Bypass water pump for fresh water filling

[JimOIB]

My coach has the city water and fresh water connections on opposite sides, street-side and curb-side respectively. During this trip I’ve seen more and more dump sites with a potable water fill station within 15-20 feet street-side with the dump. I’m envious of the coaches that pull up to dump and fill fresh water at the same time with minimum effort. We need to get the 35’ water hose out and walk around the coach to fill. They look like a NASCAR pit crew and we look like the Little Rascals. Plus I’m spending more time at the dump station and backing up traffic.

I’m thinking about putting a water pump bypass so I can fill from the city water port. Looks like a couple of Sharkbite tee and a ball valve under my sink would do the trick. The snag I see is I’m no longer gravity feed and will fight head pressure as the FW tank fills. I could plumb the bypass to the top of the FW tank and keep the system gravity feed. Or I could eliminate the current fill port, plumb into it and run the vent down and out the bottom of the coach - becomes a vent/overflow port.

Anyone have any clever ideas on how to do this?

[16ACE27]

Originally Posted by jimbo12

I’m thinking about putting a water pump bypass so I can fill from the city water port. Looks like a couple of Sharkbite tee and a ball valve under my sink would do the trick. The snag I see is I’m no longer gravity feed and will fight head pressure as the FW tank fills. I could plumb the bypass to the top of the FW tank and keep the system gravity feed. Or I could eliminate the current fill port, plumb into it and run the vent down and out the bottom of the coach - becomes a vent/overflow port.

Anyone have any clever ideas on how to do this?

Why would you be "no longer gravity feed" if all you are doing is adding a water pump bypass with ball valve? The bypass allows the city water to "back feed" the FW tank to fill it from the pump suction line.

I did the same thing on our ACE in the wet bay so I could easily fill the FW tank while connected to city water. I still have the gravity fill and vent, the mod does not affect that at all.

My previous RV was a Travel Trailer with the gravity fill on the passenger side, just a PITA all around.

[Judge]

This is a non-issue if you do it properly. I did this last year on my Magnitude SV34. You can read about it here....

https://www.thorforums.com/forums/sh...2&postcount=12

The best part is I used an electronic ball valve and a wireless remote control switch. I have a remote in my pocket and all I need to do it hit a button when on city water and it fills my fresh water tank. I can still gravity fill if needed for some reason.

The electronic ball valve and wireless remote switch is the same setup I used for my fresh waster tank drain as well since Thor decided to put the valve to drain the fresh water tank under the bed.

[JimOIB]

Originally Posted by 16ACE27

Why would you be "no longer gravity feed" if all you are doing is adding a water pump bypass with ball valve? The bypass allows the city water to "back feed" the FW tank to fill it from the pump suction line.

I did the same thing on our ACE in the wet bay so I could easily fill the FW tank while connected to city water. I still have the gravity fill and vent, the mod does not affect that at all.

My previous RV was a Travel Trailer with the gravity fill on the passenger side, just a PITA all around.

Umm…because I’m backfilling if I just bypass the pump. Which is what I’m going to do - the FW tank is 28 inches tall so the head pressure I’m fighting is roughly 1 PSI. It’s good to know that you’ve done this without issues - that’s what I was looking for.

[ducksface]

My similar, but not on my rv tank has the input water hooked to a float valve(similar to the valve in the back of a toilet or evaporative cooler or swimming pool filler.)

$6 and you can't overfill/screw up by forgetting and running water on the ground for an hour or six when you forgot to turn it all off the tank fill.

A separate line to the tank itself, negates the need to bypass the pump.
Put an inlet just like your shore fill inlet on the passenger side and run a New line to the tank.


If the water is 25feet away you're still going to have to wrangle the same exact hose to get to it.

I have the same setup as Judge sitting in my mod box. I haven't installed it because we never hook to shore water as a supply source.

I too hate the passebger side fill on my 24.1 but I'm dragging out a hose no matter what so I live with the extra 15feet needed.

It wasn't worth the mod when I analyzedd the way we use the water.

If you use shore water regularly it is worth the mod, WITH a float valve.

[lwmcguir]

i had several RV's over the years with factory valves for backfilling the fresh water tanks.

Apparently to many people flooded their RV's and that design was dumbed down a bit

[16ACE27]

Originally Posted by lwmcguir

i had several RV's over the years with factory valves for backfilling the fresh water tanks.

Apparently to many people flooded their RV's and that design was dumbed down a bit

How'd they flood their RV? The tank vent is outside.