Water & Heating System - help with our design/diagram?

[Jocke]

Hey,

Hiya
Our U1700 two person camper with 395 tyres ended up at about 9500kg loaded and with two spares tyres, no motorbike . Now there are three of us we no longer have a Mog. Ages ago in a UK 4x4 magazine was a feature on a Mog camper with a bike plus sidecar on the front bumper! Probably nicely balanced axle weights.
I suppose I am pushing my view, and four of the U1300l campers I discovered were overweight were steel framed, but there's no reason not to end up under 7500kg starting fresh. I love Mogs and won't be suggesting anything else!
I look forward to seeing your underfloor design

I am not surprised about the weight. I think Ulrich put the fear of weight in me, so I'm quite aware of it. I'm also keen on light travel in general and when we travel by motorbike I spend (probably too much) time in hunting surplus grammes here and there (don't ask who's chopped off the toothbrush handle).

And I'm also looking forward to the underfloor design.

To be slightly back on topic, while the Katadyn Ceradyn and Carbodyn filter elements that Famous Water use are not too costly, their housings soon add up! Housing them in something else might be an idea if you aim to have them in parallel for higher flow rates.

I didn't know the housing was an issue? I thought you could wash some of them and keep using them and then just buy new ones whenever needed?

Thanks again!

 

[grizzlyj]

Hiya

You can keep scrubbing and using the ceramic Katadyn filters. I was suggesting that the quite large price Famous Water charge seems to be from their very well made housings rather than what goes in them. Mirroring what Mr Dolde has is quite spendy! So the same cartridges in a cheaper housing might be ok?

 

[Jocke]

Hiya

You can keep scrubbing and using the ceramic Katadyn filters. I was suggesting that the quite large price Famous Water charge seems to be from their very well made housings rather than what goes in them. Mirroring what Mr Dolde has is quite spendy! So the same cartridges in a cheaper housing might be ok?

Ah, I see, so in other words, buy the filters, but fabricobble something else to get the water to flow through? At this stage, I don't mind spending a bit on making sure the water delivery is robust and safe. I'd rather spend £500 less on extravagant stuff, but be comfortable with the water supply.

Good point though, I kind of thought it's a sort of "this is what you get" and didn't even activate the "tinkerer-gene" on this part.

 

[Neil]

All of our water is strained on entry to the tank. It all then psses through a very cheap paper filter and a cheap carbon filter. Lastly the drinking water only goes through a Seagull. Been using this for 4 years. We have had really dodgy water but never had an issue.

Neil

 

[Jocke]

All of our water is strained on entry to the tank. It all then psses through a very cheap paper filter and a cheap carbon filter. Lastly the drinking water only goes through a Seagull. Been using this for 4 years. We have had really dodgy water but never had an issue.

Thanks Neil! Excellent information! And thanks for your build blog! Loved reading it.

 

[Pinnacle Campers]

Cool! Makes sense, however, I don't have a manual yet because I don't know what to buy because I don't know how they connect which is in the manual which I don't have...

You would likely be amazed by what you can learn in the manuals (all of them), you may even get a better idea which product you prefer.
So why haven't you downloaded the manuals again?

 

[grizzlyj]

Neil something went wonky with the Seagull UK distributor a year or two ago I think, the companies website attached says order direct now? Not sure what happened?

 

[Jocke]

You would likely be amazed by what you can learn in the manuals (all of them), you may even get a better idea which product you prefer.
So why haven't you downloaded the manuals again?

Don't really know why I need to justify myself, but I'll "bite". So far I've spent most of my time researching and putting together the electrical system. I've read more manuals than I care to remember, and yes, they're filled with information, sometimes very convoluted, but somewhere, somehow, you eventually get to the knowledge you need.
The heater manuals that I've read so far have had no information on how to actually connect them to the vehicle. If you have any links to such manuals, I'd appreciate it as it would save me some time.

 

[Neil]

Grizzly

There were some problems as you say. The UK company (purewateronline )was accused of mis labelling another filter and a large uk.motorhome forum were onto it . I am pretty sure it wasnt the seagull.
We order ours from the USA direct from General Ecology as they are much cheaper.

We have been using this type filter for over 10 years now and never had an issue an we pull water from brown rivers and some very dubious sources such as fuel stations.

By having the very cheap sacrificial pre filters you can get the Seagull to last over 18 months just for drinking water . The sacrificial ones last about 6 months max.

The pre filters are absolutely essential as you could fit your new seagull and destroy it immediately with your first batch of bad water.

Straining the water going into the tank helps a lot. Many travellers we have met use a large paper filter on the fill.

Seagulls cannot remove salt so brackish water although cleaned still tastes salty.

We would use nothing else.

Neil

 

[Joe917]

Fresh water.
we have a 10 micron 10" pre fiter that snaps on the filler for suspect water. Then a 10" 5 micron followed by a 10" 0.5micron carbon block. Add chlorine bleach (correct ratios on line) for any water not trusted. (the carbon filter removes all chlorine). We filter all on board water.
This is a good start: https://www.rvwaterfilterstore.com/LRNCTR.htm