner dual cab with a 6500 tow rating. Our trailer is a 2006 22ft Towlite - which weighs about 4000 lbs. all our gear adds at least another 500 lbs (probably much more). They recommend that you limit the weight of your RV to 75% of the gross vehicle weight rating - which in our case is 4,875lbs. We have decided that adding the water adds more weight than we are comfortable with.

I hope this helps.

 

[Rolff]

My Hi-Lo manual says that towing with full waste tanks should be avoided, but it does not state anything about fresh water tanks.

Raul[/QUOTE]

Do they have a suggestion of how to do this when boondocking? Open the valves a little as you drive home?
We too usually boondock so fill the tank at home. I throw in an empty 6 gal water jug to top off the tank if we are going for a week. I also take our small "blue boy" tank in case I have to drain our Gray water. We use only biodegradable soap but I still wouldn't drain it on to the ground.

 

[sayhonk]

water.

Water is very important to carry; you never know what will happen and you may be stranded somewhere and need it. I always carry the max when I leave for a trip. It's important to have a proper tow vehical and good tires that are inflated properly. The Hilo that I have has 2 axles and I buy the heavy duty tires now. It pulls great with a full tank of water and I haven't noticed any extra use of fuel being used.