Van Plumbing

Updated on June 17th, 2021

For our van plumbing, we decided to go simple.  Like we have said in other posts, this is an adventure van, not our full-time home, so having a shower or toilet was not a high priority for us.  Our van plumbing consists mainly of running potable water and will eventually have a composting or chemical toilet. All we care about right now is the ability to wash hand and dishes in the sink and have easily accessible drinking water.

Disclaimer:  In the interest of transparency, please be aware that this post contains affiliate links and any purchases made through such links may result in a small commission for us at no cost to you.

Tools used

• Utility Knife
• Drill and Drill Bits
• Flat Blade Screwdriver
• Circular Saw or Jig Saw
• Adjustable Wrench

Materials used

• ¼” Nylon Tubing
• ⅜ vinyl tubing
• ⅜ Hose Clamps (4)
• Faucet
• Water Pump
• Water Tank
• Primo Water Jug
• RV Drain kit
• Kitchen Sink Strainer Stopper
• Teflon Tape
• Plumbers Putty
• Liquid Pipe Sealer
• ¼ Push to Connect Fitting by ¼ NPT Female Fitting
• ⅜ Barb by ¼ NPT Male 90 Degree Fitting
• Tie down straps (2)
• #6 x ¾ Screws
• #6 Washers
• Scrap 2×4

Plan for Tanks and Install Tanks

You will need to purchase your tanks.  We chose to go with a primo water tank as our potable water tank.  The reason we are going with primo is that they are easy to fill, replace, and are available at every Walmart in the US.  So basically everywhere. Place the tanks on your cabinet and mark with a pencil where you would like them to sit. Our fuel fill location within the cabinet pretty much dictated where our tanks could or could not go. Temporary install the sink strainer and drain kit to ensure the gray water lines always flow downhill.

We chose a typical camping water tank as our grey water tank.  With our five gallons potable jug, we wanted to make sure that our grey water tank was slightly larger at seven gallons.  This should prevent us from having overflow issues.

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Cut blocks of scrap wood to work as chocks around your tanks.  This will keep things from moving while the van is in motion and cut down on the strain to cabinet sides.  We also used tie-down straps screwed to the cabinet walls to help keep tanks in place. These also allow us to remove the tanks for filling or emptying.

Install the Faucet

For information on how to install the sink or countertop head over to our van cabinet post.

Install the faucet through the countertop.  Ours was very simple and only required a small hole and a jam nut to install.  We used a paddle drill to drill through the countertop. Stick the faucet part on top and the jam nut part on the bottom and Voila!  You have a faucet!

Install the Water Pump

There are a couple of options when it comes to water pumps and many people stick to a foot pump type in their vans.  Gwen knows she isn’t coordinated enough to function a manual foot pump and wash dishes without making a mess so we decided to go the small electric pump route.

Install your water pump.  You will want to avoid mounting your pump to the middle of a panel.  These things cause a lot of vibration and noise! Mounting to the edge of the cabinet wall will cut down on the vibration creates.  Ours is on the side closer to the tank than the faucet but it doesn’t really matter because it is all traveling very short distances.

Connecting Potable Water

Connect the water pump to your potable water and to the faucet.  You’ll need any connectors to convert from your pump size to your faucet size.  In our case, we needed to go from ¼” OD to ⅜” ID. Another great perk of the primo tanks is that they have a little hole in the top of the tank that can take the tubing.  We left the small plastic piece but drilled a quick hole in it to push the tube through.

Installing the Drain

Disassemble the drain kit and sink strainer.  Apply thread sealant between the drain kit and the bottom part of the strainer (the small set of threads) and screw them together tightly. Roll out a bead of plumbers putty, just like you were making a snake with play-doh!  Apply the bead of plumbers putty under the flange of the sink strainer. Place the sink strainer inside the sink, orient the drain tube so it is pointing in the correct direction and tighten the nut. When the nut is tight, remove any putty that squeezed out and save it for next time! PSA:  Plumbers putty is not play-doh.  Do not try to eat it, and don’t try to pretend like you didn’t eat play-doh as a kid.  We all did.

Connect the other end of your drain kit to the grey water tank.  The beauty of using a camping tank and a camping drain kit is that they were essentially made for one another and fit together perfectly.  

Check for Leaks

Connect up the pump to our electricity source.  Remember, water and electricity don’t play nice so please be careful during this step. Since we did our plumbing before electrical, we used our jumper start pack to hook up the pump temporarily for this purpose.  Open the tap to purge the air out of the system. When all the air is gone shut the tap. You will hear the pump start to labor as the pressure builds in the system and eventually turn off. Check all your connections for leaks. If the pump occasionally turns on with the tap closed you have a leak somewhere!  If your pump remains silent you should not have a closed system. Congratulations you now have van plumbing!

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