Tank

To Tank or not to tank, cold weather campers must consider ! Camping in cold weather has it’s own set of considerations and water freezing up can be a camping trip spoiler. We do it a couple of different ways.

Way #1. Our home made freeze proof water hose. It works well, but in some campgrounds it just isn’t long enough. Then when it is long enough to reach, it has it’s own set of problems, such as the campground’s side of the freeze proof faucet,  can freeze, so you have to freeze proof it also, ect, ect..

Way #2. The way we are doing it here in Kentucky at the Green River Lake State Park. Here is a look at the campground’s freeze proof faucet.

Though it is freezing outside, note the snow on the ground, this faucet automatically drains back down below ground level so it can’t freeze.

We keep the hose drained on a gradual incline, as in this photo.

To make sure the hose drains, the hose is loosened like this photo.

Note the lady bugs seeking the small warm place near the water inlet. There is a check valve out of sight inside that keeps the water from coming all the way up to the fitting where it could freeze.

The city water system is separated from the water pump and tank by another check valve, so here is how we fill the tank from our outside kitchen sink faucet.

Here is how the kitchen faucet looks before the hose is hooked up.

That short coiled fill hose is kept drained and at the ready in the outside kitchen sink.

In this photo the hose is on a incline to aid in draining and the end is off the ground so it can’t freeze to the ground.

It is about a ten minute process to hook up, fill the tank, then re stow the hose.