Fresh water overflow

[Jruff51550]

Hi Gang,
I bought a water counter so i can monitor how much water i am putting in my tank. We like to carry enough water to at least use the restroom while traveling.
When we get to our destination i can then add enough water to top it off.
My question is what happens when your counter is wrong and you overflow.
I have heard it is not good to overfill. What happens when you do. Can it damage anything?
Thanks for any help
JAR-V

[Lee-CI]

I've never had a flow counter, though been intending on ordering one. May be in the wrong here, but I've always let the tank fill until it first starts to trickle from the overflow. If the campground has good pressure, I throttle the flow down a good bit before I guesstimate the tank is nearly full. Hopefully others will chime in here as well.

[Camp CA]

Your Montana fresh water tank should have an overflow hose on the driver side rear in the event of overfilling it. I also use an in-line turbine meter, but only for pre-filling black tank with say 10 gallons before use and back flushing/filling the black tank during dump process.

[Daryles]

I once started filling the freshwater tank, then got distracted and we went out for dinner. Came back and water everywhere on the ground.
I also have an inline Meter which read 147 gallons.
No water inside or anywhere else (under the coroplast).
I have read another members post where they had a crack in the overflow vent tube and some overflow water would go into the underbelly.

[Foldbak]

It doesn't hurt to over fill the tank as the excess water will exit the overflow. The problem (as was in my rig is) they forgot to connect the overflow pipe to an exit on the exterior. When I over filled the water it just poured out of the belly wherever it could find a way out. FLRV has since corrected the problem. I like the flow counter idea.

[Mikendebbie]

Fresh water tank overflow on my unit - see pic.
Also - do some research on travel with full tanks - gray or black. I am not saying "don't do it" - but I don't do it - and probably won't until (at some point in the future - maybe project #57 or #58 !!) I put some angle iron cross bar reinforcements below the tanks to help hold them in place. Your unit is a 2021 so you have rotocast tanks - which is good.

[DutchmenSport]

I have always filled my fresh water tank "full" by using the over flow vent to signal the tank is full. When it starts spewing water, I know it's full, regardless of what my water meter reports.

I don't know how accurate the water meter is, but I've used it enough to know when the on-board sensors show only 1 light, I know that's approximately 40 - 42 gallons of water, based on the water meter.

When I use the water until the pump starts spitting air, I know the water meter says 45 gallons before flowing out the over flow.

I have a 32 gallon water tank I can fill when we are not at a full hook-up site, transport it back to the camper, and use a water transfer pump to pump it into the fresh water tank into the camper. The water meter appears to be pretty close when this tank is completely full to completely empty.

To answer your question, it does not hurt anything for the water to spew out the over flow (wherever it's located on your camper). In fact, that is really the only way to be sure your tank is truly 100% full.

Now, if you want less water ... say, only 10 gallons in the tank for travel only and flushing toilets on the road, then the water meter truly shines it's value!

I also like the meter because it lets me know how much water I'm adding to the tank before it spews out the over flow. This also tells me how much water we've actually used. It also helps to determine how much is in my sewer holding tanks. I have a 32 gallon Barker blue tote. The water meter (water coming in), always tips me off, how much water is going to come ... OUT! So I do not overfill the tote. I can stop dumping before it over flows the tote.

The water meter is a significant tool I use and I've come to depend upon it ... especially for dumping, keeping track of how much is being used, more than simply filling the tank.



Previous trailer, same water tank, same pump I use on the Montana:



My overflow vent:



The Blue Tote:

[Jruff51550]

Thanks to all. I feel better now.
JAR-V

[bcrvman]

Originally Posted by Jruff51550

Hi Gang,
I bought a water counter so i can monitor how much water i am putting in my tank. We like to carry enough water to at least use the restroom while traveling.
When we get to our destination i can then add enough water to top it off.
My question is what happens when your counter is wrong and you overflow.
I have heard it is not good to overfill. What happens when you do. Can it damage anything?
Thanks for any help
JAR-V

The water will come out the vent. That is how you know the tanks are full. No harm.

[Foldbak]

Originally Posted by bcrvman

The water will come out the vent. That is how you know the tanks are full. No harm.

If you were lucky enough to get an overflow vent I wasn't! They had to finish that process at the dealer.