Although not really necessary for a weekend camping in Norfolk decent freshwater capacity and washing facilities become a requirement for a desert trip or any period away from 'civilization'.
I wanted a simple system that was easy to install and use.
I originally planned to use an aluminium tank which I bought on ebay. It was designed to fit in the rear footwell and held 100 litres. This was more than I wanted but it was cheap (£80). Unfortunately it wouldn't fit with the (bigger) Range Rover seats and so plan B was adopted.
|
|
Step one was to acquire a water bag. These are used a lot in yachts beneath the bench seats in the saloon. A pipe runs to a sealing filler cap on the deck. the great thing about these is the fact that they expand to fit whatever shape they are contained by. I decided to copy this system. The water bag is contained within a robust outer bag for protection and has a smaller central outlet and a larger inlet on the opposite side. You can get these at most marine chandlers. They came in a variety of shapes and volumes. I choose a 100 litre rectangular bag as this best suited the shape of the rear footwell. |
|
|
Putting the outlet on the bottom I slid the bag beneath the new unit. I attached a 1/2" flexible pipe to the outlet and a 1 1/4" to the inlet. |
|
|
The pump was mounted on the side and plumbed in to the inlet. The outlet from the pump runs over rear wheel arch and into the boot. The tap is located on the rear trim. The pump has a 25 psi pressure switch so that once it's switched on it will pressurise the system and switch of. Once the tap is opened the pressure drops and the pumps starts providing flow. I also used a yacht deck filler mounted on a bracket to act as the inlet. This is opened and closed using a hex key and is very secure. I have deliberately left the inlet/suction pipe long as I will cut it to the best length once the bag is full.
|
|
|
A tee piece was added in the line to the tap and I added a shower head attached. I will add a valve in this line once I find a suitable fitting. The pipes were secured with pipe clamps and the wires were run behind them. I extended the wires and ran them rearward into the boot. Once completely full the bag holds 40 litres which means I can hold the equivalent of 2 jerry cans in the footwell, nice and low down. I intend to use this for washing mainly as there is a 20 litre jerry can for drinking water. That way I don't need a filter although one can be fitted later if needed. |
|
|
The wires were run to the junction box where I used on of the spare fused power feeds, adding 5A fuse.
|
|
|
En route to the junction box I added a suitably rated switch in the power feed line. This acts as an isolator to prevent the whole system pumping out if there is a leak. The switch can be seen in the trim below the tap. The tap extends up and down and the water flow is controlled by turning the nozzle on the end. |
|
|
Once switched on the pump pressurises the system and shuts off. As soon as the tap is turned the pump detects a pressure drop and starts to flow. It gives a really good flow filling a glass in a couple of seconds. |
|
|
The shower is equally successful giving a really good flow rate. The shower head has a 'locking' latch, this was £6 from a local boat chandler. All in all I am very happy with the system, I will report on it's long term effectiveness in time.
|
Post trip update
I can now confirm that the system worked very well. We also discovered another advantage of having the water in the footwell; it remains shaded and cool all the time. Stopping at lunch time in the heat of the desert we would have a lovely glass of cool squash, using water straight from the tap, with our lunch which was very refreshing.
We used the shower attachment to wash our hair with rather than a full shower. Due to its flow rate the shower can empty the bag in 4 minutes so it was used in shorts 'bursts' switching it off when not actually needed.
Before we left we filled , emptied and refilled the bag several times but we couldn't get rid of a slight 'plasticky' taste. so we installed an inline charcoal filter just after the shower 't'. It doesn't filter out any bugs but does improve the taste significantly. This was about £13 from a local caravan and camping store.
On modification I shall be making in the summer is to relocate the rear tap onto the rear door as we found its current location too restrictive. I shall amend this article once I do the work.
|
It took a while but in June I eventualy got around to modifying the fresh water tap. The first step was todrill a large hole in the position I wanted the tap. Then I threaded a length of silicon hose through the hole, down and along the inside of the door. I used silicon hose so that it didn't add a 'plasticky' taste to the water If you plan to do this make sure you run the hose so that it doesn't foul the rear door latch mechanism. It's a long story, but I learned from my mistake here in a big way. |
|
|
From there the hose ran out of the door through an existing hole although I did have to extend it slightly to the left so that the hose missed the drop down shelf. |
|
|
Due to the lake of access to the back of the panel I had to drill a hole big enough for the tap securing nut to pass through. This, of course, meant that it wouldn't secure so I cut a square plate with a smaller hole in it and secured this over the bigger hole with self tapping screws. Personally, although I'd have preferred to fix directly to the door, I think the plate does look quite good. |
|
|
Measuring where the hole should be drilled in the chequer plate panel took a bit of effort but turned out okay. I was worried that the hose would be damaged or kinked when closing the door. Just at the time I did this we were having our bathroom refurbished and I noticed the old bath upside down in thee skip on the drive. It turned out that the plastic pipe running from the overflow to the plug was exactly the right length and diameter to act as a protective conduit. |
|
|
With the new 'foldable' sink the tap works perfectly and is a lot easier to access than the original. |
|
Show/hide comment form
