Our Simple Cheap Water Storage & Pump in Our 4WD Touring Setup
In this post we share with you our simple and cheap water storage and pump in our 4WD touring setup. We did share some stories on Instagram a while back about our water storage setup in our 4WD and we had quite a few questions on how we did this. In this post we will show you how it all works and how we put it all together.
The KISS Principal is Usually the Right Way!
You just need to keep it simple. Seriously! That social media or YouTube influencer might have a real fancy pants looking setup that costs a bomb but, in the real world it is not needed and really makes no difference to where you can explore. Yes, you need a few things in your setup to explore Australia, but not anywhere near the amount of stuff you see in some setups these days. And look, I cannot say too much as we do have a great setup (in my opinion of course), but I believe it is still fairly simple.
When things get a little too fancy, there are always more chances of something failing. Reliability is key when touring, not just with the mechanics of your 4WD but, also everything else you put into it. Therefore, when we worked out our water storage solution in our 76 Series Toyota Land Cruiser, we ended up staying away from a 12V pump and permanent water tank. These options might be perfect for you, I am not saying they are no good. What I am saying, is that for us we did not need to spend a significant amount of money on a 12V pump and permanent water tank. We found a far easier and cost-effective way to end up with the same outcome.
Why We Stayed Away from a 12V Pump & Permanent Tank
A decent 12V water pump like the Shurflo is going to set you back at least $150. This is a fantastic 12V pump, we have one in our camper trailer DOT373 and so far, it has not missed a beat. Then a 60-litre water tank is at least another $150 but probably more. That is a good chunk of change before you add in the electrical work, a tank sender probe, and so on. Our water storage solution with pump, was a fraction of this cost, and it works.
Another reason for staying away from a 12V pump was reliability. Yes, there are fail safes you can ensure you have with gravity feeds from a tank to still get your water. But there is still the risk of an issue that would need to be dealt with. Our solution cannot fail, so no worries! Pumps and water tanks also need a lot of space. Fitting a permanent water tank does provide plenty of limitations of where you will fit one, especially if it is inside your 4WD as it usually will be in a wagon if you want a decent amount of water storage.
Then there is the issue of filling your tank. Having a tank inside your vehicle can lead to problems with water ending up inside your 4WD. As you will need to connect a hose to the tank to fill it up, there is the chance of some water leaks when connecting and disconnecting the hose. Also, knowing how much water is in your tank is almost impossible without fitting a water tank sender probe. Another additional cost. The final reason we stayed away from a permanent water tank was keeping it clean. Bacteria will build up in water tanks even when using an inline carbon water filter when filling up. Having water storage that is removable does allow you to easily clean these every 12-months or so.
Our Water Storage Solution & Pump
Enough on what we did not do, let’s show you our simple water storage and pump solution in our 76 Series Toyota Land Cruiser setup.
We decided on using good quality Australian made water jerry cans that cost $35 each (I believe due to massive price increases over the last 2-years these have now gone up, we did buy ours on sale as well). Due to how the jerry cans were going to be packed in our 4WD, we needed a pump and could not rely on a gravity feed. We came up with a simple solution using a hand pump which we will go through shortly.
As we removed our rear seat and did a rear seat storage conversion, you can read our post here. We have plenty of space between the rear seat conversion and the front seats. There is enough space to fit three 20-litre jerry cans side by side. Before our rear seat conversion, we still stored our water in the same spot, it was just a bit more difficult securing them. When we designed our rear seat conversion, we ensured we had tie down points to allow us to secure each jerry can individually. This provides us with a lot of flexibility. Firstly, we do not need to carry the jerry cans when day to day driving. Secondly, having our water stored in 3 separate jerrys, allows us to carry one, two, or all of them depending on where we are travelling and for how long. Thirdly, filling up the jerry cans is easy as we can carry them to a tap and fill them up before securing them in our 4WD. This has been a godsend in places where getting water might be difficult especially if you need your vehicle to be right beside the tap. Finally, keeping jerry cans clean is much easier than a fixed tank. We simply remove them and easily clean with products like Tank Cleen.
Buying 3 jerry cans was the easy part. We then needed to work out a solution for pumping water out of each jerry. Our solution has ended up being rather simple. With each jerry can we purchased we also received a flexible pourer spout. The pourer spout can be removed from the threaded screw cap. Once removed you are left with the screw cap that has a large hole in the middle. What we found is that a standard 1-inch to ¾ inch tap fitting is the perfect solution for filling the hole in the screw cap. We simply removed the ¾ inch to 1-inch adaptor from the 1-inch quick connect hose fitting. The 1-inch quick connect hose fitting sits on top of the pourer spout screw cap. The ¾ inch to 1-inch adaptor screws back into the 1-inch hose fitting from the other side of the screw cap hole. Depending on the hose fitting, you might need to sand or grind back the circumference of the ¾-inch adaptor so that it fits inside the screw cap. This now gives you a standard quick connect hose fitting on top of a jerry can screw cap. We then purchased a ¾ inch quick connect hose adaptor fitting. This fitting screws into the bottom of the hose connector attached to the screw cap.
Next, we purchased a straight piece of 12mm irrigation hose that comes in 1-metre lengths. This hose was then pushed over the ¾ inch quick connect hose adaptor fitting. Once this was done, we cut the irrigation hose down to length so that it was long enough to sit on the bottom of the jerry can. Due to the angle of the screw cap, the hose goes into the tank at approximately 10 degrees. So even if the hose is touching the bottom of the jerry can, it does not matter as the angle will ensure the hose always has an opening for when you pump out the water. All these fittings and hose were purchase from Bunning for less than $15.
The next step was pumping the water out of the jerry can. We had a spare hand pump lying around so we decided to use this. You can find one online or any camping store. We used a large Quick Fist clamp and secured the hand pump to it with a couple of zip ties. The Quick Fist clamp can then be secured to the handle of one of the jerry cans. We then added a quick connect hose fitting to one end of food grade hose and connected the other end to the base of the hand pump. To pump water out of the jerry can, we connect the pump hose to the top of the jerry can hose fitting, loosen the screw cap on the opposite end of the jerry can, and then pump. It works perfectly. When one jerry can is empty, we simply unscrew the screw cap with the hose fitting and connect this to one of the other jerrys that has water. We leave the hand pump where it is.
We initially used clear food grade hose but found that this hose is too flexible and can easily kink. Since then, we have replaced this hose by cutting a short piece off the 20-metre blue food grade hose that we use to fill up our camper trailer water tanks. This hose is far sturdier and never kinks.
You can see the kink in the picture below.
For our 76 Series Land Cruiser wagon this is a perfect and extremely flexible water storage solution that does not cost an arm and a leg, is extremely easy to do, with nothing that can go wrong. It does not get much better than that.
Let us know if you have any questions in the comments below. Hopefully you have found this post about the water storage and pump solution in our 76 Series Land Cruiser helpful.
For more 76 Series Toyota Land Cruiser build posts, you can find them all here. To keep up to date on our future stories, join the 4WD Adventurer Community here. For more regular updates follow us on Instagram.
Thanks for reading.
The thoughts of Peter.
07/06/2023 @ 6:34 PM
Yeah, no air bubbles when I use the hand-pump and clear hose straight into the water. Must be the clipon hose connection! I’ll try some thread-seal, etc. Thanks for all your help Peter, I’ll leave you alone now haha!
18/04/2023 @ 9:46 PM
Hello!
Thanks for the post! Just wondering where you got your jerry cans from? I want ones which don’t have the optional tap outlet at the bottom, as I want zero risk of leakage from that outlet (they will be stored in the back of my ute behind my fridge, out of sight until they get used).
Cheers and great write up!
Steve
20/04/2023 @ 10:04 AM
G’day Steve,
Thanks for reading and the feedback mate, much appreciated.
Our jerry cans actually do have the bung on the bottom for the option to fit a tap. So unfortunately not what you are looking for. They are Australian made and have not had any issues with leaks after more than 30,000kms of travel in all sorts of conditions and stored in multiple locations, on the roof, in the vehicle, and on our camper trailer.
The ones we use are the Supex brand, they aren’t cheap but so far they have worked well.
https://supex.com.au/
Cheers,
Peter
01/05/2023 @ 10:39 AM
Hey Peter, thanks for your response. Sorry for the late reply, but I was expecting some kind of email notification that I had got a reply, but never got one, so didn’t think anyone had replied.
Ok, I guess I might just have to accept the bottom hole, and just silicone it up or something. I’ll just have to find the right sized threads etc now!
Cheers,
Steve
17/05/2023 @ 11:52 AM
No worries Steve. Good luck with it all.
25/05/2023 @ 9:43 PM
Hey Peter,
I’ve completed the setup, and now have an extra 40L of water available on my truck. However, I get significant airbubbles coming through my hose, did you experience that? I’m wondering if the air is getting in somewhere around the clipon hose attachment?
Cheers,
Steve
07/06/2023 @ 7:10 AM
Hi Steve,
Sorry for the late reply, I have been away travelling.
I have not had any issues with air bubbles. I do make sure that when pumping the opposite cap is loosened. But it could be as you have suggested, through the hose attachment. It will have to be a bit of trial and error to resolve the issue unfortunately.
Cheers,
Peter