Bongo Fury

Inspired by a 30yr old VDub , I want to add a simple tap to my very basic kitchen. I plan on using a standard water carrier as the water tank so I can just lift it out to refill.

• - Tap should be compact and robust, swivel and fold out of the way. Single water feed.
  - Prefer manual pump but could be electric if easy to wire up to cigarette lighter. Pumping or controls to happen at the tap.
  - Feed from water container needs to be travel proof so we can travel with water on board. A water tight feed connection would need a flexible breather that comes up a good height (which is possible) or a breather with one-way valve. There could be a reluctant compromise here by replacing pump feed with the carrier's standard cap for travel.
  - Need to be able to detach pump feed from water carrier, replacing with normal water tight cap for carrying & refilling.

Going back to my trailer tent days, the water pumps (leccy) had a feed that was dangled in the water carrier with an ill fitting cap to keep the major bugs and dirt out. I am hoping for something a lot more water tight and don't need external connectors - it is all inside. Is this a DIY job assembling a zoo of bits and bobs, or is anyone aware of a good ready made solution?

What about this?
http://www.towsure.com/product/Whale_VP ... aravan_Tap
Not cheap but I know a man who has one spare in the shed

I have this in mine
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/CARAVAN-MOTOR ... 2ec82dc4f9
Just add one of these pumps
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Whale-12v-Car ... 2c7241f877

I went ultra simple...

Two 10 litre carriers in the kitchen, one fresh one waste & for the pump I got the Whale V manual one.

I couldn't see the point in the expense & hassle of electric just to fill the odd kettle!!

I made a removable rear kitchen, so if it is ever used in the awning I don't need the hassle of a 12v supply.

Works a treat

I know what you mean about the water containers. But I struggle to lift them and hold them steady, so Allan fitted the Whale maunual tap in ours when we converted our first Bongo. It's small but strong and very handy as there's no need for an electric hook up. They sell them on EBay too.

Does the whale V manual tap fold down at all?
Do you just pop the tubing into the water carrier when parked up or doing have a solution that is waterproof on the move?

The tap doesn't fold down. Ours was fitted into a sink/hob unit. From memory, you should be able to attach it to a water carrier by drilling the cap. Our local caravan parts shop used to sell them off the shelf (it's closed down). If you're near one, they may also have one and you could check it for size.

Doone wrote:The tap doesn't fold down. Ours was fitted into a sink/hob unit. From memory, you should be able to attach it to a water carrier by drilling the cap. Our local caravan parts shop used to sell them off the shelf (it's closed down). If you're near one, they may also have one and you could check it for size.

Thanks. That is definitely the safest approach.

On mine the pipe drops straight in & enough room to lift the bottle out with pipe in place then drop down & off - that way any dribbles are out of the kitchen unit.

The bottles in mine had a standard size cap - like on large vegetable fat bottles etc, so I found a couple & drilled those to suit the pipes & fitted a cable tie each side to keep it in place with teh bottles rmoved. traveling around with a full bottle barely spilt a drop. the original caps are handy when filling/emptying!!

Just in case I had put a single piece of vinyl wrap under where the bottles go & up all 4 sides. If any does spill easy to mop up & wont affect the woodowrk!!!

Thanks all. Whale V, little water carrier and length of pipe bought last weekend. Now just need to fix it in the bongo (after reassembling my climate control with hopefully working illumination)

cmm303 wrote:Thanks all. Whale V, little water carrier and length of pipe bought last weekend. Now just need to fix it in the bongo (after reassembling my climate control with hopefully working illumination)

done and dusted. Tap mounted on side of my homemade unit. Also I sourced from very helpful supplier a special top for the water container designed for a leccy pump with two holes, larger for water pipe, smaller for leccy cable. I pushed a reducer into the water hole, allowing me to connect tap hose to top and bits from a homebrew kit to the inner side. In the small hole I have screwed in a cycle inner tube valve (sterilised) to let the air in but not the water out I still have the original top so can easily unscrew the tap conversion top and use the original top for carrying the container to fill it up.
The end of up ending a water container to make morning tea.

Got any more info on the cap you mentioned? I had to modify a conventional one which works ok, but I've never quite been happy with how I did it, so a ready made solution would save me the effort of re-doing it.

If this lid is readily available or even a photo, details would be appreciated.

I got it from C.A.K. Tanks, Warwickshire in person. Can't find it in their catalogue or on their web site! Probably explains why it took them a very very long time and much speaking to bosses to come up with a price. They did say it was standard kit but obviously not out of the Argos Xmas catalogue!!! That's not very helpful of me .... Pic laters

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