Newguy

[Gaslab]

Hi skoolies,first post for me.Pretty awesome forums lots of great info.I am bus less at the moment,but will be looking at four 72 pass.Bluebirds this week.The bidding on these is sealed,this is all new to me,but i have garnered some great info from these forums,and am jumping in not so green.
My first question with many more to follow is......I am toying with the idea of having my fresh water tank on top of the bus as opposed to the underneath.My logic being,is to use gravity for my water supply as opposed to electric pumps therefore saving a little on my amperage demand.Asside from being top heavy and having sloshing would there be any other issues with this concept.

Thanks

[Tango]

Only in freezing weather. The rest of the time it will be hot.

RV Water pumps are a much cheaper route methinks.

[FlyboyHPD]

I completely agree with Tango, on the temperature issues. Not to mention the extremely high center of gravity if the tank is less than 3/4 of the way full. That's a lot of weight sloshing around which could have a major impact on how the bus handles especially on wet slick roadways.

[charles_m]

If you're using your water pump so much that you're worried about its energy usage, you should probably think of things differently.

How big will your tank be? Let's call it 50 gallons. My pump can do 2gpm easily. If I run my whole tank empty, that will only take about 30 minutes. Lets say my pump uses 8 amps. We're looking at a max of 4AH @12v to use all my water. Thats only 48 watt hours.

A single golf cart battery holds nearly 1000 useable watt hours.

You'd have to have a lot of water in storage and a lot of usage demand for the electrical side to be the limiting factor.

Trust me, your water pump isn't the issue.

[Gaslab]

Thanks for the quick reply,there all valid points.