Cotswold queries

Good afternoon,
I am new to this forum and am hopefully in the process of buying a 2012 Cotswold and I am in need of help and advice already.
Could I be cheeky and ask for some advice.
I can't find an external water tank filling point or is it behind a small oblong access flap which up to now I have not found a key for (nether has the dealer)
If this is the filler can I use the system I have in my previous motorhome (ie an roller tank and an submersible pump to pump in) or is it only  a caravan style connection.
Also there is a second flap above the the thetford toilet cassette door. Is this likely to be a filler for a separate flush tank, but looking in seems to be pipe or wire toward the back. ( My last motorhome flushed water from the main water tank)
I may be buying tomorrow or Tuesday so any advice or other comments will be more than welcome. Anything I need to check out or build quality etc.
All comments and help gratefully received.


Regards and thanks in anticipation
Dave

Hello and from Leicestershire, Sorry cannot help with your questions re van am sure someone will soon, how exciting for you, enjoy.

Sorry can't help with the Cotswold, it wasn't one of AS better sellers

Oh Well, will wait a and see if there are any other replies. I guess the questions I have asked don't only relate to the Cotswold model. Perhaps I should have not specified in the thread title 'Cotswold'
Anyway thanks very much to you both for your comments, grateful
regards, Dave

We have got an 2011 Cotswold, the fresh water filler on ours is square, we just lift the flap and insert the filler hose, it is located on the passenger side, the flap nearest the habitation door. I hope this helps.

Regards
Pete & Pauline

Hi there and a big welcome to the forum. I would think the flap above the thetford would be a flush filler if there is not a filler inside the toilet cassette access door?
The pipe and wire is probably the flush pump?

Hi and welcome to the forum from Bridlington 
Boaby

Thanks for all the above help and advice, not to mention the kind words of welcome.
I think I have now sorted the toilet filler which is as you have explained above the cassette door. I have not had a separate water supply to the toilet before. 
With help I have managed to establish that the main tank water inlet is a 'whale' configuration and a dedicated hose with submersible pump will be needed. It is a square block type connector and I have now seen them on line on the whale web site. It does look like a small filler pipe so I reckon is going to take an age to fill the tank.
Once again thanks to all for help and advice. 
Now I have to decide tomorrow whether to go ahead and buy it. (Don't have much knowledge of the Auto Sleepers marque and it's a lot of money to gamble.)
Regards, Dave

With regards the water filler; I have one on mine and it is not a problem at all and should be with the van when you buy it. You would also get a hose and connector to go on the same inlet point and again no issues for me.

Auto sleeper wise; just look at how they hold their value compared to other marques which says it all I think. Well made, superb quality, top notch factory support and long lived. Rock and roll 

Plus of course this great forum 

Jaytee wrote:With regards the water filler; I have one on mine and it is not a problem at all and should be with the van when you buy it. You would also get a hose and connector to go on the same inlet point and again no issues for me.

Auto sleeper wise; just look at how they hold their value compared to other marques which says it all I think. Well made, superb quality, top notch factory support and long lived. Rock and roll 

Plus of course this great forum 

Thats great, thanks for taking the time to reply. Tomorrow I will be looking for the correct water filler connection, and try it if I can. I would like to see how long it takes to pump in 40 ltrs from my aquaroll which is what I have used in the past.
Regards, Dave

Yes, I use the aquaroll when on some sites and it only takes a few minutes. I don't think you will be dissapointed.
Good luck and let us know how you get on 

Confirmed that you should have 2 hoses that come with that water filler.  One is a flat hose of about 10m with the Whale inlet on one end and a normal Hozelock type fitting on the other.  The second looks like thesame connector but has a double blue plastic pipe with a submersible pump on the end. You wil see that the Whale connector end has some contacts that mate with contacts behind the flap in order to power the submersible pump (which has ot be switched on at the Sargent control panel - see manual.
You should also have a small blue-green widget with some o-rings that can be plugged into the whale socket to disable the auto-off valve so that you can use the flat hose as a filler for the flush tank.
The Whale system is good but does take much longer to fill than a regular hose.  If it is VERY slow then the inlet filter may be blocked.  Ther is another thread on that.

Sorry for not replying  but been away for a couple of days, didn't mean to ignore replies.
Anyway, I have done the deal  and will pick up motorhome about next Tusday.
Checked the water filler etc following all the advice above and now understand. 
Thanks to all on the forum but I bet I am back with other queries.
Thanks for the welcome and advice so far.
Dave

Great  reckon you will love it. Let us know how you get on and see you on the forum 

The filler should be behind the small flap using a Truma pistol type plug.

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Once again thanks to all, what a cracking helpful and friendly forum.
I would use the thanks button on each of your posts but it seems to be greyed out and not able to use so please accept my thanks.
Dave
PS My next job is to work out the Webasto deisel/electric heating and see how efficient it is on either source. Only ever had Truma gas/electric before so its new to me.

Hi chudders 
Can't help with the water filler I'm afraid, but I have the same small lockable door above the toilet access on my Nuevo. When I look in there I can see a couple of wires and it doesn't look as if you should pour liquid into it, but it is the filler for the toilet flush. I have just put some toilet flush fluid in with a watering can and it was fine. The lock on the Nuevo water cap uses the same key as the toilet door and the gas locker. Good luck

jeffg wrote:Hi chudders 
Can't help with the water filler I'm afraid, but I have the same small lockable door above the toilet access on my Nuevo. When I look in there I can see a couple of wires and it doesn't look as if you should pour liquid into it, but it is the filler for the toilet flush. I have just put some toilet flush fluid in with a watering can and it was fine. The lock on the Nuevo water cap uses the same key as the toilet door and the gas locker. Good luck

Hi,
Sounds just the same and yep looks like a couple of wires but I have now put water into the filler to check all works OK
Thanks for your comments
Dave

Well done Chudders, or is that Dave?!!

I think that you can only use things like the "thanks button" when you have clocked up some minimum number of posts to the forum.

Pete Taylor wrote:Well done Chudders, or is that Dave?!!

I think that you can only use things like the "thanks button" when you have clocked up some minimum number of posts to the forum.

Hi,
Yes, username I selected was Chudders but real name Dave.
Regards, Dave (AKA Chudders.)

Hi Dave
We have a Cotswold and we are really impressed with it, we have owned it for 2 years and had no problems at all, the Whale system is a little quirky but we really like it, we carry an extension hose as well and never have a problem.  Welcome to the forum and I really hope you enjoy the Cotswold.

Neca1231 wrote:Hi Dave
We have a Cotswold and we are really impressed with it, we have owned it for 2 years and had no problems at all, the Whale system is a little quirky but we really like it, we carry an extension hose as well and never have a problem.  Welcome to the forum and I really hope you enjoy the Cotswold.

Thanks for your reply, I agree the whale system is a bit unusual (to me anyway) It seems to work OK but perhaps slower than I am used to. I may get used to it but out of interest I e mailed Auto Sleepers and they confirm they will fit another conventional filler point to run in tandem with the whale and presumably alongside. They quote £190 inc. VAT to do it but I will wait and see how I get on first.
Once again my thanks to all above on this friendly forum.
Dave

Dave,
How are you getting on with your Cotswold now that you've had it a while?  We got ours a month ago and loving it so far.  We had a Whale on our previous van but that only had a 45L tank so it was a bit of a pain as we used to run out sooner.  We were also in the habit of emptying it after each trip to keep the weight down.  Now, with the Cotswolds much larger tank, we don't empty but just top it up each trip.  Saves time (but not fuel).

mdsells wrote:Dave,
How are you getting on with your Cotswold now that you've had it a while?  We got ours a month ago and loving it so far.  We had a Whale on our previous van but that only had a 45L tank so it was a bit of a pain as we used to run out sooner.  We were also in the habit of emptying it after each trip to keep the weight down.  Now, with the Cotswolds much larger tank, we don't empty but just top it up each trip.  Saves time (but not fuel).

I always leave home with a full tank of water, saves faffing about when I arrive on site, the extra fuel used is negligible in the scheme of things.
I also have the Whale system but with all the electric shut of gubbins removed.
I have a flat pipe reel for filling at home, doesn't take long to fill and I leave it running until the tank overflows to allow the chlorinated water to flush through and clean it.
During filling I pour a bit of Milton down the sinks and run a couple of litres of water to clean out the pipes then let the water slosh around the grey tank whilst driving to clean that.

I don't normally empty the tank between trips, (a full tank lasts 3-4 days) but if not using the MH for a couple of months I will drain down the system in the hot season which in the UK is about a week per year.

I also have a filler pump that is normally used with an Aquaroll but if I need to top up I just use the two handled garden bucket that we use for the washing up (after rinsing it out of course) to top up