City water hookup

[Davydd]

The driver’s side is inside the the nerf bar lockable compartment under the body. The gravity fill is at the B-pillar on the passenger side door jamb concealed by the door.

[ChicagoTom]

I always find it comical that people use the city water hook up. Useless IMO. Fill up the fresh water tank, keeps it fresh, one less thing to disconnect, avoids possible flooding or damage when the regulator or whatever fails.

[GeorgeRa]

Originally Posted by ChicagoTom

I always find it comical that people use the city water hook up. Useless IMO. Fill up the fresh water tank, keeps it fresh, one less thing to disconnect, avoids possible flooding or damage when the regulator or whatever fails.

Agree if you have bad plumbing, a questionable conversion a handpump or a bucket could be the best. I have good plumbing so shore connection is great and pressure fill-up is great as well.

[Davydd]

Originally Posted by ChicagoTom

I always find it comical that people use the city water hook up. Useless IMO. Fill up the fresh water tank, keeps it fresh, one less thing to disconnect, avoids possible flooding or damage when the regulator or whatever fails.

The city water connection is easier to fill than the gravity connection I described. You don’t have to keep the hose connected and in my van the fill shuts off automatically so there is no spill over. City water is just a description of a municipal potable water source. Don’t over think it or you will never fill up at home at the beginning of a trip.

[avanti]

So how exactly are these fancy autofill systems set up?
--Do you just connect the city water and turn it on?
--Do you have to manually press a "fill tank" button or does it just do it? Or is that a mode you configure?
--Does it automatically switch to the tank if the city water goes away or is that a switch?
--Does the "auto shutoff when full" feature use the tank level sensor system, or is there a separate float valve in the tank?

I am thinking that it could be made completely automatic, and am wondering about the state of the art.

[Davydd]

You connect your hose just like everyone, turn on the spigot at the source and select Auto Fill on our Silverleaf touch screen. Internally to ARV I guess there is a shutoff valve when the tank reaches full. I don’t know the inner workings how they determine that but I assume it is with the same tank sensoring system that is gradated in 1% increments. Auto Fill can be no guess one person operation.

You can also fill with the “city water” connection same as the gravity option without turning the Auto Fill on and it will simply fill until you release an over flow visibly on the ground if you are not paying attention or have someone watch on the Silverleaf screen when it gets close to full and just turn off the spigot at the source.

Reliable? It’s been reliable for 7 years 106,000 miles on the road so far.

[folivier]

On my Foretravel I used a sensor like this: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0...?ie=UTF8&psc=1
mounted to the top of the tank to shut off the fill solenoid. You could use this to fill your water tank, and add another sensor at the bottom of the tank if you want true autofill. https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0...?ie=UTF8&psc=1
Getting access to the side of the tank and running the wiring could be difficult or not.

[GeorgeRa]

Originally Posted by avanti

So how exactly are these fancy autofill systems set up?
--Do you just connect the city water and turn it on?
--Do you have to manually press a "fill tank" button or does it just do it? Or is that a mode you configure?
--Does it automatically switch to the tank if the city water goes away or is that a switch?
--Does the "auto shutoff when full" feature use the tank level sensor system, or is there a separate float valve in the tank?

I am thinking that it could be made completely automatic, and am wondering about the state of the art.

Mine is not automatic, I need to activate two solenoids valve for fill and turn them off. My priority was safety, even lowered pressure, like mine at 30PSI, can exhort some mighty forces on tank sidewalls without sufficient venting. Had direct experience with my Bigfoot Camper.

[avanti]

OK, thanks all. That is what I assumed.

But what about choosing between tank/pump vs city water (assuming the latter is connected). Is THAT automatic, too? It appears to be automatic in my Legend, but I have no idea how it works. Is there some kind of mechanical pressure-activated valve that they use to bypass the pump? or what?

[ChicagoTom]

Originally Posted by Davydd

The city water connection is easier to fill than the gravity connection I described. You don’t have to keep the hose connected and in my van the fill shuts off automatically so there is no spill over. City water is just a description of a municipal potable water source. Don’t over think it or you will never fill up at home at the beginning of a trip.

LOL, City water is ALWAYS the description people use for the CITY WATER hookup.

[GeorgeRa]

Originally Posted by avanti

OK, thanks all. That is what I assumed.

But what about choosing between tank/pump vs city water (assuming the latter is connected). Is THAT automatic, too? It appears to be automatic in my Legend, but I have no idea how it works. Is there some kind of mechanical pressure-activated valve that they use to bypass the pump? or what?

Has been a while since I plumbed my van, as long there is pressure on the pump’s output the pump is off. With shore water connected pump is off by itself and water comes from the shore inlet not from the tank.

[avanti]

Originally Posted by GeorgeRa

Has been a while since I plumbed my van, as long there is pressure on the pump’s output the pump is off. With shore water connected pump is off by itself and water comes from the shore inlet not from the tank.

Ah. Of course. Clever.
Thanks.

[organize4u]

Yea! My mechanic got it off.

Does anyone know where I can get a replacement? It's a smaller diameter than your standard hose connection.

[booster]

Originally Posted by organize4u

Yea! My mechanic got it off.

Does anyone know where I can get a replacement? It's a smaller diameter than your standard hose connection.

It would likely be a standard pipe thread, probably 3/8" or 1/2" NPT thread.


Any RV store should have them and maybe even local hardware store.


Check the old one and see if it includes the checkvalve, and if it does make sure the replacement does also.


This might also be a good time to put a pressure regulator on it right there also to protect the van plumbing against too high water pressure.

[organize4u]

Thank you Booster. I do have a pressure regulator and the old one has a backflow on it which I think is what you mean by check valve. I want to configure it so it's much easier to get to. I'll probably also use a quick connect.
M