You may remember in previous post I shared the water tank stand that I had made to use for our off grid water hauling tank to sit on.
Since we are living off the grid it is vital that we have an abundance of water to use for showering, dishes, our RV toilet and other things we need water for. Having good safe drinking water is also nice, but not as important as the other essentials mentioned above. We use bottled water for drinking, so as mentioned in the video below you can always use non potable water sources if you have no other choice. Just don’t drink the non potable water!
Check out the video below of our off grid water hauling.
In previous blog post I have mentioned how I was able to find this water tank and how I cleaned it for hauling our water. I was persistent in finding a food grade type water tank and not one of the cheaper ones that had previously has some type of chemicals in them. DO NOT fake yourself out and think that you can clean those types of containers good enough for the use of water and possibly your drinking water.
Chemicals find their way into the pours of the plastic and makes it nearly impossible to get it thoroughly cleaned, and especially clean enough for potential drinking water. Heck, I wouldn’t even want to shower with the possibility of chemicals coming though onto my skin.
What You Will Need For Off Grid Water Hauling:
- A very clean water tank of some sort
- Heavy duty straps (min of 10,000# each) for anchoring the tank down for safe hauling
- A reliable water source to haul from
- Backup water source
- Ways to get the water out of the tank
- Come along for sliding the tank out of vehicle, loader, or fork lift to lift tank out of vehicle
- A truck that is a minimum of 3/4 ton (this tank full of water is very close to 3,000#) and tires that are at least 10 ply and aired up to no less than 50# each. Just remember, this same water tank rated at nearly 300 gallon when full will tip the scales at close to 3,000#. Be safe, not sorry!
- Long heavy 2×4, or 2×6 for leverage in sliding tank around once full…if needed
- Heavy 2×6’s for laying in the floor of your truck or trailer for the tank to slide on when needed
We are using a sliding type method for getting our water tank off onto the platform stand that I made. I have this stand made to where it is above the level of the RV fresh water holding tank inlet so that it will gravity feed very quickly. Our sliding system from the truck bed onto the water tank stand is less than perfect, and actually very difficult due to the extreme weight of this water tank when full.
Until I have some type of loader equipment, or we have rural water here, this is the methods I have to deal with. Winners always find a way to win…right?
Where To Find Your Water
Go to Google or your favorite search engine and start searching the term “water plant”, or “bulk water”, or “where can I buy water”. You may have to try other keywords and search terms to find places in your area like my wife did for us, but something will show up.
As a backup plan, we also have another place that has bulk tanks that we can fill from. These are actually natural living springs that is not potable water. However, we searched for ways to make it safe to use in our RV fresh water tank and came up with bleach. Yes, unscented bleach can be added to your water to make it safe for drinking and all other uses. We prefer not to drink it, and instead buy bottled drinking water.
Even though our RV has a purification system on board, we would still prefer not to have that possible bleachy taste, or to take any chances of unsafe drinking water.
Where To Locate A Clean Water Tank For Drinking Water
When searching in many different areas for good clean water tanks that was food grade only, I was having troubles finding what I wanted. As mentioned earlier, I DID NOT want the ones that had any types of chemicals in them. The ones I wanted were the ones that had already been cleaned thoroughly which would make my cleaning process faster and easier. Next I searched Craigslist in the Kansas City are which is my area and found this. https://kansascity.craigslist.org/grq/6007233116.html << this is the exact same place that I purchased our water tank for our off grid water hauling and water usage.
Our fifth wheel camper (RV) has a 50 gallon fresh water tank on-board and I wanted something large enough that I could fill out of at least 8-10 times and would last us close to one month. My calculations off grid water hauling wasn’t to far off either. I can fill from our water tank right to our RV fresh water tank at least for 3 weeks, and sometimes close to a month if we are more careful with our water usage.
If you want to see the stand I made for this water tank, then visit here <<. For us, we think of it like this: No rural water – No problem! Check out our other blog post and pages at Pin Oaks Farm by searching this website/blog.
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I hope that this blog post has been helpful. Feel free to leave comments below, or any ideas that you may have for things I have mentioned in this blog post.
Always do your best,
P.S. Learn more about Pin Oaks Farm and MPE LLC here on this website and also on my personal website at: www.MikePilcher.com …PLUS, you can also visit our BRAND NEW Facebook page right here <<.
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