BTDT and my set-up works just fine.  Get a female 90 degree pipe coupler that will thread on the Westy tank outlet, it may not be the perfect thread match BUT with some pipe thread sealant tape it works and seals up just fine.  Then from the 90 degree go to a ball shut off valve and voila you have a valve there that's up out of the way of getting hit.  I installed this set up to have a water supply for my portable propane fired shower unit.  From the shut off valve I ran a short hose to an on demand Sure Flow pump to supply the shower unit.  With quick connect couplers on the hose, I can have my tank drain, connect to the pump or connect the pump to any other water source.  The pump has a nine foot lift so the options are vast.

On 2011-06-20, at 12:00 AM, Automatic digest processor wrote:

> What pops to mind is that a permanent install would hang down and
> possible get hit by something and break the tank outlet or the tank
> itself.  How about something that would fit the inside of that
> drain?  Like a rubber stopper you would jam up in there, which would
> have a hose coming out of it and a shutoff on the end of that.  If
> that proves to not be secure enough, a bail or two that swings down
> to hold the stopper up into the outlet would be good.  You would have
> to do a quicko-change-o at the campsite but you could catch what you
> lost in your bucket to re-use it for washing up or whatever.

Cheers,    

Frank Condelli
Almonte, Ontario, Canada
'87 Westy & Lionel Trains (Collection for sale)
Frank Condelli & Associates - Vanagon/Vanagon Westfalia Service in the Ottawa Valley
Vanagon Stainless Steel Exhaust Systems
BusFusion a VW Camper camping event, Almonte, ON, June 09 ~ 12, 2011