I have a 2006 Jayco Conquest, the original (80 litre?) water tank was always hard to fill

I fitted a second (59 litre) tank, and connected both tanks at the bottom of each other

Both tanks while being filled at the original filler pipe, then became twice as hard to fill

I had to keep crimping the filler hose, and allow the tanks to equalise, this took a longish time

I have now fitted a hose to fill both tanks from the bottom, at the same time

They now fill at full household water pressure

I connect the household pressure hose to the new filler hose with garden snap on connections
I leave the original filler cap off
When the water comes out of the original breather, I fit the filler cap back on
Within one minute or so, the water is then coming out of the new water tank breather

Hopefully the pictures tell the story

Hello vik351

Airlocks were certainly causing problems and embarrassment, when I was trying to fill the tanks from the original filler inlet hose.
I would push the town filling hose, as far as I could into the tank.
As the water came to the top of the filler spout, I had to crimp the filling hose, to let the water trickle in
If I did not choke the flow, the water would splash back, at the same pressure/speed/volume as what was coming out of the town hose

It could take nearly twenty minutes to top up about 90 or so litres, of the 140 litres I carry.
I was always apologising to those who had pulled up behind me, to also fill up, for the time they had to wait behind me

My tanks will now fill up, at the same speed/pressure/volume which comes from the town filling hose
The water going in from the bottom, will force the air out, from the breather of both tanks, as well as the original filler hose

I fitted the manual valve, just in case the one way valve fails, but in a normal situation I shall leave it turned on

I hope that this info will be helpful to other Jayco owners, who are having problems filling their water tanks

Hi Guru,
Looks like a good solution. Am I right in thinking your filler hose with the one-way valve connects into the line that leads to your water pump?
I have three tanks connected together by a common feed line to the pump, with valves in between the tanks presumably so I can fill either one, two or all three tanks (I didn't design the system).

If so, then I guess all I need is a T-piece in the line with a short length of hose, a one-way valve and a manual valve?

Or is yours connected some other way?
Cheers

C00P

Hello COOP

Err... I am a bit Embarrassed here, I am not actually a Guru, they give that name to anyone who makes 500 posts
If the truth was to be known, I have burned hands and use the keyboard as exercise for my fingers LOL

The new (blue) 13 mm filler hose I fitted, connects directly to a 25 mm hose, which I put from the bottom of the original 80 litre tank, to the bottom of the new 59 litre tank I had fitted
When I connect the town 13 mm filler hose, with snap on garden fittings, to my new 13 mm filler hose, it is filling both tanks from the bottom, and is not connected to anything inside the motorhome.

In the last picture the connection between the two breather outlets, is where I would connect the town hose, if I ever wanted to go into a caravan park.
That hose (I assume as I have never traced it), would connect inside the motorhome somewhere between the pump, and the taps

Hope that this clear enough

Opps, opps, and opps again
I have to put my hand up here, I have egg all over my face again, as well as foot in mouth, well past the ankle

After about three short trips and each time renewing the water, in the drinking water tank, (to help flush it out), I realised that it was getting much too long to refill the tanks from empty
The aluminium one way valve I used (from EBay) failed

I found that the internal plastic seat body had deformed with the water pressure on full, and was blocking off the outlet.
This picture below is the dribble from the 12 mm aluminium one way valve after about two minutes, and yes it is connected the correct way, and the tap is fully open
The black plastic one way valve on the lawn, is the new one

This picture below is the new one way valve from BCF (just under $20)
It flows at a rate of 8 litres per 20 seconds
The barbs of this one way valve, can be cut off to accommodate either 12/20/25 mm hose
I had intended to use it with a new 20 mm under the floor, refilling hose

The picture below is the B.E.S.T filter I use when filling
AS this only flows at a rate of 8 litres per 40 seconds, I shall keep my 12 mm system in place to see what happens

If I have any more problems I will obviously fess up to them

Sorry if anyone has wasted their $3 buying a 12 mm aluminium one way valve from eBay

As a side note, I did look at the 20 mm one-way/foot valve in Bunnings prior to buying from eBay, and thought that there was too much spring restriction, for some outback water tap pressure

I was unaware of the BCF valves until I went looking

Hi Tony. we have had trouble with our 2 caravans filling with water, the first one the previous owner also had trouble so he fitted a bottom hose filling arrangement to fill, never a problem even thou I pulled the tank out and fixed the squashed breather pipe but kept bottom filling.

Note here, be carefull not to much water preasure as you could over do things. My tank is not square anymore but that is another story. Nice and steady is the go.

Now have another caravan previous owner never really needed to fill the tanks. First attemp could not get much water in and thought not a problem when I get home, just set it up like the last one to fill.

I was playing around looking for some bits and pieces come up with an idea after reading Google. In my box of never to be used tools from my youth was a Bars Leak radiator flushing kit.It had a short lenght of pipe, a cone sharped plug, I installed them together to make a filler hose for the caravan or to blow out the breather pipes. It did blow out the breather pipes, it worked a treat.

We stick the hose with cone to seal the opening off, turn the tap on at a steady rate, 2 tanks 140 lites of water at 15 litres a minute. I am happy with that.

Hope this is of some help, try google, some funny answers.

I use this, just wrapped some insulation tape around hose to sea.

Aussie Paul. 

Aussie Paul, your hose with red tape would be faster then mine.

red all ways goes faster.

My excuse is I run out of tape went looking for alternative.

Radar wrote:

---

Aussie Paul, your hose with red tape would be faster then mine.

red all ways goes faster.

My excuse is I run out of tape went looking for alternative.

---

 Ha ha, lol.

Auszsie Paul. 

Some good ideas there Radar, and Aussie Paul, so thanks for putting them up

I thought of obtaining another filler cap, and fitting a snap on garden hose to pressure fill the tank
Problem was, I could not buy a filler cap from the Jayco shop in Perth, and have not seen anything like mine on eBay

My original tank was bowed out at the bottom, when I got the second hand motorhome, perhaps someone had previously tried blowing the vent hoses out.

I fitted a 3mm aluminium checker plate underneath the new 60 litre tank, and it is still flat

Hopefully what I have now, and water tap pressure filling from the bottom of each water tank, will be adequate for me

Could not get the hose in mine so made this from what I had in the shed

Just to let everyone know, the one way valve from BCF, has failed, it was allowing about one litre every ten minutes to syphon out of the tanks

I returned it and they offered the second one which was on the shelf, I declined their offer, and they stapled up the original, in the original packet, and it is back on the shelf
They said that it was the first one to be returned
I explained what I was using it for, and that I did not want to take the chance of it leaking if I hit a bump on the road

I have now (had to remove the new 60 litre tank to alter this system), fitted the water tap pressure filling hose, to the top of the new tank

The new 60 litre tank is slightly higher than the original 80 litre tank
The method behind the madness, is that the higher tank gets filled from the top, (at household tap water pressure), and each tank is connected by a 25 mm hose at the bottom of each tank

I can open the manual valve, connect the filling hose from the garden (any pressure) tap, plug it in, and then stand back

It now takes ten minutes for the water to start coming out of the original filler neck, and vent pipe
I then fit the original tank filler cap, and hold my finger over the vent outlet
Within another one and a half minutes, the water is also coming out of the new tank vent pipe

If I ever forget to close the manual valve, near the snap on garden hose type fitting, then I shall only lose a few litres of water

If I ever find a good one way valve, then I shall advise, as it stops bending down to switch the manual valve on and off

Thanks everyone for your contributions. I gleaned some good understanding from these posts.

A thread like this (so far) is a credit to any forum.

Cheers, John.