Town Water Inlet - A question.

Willie,

On my 2004 BT, I removed the end elbow off the manifold & replaced it with a "T" piece. Added a short piece of hose to the "T" & re-installed the elbow. I drilled a 16mm hole in the floor directly under the elbow, then added another short piece of hose to the elbow. To this I added another in-line tap, then fed a hose up through the floor & connected it to the tap. (you need to seal the hose where it passes through the floor with silicone of sikaflex.) The hose is then run to the A-frame as a suction line.
In your case, you can attach a brass 90 degree ceramic-ball tap (plumbers would have a special name for these) available from Bunnings at around $10.00 for an outlet as well as an inlet
Don't use a conventional tap with a washer, as these only permit the water to flow in one direction.
With this A-frame setup, you can turn off all of the tank taps on the manifold, turn on the tap for the A-frame, connect a short hose from the brass tap (turned on) to a bucket & use the pump to suck from the bucket. This water is now isolated from the tanks, & can be river water that you pass through the hot water service for your shower.

Regarding your question. the same system could be used to fill tanks, although I have never tried this method. You would need to have the A-frame tap on, the tap on the manifold to the A-frame turned on and the tap to your selected tank turned on.

When the factory fits the A-frame tap,it is connected direct to the cold water plumbing and
I have this setup in my van. For the suction line, I installed it as mentioned above, but without the brass tap.Have been using this suction line with river water, bore water etc and enjoy the luxury of a 20 litre shower when your bush camping near the river. Saves the good tank water for essentials.
Hope this is helpful, and that I haven't confused you. Good luck!

Neil

Hi Willie
If you intend to connect direct to town water supply I suggest you consider a adjustable pressure reducer with pressure gauge fitted somewhere near the town water supply connector. These can be set to any desired output pressure and locked in their setting.
The reasoning is that town water pressures can very in the extreme from barely adequate to approaching down right dangerous.
I plumbed the pressure gauge temporarily into the BT delivery lines from the BT pump to determine the pressure at which the 12 volt system delivers water throughout the BT from the existing tanks. Using that pressure as a maximum point (I know the plumbing within the BT will handle that pressure OK) I then set the pressure reducer to that pressure on the town water supply line. I now feel safe in the knowledge that I am not going to get a hose blow out in the middle of the night on town mains pressure.
I have plumbed in a Tee with hose and valve on the delivery side of the pressure reducer, and I can use that line as a suction line to draw water from a bucket if I wish when not on town water.
Its just a matter of nutting out which taps to turn off / on on the water supply gallery that supplies your pumps to put town water either into your tanks or direct to your taps.
Be careful not to pressurise your tanks if you fill them this way.
Happy plumbing
John

Willie,
I did similar to Uncle D by fitting a Non return Valve and Pressure Limiter to a T fitting in the main feeder line between the pumps and the in van outlets. This gives me a safe, easy to connect and no taps near the rear of our van. Our 2007 van was plumbed with Grey 15 mm PVC and DUX fittings, bit hard to get around this big country of ours. BTI eventually (3 phones calls and one email later - 6 months) to get the bits I needed. The NRV & PL can be bought at Bunnings or any good hardware and the bits to connect all components together.
We didn't have a tap fitted on the drawbar at purchase and have now also fitted a suction line with isolate taps to the a frame.

ScoobyDnOz