About 10 years ago, when I was still a teenager, I went on a camping trip with my family. We have a trailer camp and an extra tent, big enough to accommodate our entire family of 4 people, plus my cousin. At the time, as soon as we reached our destination beside the lake, the three of us adolescent kids would instantly jump off the car and go straight into the water. We wouldn’t come back for a good few hours, leaving all the hard work to my parents. It never hit me that when you’re setting up a trailer camp, there is a lot of work to do if you want to have a great experience throughout your entire stay there. But I did find out about it the hard way last week, when I went camping with a bunch of friends, and all of the work fell into our hands.
Apparently, there are many things that you have to do to successfully set up a trailer camp. But none of those things were as difficult, for me at least, as setting the camper trailer plumbing system. The camper trailer plumbing system is quite complex. Since our camp comes with a bathroom, two water sinks, and a toilet, the need for a plumbing system is of great importance. Just getting fresh water can be quite a sophisticated setup.
Newer camping trailers use water pumps to deliver water to the sink, shower and toilet. They used to be quite loud back in the days, as far as I remember, but nowadays they’re considerably quieter. Modern water pumps give signals if a water leak occurs in order to prevent floods and pipes bursting from high pressure. They also include water heaters, most of them run on either gas or electric power. All in all, if there is no facility to provide you with clean drinking water and a hot shower, having a quality plumbing system is a must.
Besides clean drinking water, you need water for your toilet, which is usually isolated from the rest of the plumbing system. However, don’t be fooled, even the toilet is composed of relevant components. Most toilets are in a fixed position and they have a separate plumbing system.
My point is, figure out how often and how long your camping trip will last, and get the right plumbing equipment with a sufficient amount of capacity to last you throughout the entire trip. It’s a complex system and you should read a manual and get as much information possible on how to properly set it up. Believe me, you don’t want to get to your destination and not know how to handle the situation. It will instantly turn any enthusiasm into frustration.