How do you get water into a stratford?

We've got one of those whale connector thingys on the side of the van and no visible means of filling the tank up - presumably there's some sort of adapter that accepts a normal hose?

We do have what looks like a watermaster but it would be a real pain to keep filling up from buckets!

cheers

If your system is like mine you should have this:

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This provides filling from a tap.

What a star! :)

cheers

phil

Hi phil,

You're welcome. We are all here to help one another.

OK - got one of those, all connected up - but a deafening silenzio! :)

No kinks in the hose, so water is getting to the van, but nothing is getting into the tank :( Why can't they just have a hole where I can stick the hose in? I'm very much inclined to do that and get rid of all these fancy connectors!

Any idea what's behind the connector in the side of the van? No strange springs that will shoot miles away if I undo the screws? :)
I am going t open it up and see if anything appears to be stuck, but if anybdy's been there before would appreciate some tips!

phil

Hi phil,

Control panel needs to be on to open the solenoid and let the water in.

Found that! :) Also disassembled the connector and cleaned it out. Now I have a full tank, but the water pump now keeps blowing fuses when I try to prime everything - will keep u posted.......

Phil

Hi Phil
We changed to a Stratford earlier in the year and I am sure our first trip to Broadway caused much hilarity to all who were watching.
We had filled and cleaned the water tank at home with no problems but as it is a bit of a trail we thought we would save weight on the way there.
Oh dear we did have some fun (hmmmmmm no swearing was heard at all)

On getting to the water point we hooked the aqua source thing up to the water point and turn it on, and waited.... And waited,...... Not a soul walking past pointed out that the water tap to the tank was open.

It doesn't finish there. After shutting the tap etc etc we waited again..... Another 10 minutes or so and drove to the pitch.

On getting to the pitch my OH was devastated to find out we had barely a dribble in the tank..... Oh yes .... You have to turn on the pump to fill the tank..

Rookies we aren't having had 2 Duettos And pride ourselves on our lack of faffing on sites.

But the Stratford and it's water system has kind of stumped us. Not only do you need a special hose costing £40 plus. We have now decided we will probably just use a 10litre container and the submersible pump thing.
Oh please let us just be able to use a hose (garden not food grade and we havent died yet) or a funnel with a small piece of hose connected and a container. The funnel attachment gave us lots of fun chasing each other and shouting down the hose pipe.
Someone on another forum (UKCS) had the same moan and was going to go to AS and try and have a conversion. Must check to see what happened.

Oh we will look back and laugh at some point.
would love to hear more about your fitting out your Stratford - the crockery cupboard is my next target.

Hi there - fortunately we made all the mistakes at home, but it was nearly as fun as your efforts :) It took me a while to figure out that you had to turn the power on! Coming from a helicopter background, where you try to use as little electrical power as possible, it did feel rather strange.

Why go to all that complexity? I have always worked on the premise that if a basic system works, why fix it?

Anyhow, I have managed to get my hands up into the water tank from below and the pump is warmer than I would like - I suspect it needs to be replaced - does anybody happen to know what pumip is in there? It feels like the same Whale as the one on the end of the thing you are using for containers, but it's best to be sure! If I have to drop the tank or anything I will look seriously at replacing the gubbins with just a straight funnel.

With reference to altering things, I have managed to replace the furniture down the left hand side, and made a better job of it IMHO (there's a pic on another thread somewhere of what it was like. We got rid of this wimpy bed slats (which you can put your foot through at the drop of a hat) and replaced them with sturdy MDF - the result is probably the most comfortable bed I have found in a motorhome. Got a 3-way fridge in there as well, although I might not use the gas option as I will need to cut a flue in the side of the van. Not willing to go quite that far yet.

If there was another couple of inches across the van and sideways, i would have used one of those sofa bed assemblies.

All in all, I did the job for about £6000 less than the quote from AS.

cheers

Phil

Hi Phil.. Im a fellow Stratford owner and modifier and have just completed the renovation of my own van (cosmetic).. Would like to see those pics if you have a link ? I aim to get a few of my own on here when I have figured out how ..

Cheers ian

Phil hasn't visited the forum for over 2 years , it's a very old thread.

Good point.. Thanks