Modifying the Rotopax Water Carrier to install a Tap (Easy Mod)

Here’s a five minute mod for anyone wanting to add a tap to a Rotopax Water Carrier.

I searched high and low for a good quality water tap but there’s no options that ship to the UK. The USA (as always) has products to solve this problem easily but it seems the universe stops at their borders for most companies 😉 I’m sure there is better quality parts than what I’m using here so comment below if you know of any.

As I already had a Ridge Monkey 5 litre water carrier I thought some of its parts might fit on the Rotopax screw cap… I lucked out and was right.

Remove the yellow spout from the Rotopax and the tap from the Ridge Monkey. Your tap parts may vary if you’re not using the Ridge Monkey water carrier but I imagine many other carriers will follow a similar design. Check the photos to make sure.

Remove the tap handle section by twisting it back and forth to pull it out of the T joint (thingy).

Squeeze the ends of the tube and push it through the screw cap to remove it.

You want these two parts from the Ridge Monkey carrier. If your water carrier looks similar you might be in luck too.

Next, remove the rubber seal from the yellow spout on your Rotopax.

Attach it to the bottom of the Ridge Monkey T Joint.

Push the T joint through the Rotopax Screw cap. You’ll need to bend it a bit but it’s flexible enough to do it without chewing it up too much. I’ve done it a bunch of times which is why mine is a little beaten up.

Then twist it to thread it into place at the end of the screw cap. It’s a tight fit and should look like this.

Finally push the tap handle back through and screw the tap onto your Rotopax. Job done!

I’ve done basic tests at home and you can twist the spout in whatever direction you need and so far no leaking. This doesn’t mean that in real world use it won’t leak so please test yours throughly.

The tap works as well as any tap does on these sealed containers. The flow is a bit crappy due to no air vent at the top to help it dispense. It should do the job until I can work on a better water system with a pump.

The reason I wanted the Rotopax is to play around with mounting options of which I’m still undecided where this will go. Ideally external to help keep the water cool (most of the year) and free up more valuable space in the rear cargo area.

Anyhow, that’s it for this one. As always nothing groundbreaking but I hope it helps.

Cheers, Paul