The beauty of a DIY conversion is that you can make your water system as simple or as complicated as you feel comfortable with. We’d rate our system as “intermediate”, as there are a number of sensors and extra gadgets that you could add that we opted against installing. This post will take you through the layout and reasoning behind the system that we installed. For the sake of clarity, Blue = cold water, Red = hot water, Brown = greywater, and Cyan (light blue) = air vents in all of the diagrams in this post.

We’re going to walk you through the system as water moves through it. The first thing you’ll need is a water source and a water hose that’s rated for drinking water consumption. We’re using this one. Get the longest hose you feel comfortable storing in your van - trust us - long hoses are a godsend and make you more nimble when filling your tanks. While you’re buying a hose, get yourself these water filters to filter the water as it enters your system.

Water enters our van through a locking water hatch. The hatch accepts 1-1/4” or 1-3/8” water fill hoses and has a 1/2” ID port connection for an air vent, which releases pressure in the system as water fills the tanks. Stick your water hose in the hatch and water will flow through the fill hose to the water tank. Ensure that your hatch is a minimum of 14” higher (18” is better) than the connection points on your tank. You don’t want water sloshing out of your hatch when you have to stop quickly to avoid crushing a cute bunny eating a carrot stick in the middle of the road.

Our tanks are AWESOME. We have two 22 gallon water tanks from Northwest Conversions. These tanks fit over the wheel wells of our van so our water stays thawed in freezing conditions. We have a Full Article on these tanks that you should read if you’d like more information. We connect our two tanks under the floor using a 1-1/2" NPT Male x 1-1/4" Barbed hose fitting adapter and the 1-1/4” water fill hose as noted above. Using anything smaller than 1” ID for the hose between the tanks will cause your 2nd tank to fill very slowly (trust us, we know). When installing your 2nd tank, ensure that you plumb an air vent for that tank as well. As you can see from our diagram, we ran our Tank #2 vent back to the hatch side and vented the two tanks out the same hole. We also have a Pex Ball Valve Brass Shut Off on each tank to empty water from the system. You’re definitely going to want this option to clear all water as well.

Now our water tanks have water! Using one of the 1/2” ports on the driver’s side tank, we ran 1/2” Pex tubing to our water’s first stop, a water strainer that keeps gunk from mucking up the water pump (not shown in diagrams, as it’s very small). From the strainer, water flows through the water pump and accumulator. The water pump pressurizes the water from this point forward in the system. The accumulator is a bladder system that prevents water from flowing backward into the pump again. (There is some debate about whether this is necessary. It may not be as most pumps prevent backflow. We did not want to risk having issues and hearing our pump pumping all night, so we added the accumulator as a safeguard).

Water coming from the tanks is generally around the ambient temperature of the interior of the van. For this post, we will call this the “cold” water. Once the cold water goes through the water strainer, water pump, and accumulator, it is tee’d and fed to either the shower’s faucet or through the chase under the finished floor to the passenger side of the van. The chase consists of 4 runs. The 1-1/4” tube that connects the 22-gallon water tanks (Dark Blue), a 1/2” PEX cold water tube that feeds the passenger side of the system (Dark Blue), a hot water 1/2” PEX tube that feeds the shower’s hot water faucet (Red), and a 1/2” PEX tube that connects Tank #2’s air vent to the air vent on the driver’s side leading to the hatch air outlet (Cyan).

Once cold water is on the passenger side of the van, it is tee’d to feed the 15” x 17” stainless kitchen sink and the electric hot water heater. Hot water generated from the heater is fed to the sink and the shower, with the hot water for the shower being fed back through the aforementioned plumbing chase under the finished floor. Our hot water heater runs at 1400w, which is a lot of energy consumption for most electrical systems, including ours. So, we only turn the hot water system on when we want hot water and leave it off the rest of the time. We’ll generally turn it on about 15 min before we want to use it and we’ll turn it off once we’re done showering or washing dishes.

The kitchen sink and faucet are a combination that we’re really happy with. We suggest installing the largest sink that you feel comfortable with. There is nothing more frustrating than washing a dish that won’t fit under the faucet when rinsing. A large sink is also a great place to store dirty dishes while cooking and eating (or saving to wash later). The faucet we use is foldable and we are really happy with this arrangement. It allows us to close the sink for extra counter space when we’re not doing the dishes, washing hair, etc. We have a full review on why we like our folding faucet here. For drinking water, we use a Berkey Water Purifier, which you can read all about here

Last, but not least is our shower. Adding a shower to your build is a hotly contested topic, for a plethora of reasons. We personally feel the most valid argument for NOT having a shower is that they take up a lot of space. We agree and that’s why we designed our van in a way that the shower was incorporated into a space that already had other functions. This allowed us to add the shower without it requiring a designated space. Our shower head and extended 138” shower hose are used sparingly, but we are really happy we have them. This article is being written during COVID-19 and we are seeing a lot of van dwellers who are S.O.L. now that their gym and most campgrounds are closed. We don’t have that issue and we’re so happy we don’t. Plus the showerhead is great for washing bikes, smelly dogs, and whatever else you may need to clean on your journey.

We are full-timers, but if you’re going to be a weekend warrior or part-timer, it’s important that you include features to winterize your water system in colder climates. Using a non-toxic RV Antifreeze will ensure that your system makes it through the winter without any damage from freezing. We suggest adding a pump converter winterizing kit to your system, which allows you to add antifreeze to your system without having to add any to your tanks. Adding a bypass to your water heater will also allow you to turn it off so you don’t have to buy more antifreeze just to fill the water heater.

In summary, the system is working quite well for us. The large water capacity allows us to boondock for longer stretches and gives more freedom to use our water as we see fit. The kitchen sink/faucet combo works well, and the shower is a godsend when we really need to use it. Our hot water heater is a power hog, but since we opted against using propane in the build, we are very glad we have it. Our toilet isn’t included in this article, as we use a composting toilet. We can not stress how much we LOVE our toilet. Check it out here.

We think that about covers it. Please submit questions to us in the comments below if we missed something or if you want to share your own experience!