Thought I'd share the system I developed for our FUSO-FM-260 based rig. We have two interconnected potable water tanks totaling 105 gallons with a single fill. Because I have lived on private wells for the last 40 years, I find my body accommodates well to "reasonable" amounts of all sorts of bugs in my water. So I feel comfortable filling from just about any sort of source that at lest some other people are actively using. [Prolonged trips in Central and South America, Africa, Asia, and all over North America and Europe have only produced one diarrhea attack in all that time, which Cipro promptly squelched.]
My fixed plumbing inside the rig includes a pair of water filters in line with the cold water tap at the galley sink. This is where I get all my drinking water. The hot water tap at the galley and both taps at the internal and external showers are unfiltered. The first sequential filter is a standard 10" cartridge filter, in which I use a relatively high-flow carbon/particulate filter to remove chlorine and other unpleasant tastes and odors. The second sequential filter is a Seagull-IV. This is a microbiological purifier which traps bacteria, cysts and viruses, along with removing chemical and aesthetic contaminants including herbicides, pesticides, chlorine and foul tastes, odors and colors. It is rated at 0.1 micron [0.4 micron absolute.] I have used this filter on sailboats as well as my vehicle for many years and have been very pleased. I know that twice we inadvertently filled with contaminated water that was improperly labeled, and suffered no ill effects while others who drank it without benefit of our filtration became ill.
Over the past 8 years I rarely have added chlorine to the drinking water I have been able to find, though I do de-bug my tanks and plumbing if I have not been using the rig actively for a couple of months or more. Based on research I did, and a seemingly excellent article in Overland Journal a number of years ago, I use the following table to dose my tanks when I do it [probably way less chlorine than you may be accustomed to using, but this is what math and science say is needed to neutralized the organic load and not leave a whole lot of 'free' chlorine ions floating around for your body to ingest]:
Attachment 117638
However, sometimes I have needed to get water from a source I could not verify as being used [i.e., pre-tested] by other people. For example, this summer on a 3-month trip to the Yukon, including the North Canol Road, I had to fill several times from streams and lakes that I was sure could be fully contaminated with at the very least Giardia Lamblia. [Having had this once 40 yrs ago I absolutely did not want it again.] So I carry with me a pair of Doulton filters and an external 12v pump [the pump doubling as a wash pump to get inches of mud off the rig so that entry, exit, and view out the windows is not so messy] that I use in this type of situation to pre-filter the water going into my tanks. The first stage is a particulate/sediment filter, and the second stage is a Rio-2000 unit that gets just about anything that could be bothersome [pathogenic bacteria (E-coli, Cholera, Typhoid, Salmonella, Shigella, Klebsiella Terrigena), Cysts (Cryptosporidium, Giardia, etc.).] These are both high flow and field cleanable filters. Since I have a screen filter on the inlet to my pump, I have yet to see any discernible build up on either Doulton filter after several hundred gallons pumped from flowing streams and still lake waters. [i think I could if really necessary almost pump water out of a ditch, as long as no dead animal was floating in it.]
Here are a couple of pics of my equipment. The first is of the internal filter set up.
Attachment 117639
The [open] locker door is located just behind the truck cab at the drivers-side front of the house. The height of the locker door is roughly chest high for me, so I have very easy visual and manual access to everything. The space itself is under and beside the galley area, just beneath and behind some drawers and our stove/oven.
1. is the 10" cartridge filter
2. is the Seagull-IV contaminant filter
1&2 Filter all the water at the cold tap at the galley sink; this allows all drinking, tooth brushing and cooking water to be filtered, but does not (unnecessarily) exhaust filter capacity on showers or washing boots, bodies and motorcycles with the external shower
3. is the pressure tank to prevent 'hammering' in the plumbing lines while pumping
4. is the external shower [no filtered water]
5. is the hot water tank
6. is the Esbar hydronic furnace for hot water and house heat when stationary [heat for both can be produced by the Fuso engine while traveling].
Directly above 6. is the cab-to-house pass-through.
As for the external filters and pump, picture 2 shows:
Attachment 117640
1. the Anderson plug that delivers 12v from the truck batteries via a mate attached behind the front bumper to a female standard 3-way plug; this makes maintaining proper polarity literally foolproof
2. an ordinary extension cord, here 50' so the truck can be at some distance from the pump if the terrain dictates that; the pump delivers "pushed" water better than "sucked" water; any 12GA extension cord up to 50' can be used
3. male plug, waterproof switch and pressure-limited pump with screen pre-filter on inlet side; I chose a Jabsco 32605-0092 unit that delivers 4GPM at 60PSI; my filters can't pass more than that flow, and while a few more PSI might make washing more effective, it would require a much heavier gauge electric cord at any length
4. garden hose makes all connections to and from the pumps and filters; I use thin-wall RV hose for its potable water rating and easier coil-ability than 5/8" or 3/4" hose
5. Doulton sediment filter, connected to
6. Doulton Rio 2000 contaminant filter
7. wash wand which can be connected instead of filter; right angle helps get undercarriage and inside of wheels where largest amounts of mud accumulate; I also carry a brush head on an adjustable wand through which water flows to the brush head; this allows me to really clean widows and around doors so that they we don't constantly pick up mud as we do daily business; I think this brush does a better job of removing the residual film of dirt/mud than having more pressure
Items 1—4 easily fit in a plastic box that rides behind the front seat, meaning it is easy to access and deploy for washing after a muddy day [quite a few of those this summer in the Yukon]. The filters are stowed in my rear storage area; it takes little more than a minute to access them when needed.
Hope this offers some ideas you guys can use in doing your own.
John
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Originally Posted by JRhetts
