Swift - Conqueror onboard water tank advice needed

[pog]

I have a 630 - this years model and I would like to know how anyone with a new swift manage the onboard water tank.

Do you use it? How about switching from tank to water carrier?

I really am lost on how best to manage the two water supplies.

Cheers!

Bj

 

[LDRAWMER]

We have the 645, so might be a slightly different layout. Do you know how to drain your system? As you walk into your caravan, under the seat opposite you should have the two taps, they have to be both in the same position, facing downwards, for water to be pumped in from your aqua roll. There should be a yellow lever also under that seat, which is a drain valve - this needs to be in upright position (or as you pump water in, it will pour straight out - as we have found on several occasions). When you press the water button on your display panel (ours is over the door) it should tell you how much is in your tank.

Once tank is full,(40 litres, so should take one full aqua roll), (if over full you will hear it coming out under front of van).

Once its full, then turn both taps to the right, and you will hear the pump slow down and cut out.

Then refill your aqua roll, and as you use water, it will automatically pump refill into the van's system. Even better is on a fully serviced site, where you can buy Aqua source hose, which just connects onto the tap on your pitch directly into your Whale pump, and you leave it switched on, and you have constant running water.

We have got two aqua rolls and keep both filled up, so there is always enough to refill the tank, and keep topped up for showers, washing up etc.

Hope this helps - we find it brilliant.

Cheers,

Rich

 

[mistermac]

Hi BJ

I don't understand - what do you mean 'switching from tank to water carrier?'

And what do you mean by 'managing the two water supplies'??

Confused....but willing to help if I can....

Mac

 

[Jennifer2]

Bj, we have a Sterling Searcher, which is very similar to your Swift.

I take it you have read your handbook? We noticed in our handbook that the tank filling/using instructions were wrong, but the sticker on the front cupboard drop flap is correct.

Once we have filled our tank from the Aquaroll we refill the Aquaroll and keep it ready to use. You can only use from one source at a time, and there is no automatic refilling of the tank from the Aquaroll.

When our tank is getting low we top it up from the Aquaroll. Sometimes we use direct from the Aquaroll, for example if we are leaving the site the next day so don't want to have water in the on-board tank.

Switching to Aquaroll is explained in the instructions, just turn the levers in the direction indicated.

 

[pog]

Sorry to be dim - but I will try and explain better what I mean.

So you turn up on site - fill your water hog and connect it - to fill the onboard tank one has to turf up all the cushions and to get to the switch (which if it had been placed just a foot to the right one could reach through the front cubby) to fill it, then you turn the switch, then refil the hog - now what, this is bit I just don't get. Or do you leave it on 'fill internal tank' and it draws from the carrier?

I am brand new to caravans so have little idea how it works in practical terms. The book gives me the technical instructions, but I am not able to put that into practice.

So do I have to go under the seats everytime to switch between water sources? Does one just use the water carrier or do you include the onboard?

Am dim and need some enlightening!

 

[Jennifer2]

Hi Bj,

First let me say that if your water filling/control valves are way forward under the left hand seat (as you look forward) then you can ask your dealer to move them to a more convenient position, such as just behind the front flap at the bottom of the chest like you said.

Swift have had a lot of complaints about the positioning of the valves and are authorising dealers to move them to a more sensible position. If your dealer does not know this then ask him to contact Swift, or contact them yourself.

OK, so, meantime............compare the instructions in your handbook with the valve positions it gives on the big sticker on the dropdown front flap. If they are different, go with what it says on the sticker.

There is no automatic refilling, no automatic changover, you do have to set the valves in the correct positions yourself.

There is one valve (the plastic things in the pipework that have a sort of levers on them) that is opened only when you are filling the on-board tank,at all other times it must be closed. The other valve is the one that decides whether you use from the on-board tank or the Aquaroll/Waterhog.

As I do not have our van here right now (it is away getting those valves repositioned!!) I cannot tell you exactly the directions the levers should be in, you will need to refer to what it says on the sticker.

So..........if you do want to use your on-board tank at all, first you fill the carrier, plug in the hose to the van, then you fill the on-board tank from it. Then you close the tank-filling valve.

Then you set the other valve to the position for using from the on-board tank so you have water to the taps.

Then you go and refill your carrier and connect it up again so it is ready for when you next need it.

When the water in the on-board tank is used up you then need to either refill it from the carrier or switch over to using direct from the carrier. Both alternatives will involve going under the seat to reposition the valves, hence the need to get them moved to a more sensible position.

If you do not want to bother with the on-board tank then you can use only directly from the water carrier and the valves can be left in that one position.

Take some time to study the instructions and try it out, you will soon get the hang of it. It took us a while, mainly because our handbook was wrong and we had not noticed the other instructions stuck inside that front flap. Once we followed them it was ok.

We do use the on-board tank, it is handy to have plenty of water available, often saves having to go out in the rain to refill!

Just remember to empty your Wastemaster/Wastehog regularly as it will not hold all that water!

 

[SimonB]

Hi Bj,

First let me say that if your water filling/control valves are way forward under the left hand seat (as you look forward) then you can ask your dealer to move them to a more convenient position, such as just behind the front flap at the bottom of the chest like you said.

Swift have had a lot of complaints about the positioning of the valves and are authorising dealers to move them to a more sensible position. If your dealer does not know this then ask him to contact Swift, or contact them yourself.

OK, so, meantime............compare the instructions in your handbook with the valve positions it gives on the big sticker on the dropdown front flap. If they are different, go with what it says on the sticker.

There is no automatic refilling, no automatic changover, you do have to set the valves in the correct positions yourself.

There is one valve (the plastic things in the pipework that have a sort of levers on them) that is opened only when you are filling the on-board tank,at all other times it must be closed. The other valve is the one that decides whether you use from the on-board tank or the Aquaroll/Waterhog.

As I do not have our van here right now (it is away getting those valves repositioned!!) I cannot tell you exactly the directions the levers should be in, you will need to refer to what it says on the sticker.

So..........if you do want to use your on-board tank at all, first you fill the carrier, plug in the hose to the van, then you fill the on-board tank from it. Then you close the tank-filling valve.

Then you set the other valve to the position for using from the on-board tank so you have water to the taps.

Then you go and refill your carrier and connect it up again so it is ready for when you next need it.

When the water in the on-board tank is used up you then need to either refill it from the carrier or switch over to using direct from the carrier. Both alternatives will involve going under the seat to reposition the valves, hence the need to get them moved to a more sensible position.

If you do not want to bother with the on-board tank then you can use only directly from the water carrier and the valves can be left in that one position.

Take some time to study the instructions and try it out, you will soon get the hang of it. It took us a while, mainly because our handbook was wrong and we had not noticed the other instructions stuck inside that front flap. Once we followed them it was ok.

We do use the on-board tank, it is handy to have plenty of water available, often saves having to go out in the rain to refill!

Just remember to empty your Wastemaster/Wastehog regularly as it will not hold all that water!

I looked into this a few months ago when buying a new van and it seems to me that the current systemin most vans is a waste of time as you cannot use both sources at the same time and cannot travel with water inboard. With a small redesign and a little money it could automaticly fill the inboard and then you refill the aquaroll and you would have 80 litres to use without doing a thing.

All this messing around with levers is a pain and you dont really gain anything, you still have to fill your aquarolls and by the time you mess around with levers you might as well just refill the empty aquaroll. In the middle of the shower who wants to stop and reposition levers for more water?

 

[pog]

Thanks all for your advice, am off to the dealer to get this sorted!

Cheers!

 

[RSW]

Hi there,
I've found this thread and I wanted to ask some advise please.
We have a 2005 Conqueror 650 Lux and I am trying to fill the on board tank.
The manual is badly written and there is no sticker next to the water tank as described above.
To fill my tank I have to:
Flick the control panel to the Tank symbol (opposite to the Tap symbol).
Open the valve under the seat to allow water to the tank.
Flatten the yellow valve to the heater.
Turn a tap on (which is odd)...

This allows water to pour from the tap and it runs a pump that slowly fills the tank and pours water out of the tap at the same time.
The manual says to "switch the pump on via the switch adjacent to the mains fusebox". This last statement suggests there is a switch that operates the pump so you don't have to run a tap and pour water down the drain to fill the tank.
Can anyone help me as I have no idea where this switch is located.
I have a round rocker switch in the cupboard next to the fusebox but this appears to do nothing at all - it may even be after market.
Many Thanks!

 

[SirRogerFFS]

We have a Sterling Elite Searcher where most of the controls for the water are under the front bed .Right hand side looking forward .This begs the question is there a control box under your front bed where the power to caravan switches on .If so is there also a screen on the right hand side of this box, again if so there are two litle buttons to the right of the screen that allow you to scroll the menu You should see tank fill on and tank fill off all the other readings are for the pump timer according to how big you aquroll is .Once again if yours is like this you need to switch to tank fill on it will fill the water heater first then fills the onboard tank .which will all told take a round three aquarolls of water .. making sure you leave tank fill on when the onboard water tank gets down to a quarter full it switches to the aquaroll to refill the onboard tank .As I have said this is assuming your set up is the same as the elite Searcher. I hope this helps

 

[RSW]

Hi There - thanks for your reply.
My van is 2005 so it doesn't have much in the way of digital panels.
Under the front R/H seat I do have a few fuses and valves which allow water to fill the tank and dump water from the tank/heater.
I have a control panel above the door but I am yet to find the switch that activates the pump which is what I'm gleening needs to happen here.
Thanks