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pianotuna
Regina, SK, Canada
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Joined: 12/18/2004
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Hi,
I travel with the fresh water tank full.
The savings from having partly full are negligible.
Partly full the water will slosh around. It may even act as a "captive hammer".
Regards, Don
My ride is a 28 foot Class C, 256 watts solar, 556 amp-hours of Telcom jars, 3000 watt Magnum hybrid inverter, Sola Basic Autoformer, Microair Easy Start.
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Geo*Boy
Unknown
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Joined: 04/27/2020
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Usually carry 20 gallons of fresh and charge the black tank with a few gallons of water and a deodorant packet.
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jimh406
Western MT
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Joined: 06/11/2006
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It all depends on how close to being overweight you are and how big your holding tank are. My Host holds 60 gallons of Fresh. When I hauled on my SRW, I tended to only put 10-15 gallons in if I knew water was available where I was going. Since water weighs 8.3 lbs a gallon, my full tank was around 500 lbs. I saved a few hundred lbs by not filing it all of the way up.
In my DRW, the water weight isn't significant, so I usually am full before I go anywhere. If you have a small freshwater tank, it probably doesn't matter much.
One more thing, I found the handling remarkably different with full grey/blank tanks on the SRW, so I tried to keep the holding tanks emptied before very much interstate driving.
'10 Ford F-450, 6.4, 4.30, 4x4, 14,500 GVWR, '06 Host Rainer 950 DS, Torklift Talon tiedowns, Glow Steps, and Fastguns. Bilstein 4600s, Firestone Bags, Toyo M655 Gs, Curt front hitch, Energy Suspension bump stops.
NRA Life Member, CCA Life Member
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mbloof
Beaverton, OR
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Joined: 11/27/2014
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While it has happened only a handful of times over the years campground water&power can't always be counted on.
I always carry my own water and in those cases I stayed to camp (sometimes getting a reduced rate) while others that did not carry their own water cut their stay short and left.
- Mark0.
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stevenal
Newport, OR, USA
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Joined: 03/16/2004
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We stayed at a CG once that had water, but it was supplied by a hand pump that was far from road access. We ended up making a water run. We've also stayed at CGs that warned the water was not potable. Even when not boondocking, we start with a full tank. We've also begun carrying a 7 gallon container in the back seat.
'18 Bigfoot 1500
Torklifts and Fastguns
'17 F350 Powerstroke Supercab SRW LB 4X4
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pianotuna
Regina, SK, Canada
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Joined: 12/18/2004
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jimh406 wrote: Since water weighs 8.3 lbs a gallon, my full tank was around 500 lbs. I saved a few hundred lbs by not filing it all of the way up.
My weight with ALL tanks full (black, gray, fresh, propane, and fuel) is 13750 lb. That included two humans, with the RV provisioned for a 2 week trip.
Fresh water is 80 us gallons or 664 lbs. That's less than 5% of the total weight. Not enough to make a difference in fuel economy.
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Deb and Ed M
SW MI & Space Coast, FL USA
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Joined: 06/07/2004
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sbryan@vtbryans.com wrote:We always add some water to the fresh tank. Might want to wash some dishes or might boon dock somewhere and don't want to be without. We don't usually fill it full unless we know we will be boondocking for most of our evenings. I don't have a black tank in the TC (cassette toilet) but in my old RV we always put a few inches of water in the tank. You want to make sure #2 stays wet for later draining. Makes it much easier to dump.
All of this, plus I heard/read that it's good to keep the seals wet for the drains. But I usually only carry a couple of gallons, to save on weight.
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MORSNOW
Mountain Home, ID
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Joined: 10/29/2013
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I always fill my fresh tank before any trip, and refill it every time I empty the black and gray tanks. It does not affect gas mileage like speed and wind do. Why take a chance with bad water on the road in your system or blowing a water line due to over pressurization?
2014 Wolf Creek 850SB
2012 GMC Sierra SLT 2500HD
7,220# Truck/10,400# Camper Fully Loaded
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Grit dog
Black Diamond, WA
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Joined: 05/06/2013
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edgerelease wrote:Thanks all. No boondocking on this one, I think I'll go about half full. Cheers.
You will literally not notice any difference with another 10-30 gal of water on board if you fill it.
Being a brand new camper, you WANT to put everything through it's paces as much as possible as soon as possible to root out any warranty issues.
Whether you fill as a matter of course in the future is wholly predicated on how/where you use the camper. But don't get caught up in the rvnet minutia of "you could be overweight with a full tank" BS.
Black tank don't need deodorant unless it does and brand spanking new, I would hope noone left you months' worth of tootsie rolls in it!
It's good to always have a little water sloshing around in the black tank though even when "empty". Helps keep all the solids, not solid so they exit the tank on command!
Super exciting to take the new camper out!
Like I said above, use EVERY feature as much as possible and even run things you may not need to, like the furnace or whatever, to get some use on the components while under warranty.
2016 Ram 2500, MotorOps.ca EFIlive tuned, 5” turbo back, 6" lift on 37s
2017 Heartland Torque T29 - Sold.
Couple of Arctic Fox TCs - Sold
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Lwiddis
Southern California :(
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Joined: 08/12/2016
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I NEVER want to "pass up" a beautiful and unexpected dry campsite because I don't have enough fresh water or room in my waste tanks. Nor do I want to ever leave a beautiful campsite earlier than desired because I'm out of water.
Winnebago 2101DS TT & 2022 Chevy Silverado 1500 LTZ Z71, WindyNation 300 watt solar-Lossigy 200 AH Lithium battery. Prefer boondocking, USFS, COE, BLM, NPS, TVA, state camps. Bicyclist. 14 yr. Army -11B40 then 11A - (MOS 1542 & 1560) IOBC & IOAC grad
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