Hhhhmmmm...I wasn't really concerned with anybody tampering with my water, but now that you mention it it makes sense. I'm gonna start looking for a locking door to cover it.
I'm not worried about connecting to city water, other than long enough to fill the tank - I'm building a day-tripper - the plan is to go to a Holiday Inn or similar at night instead of camping out.
Your idea of a recessed compartment with a locking door for the connections sounds good - you could even have some slots in the bottom edge so you could close the door over the hose and power cord to protect them from being stolen.
I was thinking more of something happening in your driveway, or a parking lot, etc., rather than set up in a campground, but these days you never know.
I saw a report on the News a couple of weeks ago, where there was a big rash of items being stolen from campers in pay campgrounds during the night, or while the owners were away during the day. If you think about it, everybody leaves everything out in campgrounds because campers are generally a good bunch of honest people, which now makes it a target rich environment for thieves.
Bob, even if I don't have clearance to recess a box so I can use a flush mount door, I could install the connections in the body and then just make a removable, lockable, box type cover for security. I could then remove it for use, or cut slots in the bottom edge like you mentioned, and use it in place. This would probably look pretty ugly on the side of the vehicle, but in my case it would be on the front with all of the rest of the add on stuff, so it wouldn't matter so much.
EXPO365, are you making any provisions to be able to fill your tank using water from a river or lake, etc?
Some wilderness/off-road type campers I've seen have a second, larger diameter fill tube so that water can be poured into the tank just like adding fuel to your tank using a gas can. With just a garden hose type intake, you will have to use:
1. Gravity - water from a container sitting above the fill level.
2. Hand pump - water from a container or the source.
3. Electric pump - water from a container or the source.
Personally, I will probably just use a second Sureflow pump I have and set it up so that it's portable, along with a couple of extra hoses. Of course you won't' be able to drink this water unless you have a filtering system capable of removing particulate down to 0.1 microns, which is capable of removing 99.9% of all bacteria, such as salmonella, cholera, E.coli, and all protozoa such as giardia and cryptosporidium.
