There are many trains of thought on what can be considered a luxury in a camping experience, but running water has to be up there I would have thought. And so it was that I had already decided that I needed a sink and running water. Due to the available space, this wasn’t going to be a hot and cold running affair, just a cold tap (I can always heat up water on the stove)
The idea was that I would use a small 12v pump to extract water from a ‘standard’ 2.5-gallon water bottle that you buy at the grocery store, via a single faucet, and then it would drain into a removable grey water tank. The reason for using the grocery-bought water supply was that this removes the need to decant the water from one container to another. Additionally, when I need to replace it, I just buy a new one and drop it in.
I chose a small RV sink and then I wanted to get just a single feed faucet. I found several suitable items on Amazon but for some unknown reason, none of them…none…could be delivered to my location (I have no idea why…are faucets now considered contraband? subject to DEA inspections maybe? a rival for Bitcoin in untraceable currency?). Instead, I had to order from Home Depot. I am using a 1.2 GPM pump with a pressure sensor so that it’s controlled by turning the faucet rather than having a separate switch. The pump is powered by yet more 14 AWG wires from the 12v switch panel. For the grey water tank, I chose a 4-gallon container from CampMax (link at the bottom of this post) and laid it out as per the below.
image to go here once the sink is in
A couple of storage drawers sit above the grey water tank, and a faux-drawer is used to hide the tank itself. Removing this gives me access to empty the tank.
image with drawers in place will go here
The eagle-eyed few of you might have spotted something else in the first picture…a porta-potty. Again, this might be considered a luxury item but was also something I just wanted. The kind of camping I have previously done has always included a toilet facility within a very short distance. But…it’s there for that time when you wake up in the middle of the night and just don’t want to make the trip to the bathroom (or can’t face the journey to dusty porta-potty central in the case of Burningman).
For flexibility, the porta-potty can be removed and replaced with drawers for extra storage.
Purchase links
Sink https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00I2XZ1ME
Pump https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07F35PTFR
Grey Water Tank https://www.amazon.com/dp/B083LLLPN8
Faucet https://www.homedepot.com/p/Glacier-Bay-Single-Handle-Single-Hole-Bathroom-Faucet-in-Polished-Chrome-HD6011-5001/323776456
Porta-potty https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B09KBCRWVS
Replacement Pump https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00P8BE6S8
UPDATE:
Turns out that the pump I chose was a mistake. I spent about $17 on it and after plumbing it in, I quickly realized that it just wasn’t up to the task. I ended up swapping it out for a more powerful (and more expensive unit). It’s much quieter, more powerful, and bigger (which required a change in mounting options).
