How our “Water Bandit” Saved our Trip
Ordinarily, we try to stay away from unsavory characters – which include bandits of any sort. It just doesn’t seem morally right and legally appropriate to hire such thugs to perform essential tasks (even if they are legal). However, we made an exception when we discovered the “Water Bandit”.
No, you do not need an extra seat in your tow vehicle to take one of these bandits along. Nor do you need to carry potential bail money with you in case your bandit is caught in the act. This “Water Bandit” is actually a small clever rubbery device that can attach to water spigots at campgrounds – that were perhaps intentionally designed without threads (or ones with stripped or damaged threads) – making attaching a regular hose now possible. The “Water Bandit” slides over and grips onto the spigot with the rubber side on one end and has a threaded end for your hose or water tank filler with a shutoff valve on the other end.
This inexpensive device takes up very little space and can be a true trip saver at some campgrounds! On our most recent trip up the California coast to Coos Bay, Oregon, we stayed at Prairie Creek Redwoods State Park (about 50 miles north of Eureka). We were running low on water and there are no hookups at this campground. However, there are water spigots sprinkled throughout the campground and we found one close to our campsite (#49). I set our water jug under the spigot and turned it on and a high pressure spray of water shot in all directions with very little going into our water container. It was difficult to adjust the amount of water coming out (e.g. all on or off). I realized it was going to take all day to capture water in this method without some help. And, then, remembered our “Water Bandit”.
I screwed on our water tank filler hose onto our “Water Bandit” (since we were too far from our campsite to use our hose to reach the Scamp) and then slipped the bandit over the spigot. I placed our dolly under the water jug so I could easily move it to the Scamp after being weighted down with water. Note: a gallon of water weighs about 8.34 pounds at room temperature (so our 6 gallon water jug weighs about 50 pounds when full)! When I first opened the spigot and water shot through it at high pressure, the bandit flew off (as it is not intended to use under pressure). So, I turned the water off, slipped it back on the spigot, angled the hose straight down into the water jug, and then held the bandit on the spigot with one hand while opening up the spigot with the other (some people report success using a hose clamp to hold their bandits onto the spigot). The water now behaved and quickly shot straight down into the water jug, quickly filling it. If we had been parked closer to the Scamp, I would have hooked up our hose and filled our Scamp’s fresh water tank directly. In the end, the “Water Bandit” helped us tremendously in having an enjoyable trip by allowing us to fill our water tank. We will never go camping again without our “Water Bandit”!
Disclaimer: You will get the same great Amazon price by clicking on the links here compared to buying directly on Amazon, but by buying here you will also be supporting the continuation of this website as we get a small commission from each sale. These are products and procedures we use for our own Scamp that we selected and developed from our own research and experiences. However, we do not endorse any specific product and cannot guarantee that the products we use are exemplary and the procedures we use are complete, accurate, detail the correct recommended procedures, or apply to your model small travel trailer. It’s always best to double check with your manufacturer or operation manuals to ensure you are doing everything correctly.
