Jayflight TT 26RKS, Where do you fill it.. Water Tanks?

davidki · 08-12-2015, 07:52 PM

Probably a stupid question but here goes, We have had our TT for about 3 years, never have filled the fresh water tanks for camping, always have had hook up sites. Were headed out for a few days of dry camping and it all of a sudden hit me.. Do I fill up from the "City Inlet" where we put the hose on for city hook up or do we put the hose down in the "Fresh Water Fill" (you know, the one you usually put water in with the Jerry Jug?

I know it's a stupid question, but, one has to lean at least once. In the Jayco manual it's a bit miss leading showing putting it in with the city water fill... but I looked at ours and the valves and I do not think that is an option on our set up..

I'm sure others have had the same "Newbee" questions.. so, I figured someone can respond fairly quickly ...

Thanks in advance..

Edd505 · 08-12-2015, 08:02 PM

No stupid question ...... use the fresh water fill and a hose and go slow it can backup or burp water back at you. Don't forget you will need the pump turned on to get water pressure

davidki · 08-12-2015, 08:42 PM

Thanks Edd 505 I appreciate your reply... I was going crazy trying to figure how how to configure the valves to make it work :-). Since the tank will take 80 gallons (+6 for the hot water heater) I guess it takes a while to fill? I didn't ask the dealer if it was one tank or two... So much to keep track of!

Thanks so much for the quick response.

Murff · 08-12-2015, 08:57 PM

David, is it possible to fill the tank when you get close to your destination?

80 gallons of water is a lot of weight to drag (640 pounds).

Murff

Edd505 · 08-12-2015, 08:58 PM

Normally only 1 water tank, 1 black, and 1 or 2 gray. If you have two gray figure which is which and label them. Not sure how far you will be driving but 80 gallons @ just over 8lbs a gallon is a lot of extra weight so if I can fill en route I do.

dougfir1 · 08-13-2015, 05:49 AM

I agree with David, Jayco really needs to rewrite the owners manual on the city water/gravity fill question. It has thrown alot of us at first.

SkyBound · 08-13-2015, 06:03 AM

You will have 2 fresh tanks under there for that capacity. They are plumbed together with a large diameter hose.

My trailer has 90 gallons of fresh capacity; two 42 gallon tanks and the 6 gallon water heater.

I'm assuming you have the thermal package with enclosed underbelly since without it the tanks are exposed and a quick look underneath would tell you what you need to know.

davidki · 08-13-2015, 07:22 AM

Thanks folks for all the feedback, We are going to Elkmont Campground in the Smoky National park and there is a visitor station just outside the park (that I spoke with this week) and they have both a fill station and a dump station so we will be running empty both ways... I agree, 80 gallons is a lot of extra weight to carry if you do not have to.

We do have the Thermal Package and the underneath is closed (be it with some flimsy plastic cover).. but we can not see under there. We do have 2 gray tanks and we know one is under the bathroom and the other I believe is closer to the Kitchen, they have never been a problem and I don't think we have ever filled just one of them while camping for 3 or 4 days ... (quick camper showers)... and we have two valves on the outside of the TT at the Dump port.. our Black tank is 32 gallons... So, we should be good to go.

To get ready for this trip I changed out the group 24 Marine/RV battery they had installed and I installed 2 Trojan 105 deep cycle golf cart batteries (6v. ea) and it looks like my Amp hour rating went from under 80 to now 220 amp hour ... I also changed out all the incandescent lamps in the TT and now are running LED lamps. I did a test on the draw and my power consumption is about 30% or less than the incandescent.. with 5 fixtures, 2 LED's ea my amp meter was reading less than a 3 amp draw! I figure at most we will have 1 or 2 of the fixtures on at a time, perhpas at some point 3. I don't think we will need the heater this trip, lt will be in the mid 60's so I dont have to deal with the furnace.

I took the original Group 24 battery and keep it charged with a battery tender, so when we go I will have that in the trailer (un plugged of course) and I have a Cigarette lighter adapter which I plug in a 5 slot USB charger to keep our phones and tablets charged ...

I picked up a 12v DC adapter to run my laptop and charge my battery but I am not sure what the draw that is... but it can charge my laptop battery if I want.. I figure if I want to watch a movie I can use my 17" LED laptop to play a movie in the evening..

This will be an interesting trip and I hope to monitor how things go so we can plan more "Boon Docking" trips in the future... One thing, my wife didn't want a "Generator Site" so, it's battery camping all the way this time... we will just have to see how things plan out...but I imagine I'll have plenty of juice to do what we want. So, Wish us luck!

Edd505 · 08-13-2015, 12:58 PM

Sounds like your ready to roll, let us know how your trip goes.

bono · 08-13-2015, 01:13 PM

I talked to a 5th wheel owner recently in South Lake Tahoe. He had no hook up site and he told me that he brought 140 gallons of water from Santa Barbara area (10 hours driving). This sounded bizarre for me, as I thought that there should be a place closer to Lake Tahoe to fill up. After the conversation I noticed that there are some sites on the campground with hook ups...

So, how does it work from a practical perspective: how to find a place to fill up on the route? Or if there are hook up sites and I do not have hook up, is it acceptable to ask other campers to fill up the trailer from their hose?

thanks!

xtruckerbob · 08-13-2015, 01:38 PM

We have a White Hawk DSRE and we travel with our fresh water tank full. There have been so many times that the water you get across the country is horrible to drink and there have been times it smelled worse than it taste. As far as the weight I can't tell any difference in handling or fuel mileage.

SkyBound · 08-14-2015, 07:57 AM

I have towed with fresh tank full once or twice, but most of the spots we go have water available. When I am planning on towing with full fresh, I connect the two overflow hoses together with a smaller hose that fits inside the overflow hoses. This prevents siphoning while driving which can deplete your water in a big way. Just remember to remove the joiner before you start using the water or the tank may develop a negative pressure inside.

davidki · 08-15-2015, 03:20 PM

Edd505, thanks, I will post when we get home, I am hoping that the visitors center water that is at the Sugarland visitors center at Elkmont will have fairly good water.. we usually carry enough drinking and coffee water with us using filtered water... My guess is that our water tanks will be mainly for washing the dish's, Hot water tank and the shower. With our TT, 82 gallons is alot, I guess we could fill it half way up but I don't really want to drive the trip with water on board if they have water at the vistors center.

What about when you leave and have a lot of fresh water on board, what is the etiquette in dumping the water from your tanks before leaving? I'm not sure about dumping 50 gallons of water at the campsite.. or even at the dump station using the low point drains.. I also don't think dumping as you drive along the road is a good idea.... so, what do you suggest?

I'm probably being more paranoid than I need to be, were only boon docking for 3 nights 4 days.... LOL

Camping Couple · 08-15-2015, 03:25 PM

David, maybe I misunderstood you, did you say you haven't filled your tanks in 3 years? If that's the case and maybe someone already said it, before your trip, you should probably sanitize the water tanks.

Edd505 · 08-15-2015, 05:00 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by xtruckerbob

We have a White Hawk DSRE and we travel with our fresh water tank full. There have been so many times that the water you get across the country is horrible to drink and there have been times it smelled worse than it taste. As far as the weight I can't tell any difference in handling or fuel mileage.

Daveki this is correct some waters terrible I carry 3 gallon refillable to drink and there's always a water fill stations, Wal-mart. I keep a small amount in the tanks 1/4 -1/3 for flushing and washing to my destination. Have a great trip.

davidki · 08-15-2015, 06:21 PM

Camping Couple, We plan to fill the tanks on Monday and sanitize it.. One suggestion was to pour in a half a gallon of clorex and then flush it.. we will have the time to do that before we go.... but I do plan to run empty (or pretty much empty). I do have a bottle of camco water fresh that they use 1 oz per 20 gallons so, I"ll use 4 or 5 oz when we fill it.

Edd, 505, I have a 2 1/2 gallon table top water jug with spout which I will fill, I have 6ea 3/4 gallon filtered water jugs and another 4or 5 gallon jugs we will carry... that will be for cooking and coffee.

Needless to say I think we should be fine, I am really interested on how the 2 new Trojan 105 golf cart batteries will hold up.. I believe it should more than fine for our use... from the look of the weather we will not be turning on any heat this trip unless I cook a pan of brownies :-).

redenbacher · 08-15-2015, 08:17 PM

Half gallon of Clorox bleach is quite a bit. I've heard 1/4 cup for every 15 gallons of fresh water. It will take quite a while to flush that much chlorine bleach out of the system.

havnfun · 08-15-2015, 08:34 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by redenbacher

Half gallon of Clorox bleach is quite a bit. I've heard 1/4 cup for every 15 gallons of fresh water. It will take quite a while to flush that much chlorine bleach out of the system.

X2 on what he said. 1/4 c. per 15 gals H2O is the standard.
Happy RVing,
Jeff

Northern Jay · 08-15-2015, 10:55 PM

David... best to sanitize the system the day before you plan to leave. it does take several hours for the chlorine to do its job, and then you have to drain, re-fill and flush lines. then drain again. n it is a time consuming process. i always travel with full fresh tanks as you never know the quality of water at your destination. Also, just because the water at the destination (even if perfectly fine to the locals) may have different "bugs" than your home water, you may still get the dreaded "2 step". (cant get 2 steps from the potty).
as for the overflows, put a shutoff valve on them to stop the siphoning issue.
Enjoy your boondocking adventure.
Happy Camping

davidki · 08-16-2015, 05:17 AM

Ok, now that sounds better... 1/4 cup per 15 gallons, so 80 gallons would be just a one and a quarter cups....... perhaps I had read something wrong or the other person was trying to get something out .... but I'll go with the 1/4 cup per 15 gallon rate...

Northern Jay, we leave Tuesday morning, we will probably fill the tank with the chlorine today at some point and let it sit all day, then flush the system and I do realize it's going to take time.. our gray tanks are pretty clean and empty. so I can always run the pump in the trailer and let some of it run in to the gray tanks (can't hurt). WE have 2 low point drains which will speed up the dumping process and we live out on a farm and won't have a problem dumping the fresh water even with the little bit of chlorine it won't hurt anything.

Again, at the campground just out of Gatlinburg the visitors center has the dump and water fill, I can dump the gray tank while filing the fresh water tanks.. Again, I don't plan on driing the water in the fresh water tanks.... I'd just rather not tow with the tanks full if I don't have to.

Thanks folks for all the help I sure do appreciate it... were looking forward to the first boondocking experience... it should be fun...
Dave

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