How Much Water Do Truck Campers Hold? (Checked)

Most truck campers will contain a small kitchen, a bedroom, and a small bathroom, each with holding tanks for water.

How much water do truck campers hold? Well, let’s take a look.

Here How Much Water Truck Holding Tanks Can Hold:

On average, a truck camper will have a freshwater holding tank capacity of between 30 and 45 gallons, a grey water tank capacity of 8 and 40 gallons, and a blackwater tank capacity of between 5 and 30 gallons.

How Much Freshwater Do You Need On The Road?

According to a survey completed by the Truck Camper, approximately 74% of people who frequently travel with their truck campers always ensure they have water in their freshwater holding tank.

Yet, how much water do you need when you are on the road? This question can be quite challenging to answer as how much water you will depend on many different factors.

For example, when determining how much water you will need on the road, you need to figure out how many people will be traveling in the truck camper. The more people there are in your truck camper, the more water you need. You will also need more water if you are planning on traveling off-grid.

If three adult travelers embark on a camping adventure in their truck camper for three days, they will need 250 gallons of fresh water if they are not restricting their water usage. This equates to roughly 83.3 gallons of freshwater a day for bathing, drinking, flushing toilets, cooking, and washing dishes.

Essentially, how much water you need boils down to how often you and your fellow travelers plan to shower, how often you will use your bathroom or kitchen sinks, and if you plan to travel off-grid for an extended time.

How Can You add More Holding Tank Capacity to Your Truck Camper?

Although it is difficult to increase your holding tank capacity, there are a few solutions you could employ if you find that your grey water or freshwater holding tank size is inadequate.

We will state that most truck campers have specific-sized freshwater, greywater, and blackwater holding tanks. This means that it’s incredibly difficult to change the truck camper itself to increase its capacity. Often you cannot simply buy larger holding tanks and slot them in.

After some research, we came across two ingenious ways truck camper RVers have found to increase their freshwater and greywater tank capacities easily.

We have only spoken about these two holding tank types because it is not usually feasible to upgrade a black water tank on a truck camper.

Upgrading A Truck Campers Freshwater Holding Tank:

To upgrade your freshwater tank, you can modify your freshwater tank by creating a new plumbing system.

This system will allow you to easily refill your freshwater tank from collapsable jugs using your freshwater tank’s existing water pump.

To create this system, you will need a few items:

• A few tee valve connectors that fit your truck campers’ current plumbing.
• 12V rocker switch and wire.
• A portable RV water tank or collapsable water jugs.
• A clear PVC hose.
• Premium quality hose clamps.
• A short piece of braided hose.

1. Step One

The first thing you will have to do to create your new freshwater holding tank system with increased capacity is to add a fill tube.

Most truck campers will come equipped with a winterization bypass hose. If yours does not feature this hose, you need to insert a tee valve between the fresh water tank and the input pump.

After you have added a tee valve, you will need to add a short length of clear tubing that is flexible. This tubing will become your input hose if you don’t have a bypass hose.

Next, you’re going to add hose clamps to the input hose you have created, but you will need to remember to tighten them with a wrench.

2. Step Two

Once you have found your winterization bypass or have created an input hose, you will add a bypass valve.

To do this, you will add a second tee valve to your freshwater tanks output house that you will find feeding out of the water pump and into the pressurized water lines.

After you have done this, you can place new hose clamps and attach the length of the braided hose. Remember that the braided hose needs to be long enough to easily reach the top of your freshwater tank where the pressure relief hose is located.

3. Step Three

Step three is possibly the easiest. During this third step, you are going to add a redirect valve.

To do this, you need to splice another tee valve into your relief hose so that you can redirect water back into your fresh water tank.

Yet, make sure that the valve directs water back into the tank in the right direction.

4. Step Four

After step three, you have come to the most challenging step in making a new water system to increase your truck campers’ freshwater holding tank capabilities.

You need to run a spliced wire from your truck camper nearest DC power source into the positive side of your freshwater tank’s water pump power supply.

After you have completed this, you need to add the rocker switch to your power supply so that you will be able to control the pumps on and off switch yourself.

5. Step Five

The last step will showcase all your hard work in steps one to four.

First things first, you’re going to need to ensure that your truck campers’ water pump is switched off. After doing this, you can refill your fresh water tank by dipping your clear PVC hose, which you have attached to your pump, into the collapsable water jugs or portable RV water tank.

Once this hose has been submerged in the water, you can turn the tee valves in succession so that water feeds into your holding tank. When you notice the tank is full, all you need to do is turn off the rocker switch and turn the tee valves back to their original positions.

Upgrading A Truck Campers Greywater Holding Tank

Below we have briefly looked at a simple and easy way to upgrade your truck campers’ greywater tank easily and effectively.

To increase your greywater tank holding capacity, you can use a trailer-mounted 30-gallon grey water tank that has been built in the front of it.

You will need to use a pump like the Attwood Livewell pump to pump grey water from your truck campers’ drain point to the grey water tank on the trailer.

How Much Does It Cost To Upgrade The Holding Tanks In Your Truck Camper?

Although you often cannot replace the size of your truck campers’ holding tanks, you can upgrade to a newer holding tank that is the same size as the old one.

On average, it costs approximately $60 to $400 to purchase a new 7 to 45-gallon freshwater holding tank, and between $200 to $380 to buy a 10 to 30-gallon grey water or blackwater holding tank.

Do Truck Campers Always Have Holding Tanks?

Although rare in recent years, a few truck campers don’t have a bathroom or a kitchen.

If there is no kitchen or bathroom, it’s unlikely that your truck camper will have any holding tanks. However, if your truck camper has only a kitchen or bathroom or both of these amenities, you will have a fresh water holding tank, a grey water holding tank, and a blackwater holding tank.

If there is only a kitchen with a sink, you likely only have a freshwater tank and a grey water tank.

Fortunately, most modern truck campers have all three holding tanks because they are being manufactured to be comfortable with small kitchens and wet or dry bathrooms.

Citations:

Best Truck Campers With Bathrooms In 2021

What is a Truck Camper?

Number Of Wholesale Shipments Of Truck Campers In The United States 2020