Under Van Storage

Hello

Looking for somewhere to store a largish waste container in a Boxer based Symbol Plus during transit. SWMBO is not keen on a large smelly container being kept inside the van at all, so I've been wondering if it might be possible to sling one under the van. I notice there is what looks like a largish space available between the back of the waste tank and the spare wheel which could probably accommodate a wastemaster or wastehog. 

So two questions:

• Is there any reason why this space should not be used?
  
• Any suggestions on how to secure said waste container?
  

Thanks for any responses.

Des

No reason that space couldn't be used... How are the tanks fixed under there? Could you rig up something similar?

I keep the Wastemaster and Aquarool in the bathroom while travelling. It doesn't smell as it has airtight caps on it, and it's in a clean carry case

Given that it's a task that you'll have to do twice for every site visit, I would suggest that you simulate the task of removing and replacing & securing a waste hog while on your back under the van (on a grass pitch, in the rain?) and see if you like it.

It doesn't sound like a particularly appealing job to me, even if you are young and fit. If I had to choose between that or just driving the van to the waste disposal point every few days, I know which one I'd prefer...

If you google genie drawers you will find someone called JH caravans who seem to make drawers for under motorhomes to increase storage. They seem to have taken over from the old beenie boxes who were down here in Cornwall but the owner sadly passed away. Might help?

Hi Des

I'm with Roopert. People do things differently of course, but for me the advent of a waste (and water) storage tank was one of the huge benefits when we changed to a motorhome after years of caravanning. No more faffing with bulky and dedicated waste and water carriers. 

Just a thought . . . I see you have a brand new van. Have you given it a fair trial to see if you really need a waste master for your style of camping? 

The reason I ask is because our loft, and I guarantee those of many (if not most) of our members, is half full of gadgets and gizmos that we thought we couldn't live without!!

Need I say more?   

If you really do not want to move your van to empty waste water then a bucket is fine for the job. It has the added advantage that you can use it for so much else besides: outside coffee table, soaking laundry, pitch marker, bottle store etc etc. You even get a bit of exercise walking it to the service point.

Ours travels, rinsed out and totally smell free, in the shower. There are folding buckets but we have not tried them.

( Gromit is so right about “ must-have” gadgets. The shelves in our garage are better stocked than those in Go Outdoors.)

groundhog wrote:If you google genie drawers you will find someone called JH caravans who seem to make drawers for under motorhomes to increase storage. They seem to have taken over from the old beenie boxes who were down here in Cornwall but the owner sadly passed away. Might help?

I'm not sure you could fit something like that on a PVC as it doesn't have the skirts (with voids behind) that coachbuilt or a-class would have?

Quilter wrote: . . . a bucket is fine for the job. It has the added advantage that you can use it for so much else besides: outside coffee table, soaking laundry, pitch marker, bottle store etc etc. You even get a bit of exercise walking it to the service point.

Ours travels, rinsed out and totally smell free, in the shower. There are folding buckets but we have not tried them.

Agreed entirely.

We have a folding bucket which is good, and convenient for storage, but ideally it could be bigger.

It might be very useful to those with unusually low waste outlets as it can be left partially collapsed (and therefore much lower) but still perfectly usable. A true multi-tasker as you say! 

Buckets just don't work on panel vans. The waste pipe is a convoluted one that you have to unclip from behind the sill and lower down . Using a bucket would mean having the tap high in the air and you can't make water flow uphill. I use a very slim waste tank, so the tap is low enough to get a flow. I know Sally bought a fairly slim wheeled tank for the same reason.
Check this photo, the one I use us the black one with white caps, the other two are in my garage.

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Symbol Plus Fresh Tank.....69 L, Waste Tank 40 L

69 L fresh tank is tiny, but 40 ltrs in a waste tank is truly pathetic in a modern motorhome and reduces self sufficiency to virtually nil...
even on a campsite you'd be spending every day dumping waste water from a bucket (how primitive) or visiting the MHSP every other day.

if you were off gridding and two folk had showers and did the washing up a couple of times that might be 30 ltrs even if being economical with water....how many small buckets under a waste tap is that?...just two days and by then the fresh tank will need refilling....

why don't AS fit some decent sized tanks....this seems to be a UK 'thing'....many continental PVC have tanks of around 100 ltrs...Adria, Carthago, Pössl for example...

is it too much to ask to get some decent sized tanks on these 'vehicles of excellence'?

I think, if you crawl underneath, Bolero, you might see the space limitations. I think bigger tanks are fitted to AS coachbuilt models, and certainly ours were bigger on our previous van, but these are compact vehicles with no rear overhang which also have to accommodate the spare wheel and gas tank and regulator gear underneath.

Our tanks are a similar size and we live quite happily with them. It’s no problem whatsoever to 'do' the tanks every 2-3 days when leaving or arriving at a site. Those of us who have smaller tanks than yours simply adapt our style of motorhoming accordingly and I assume that’s what Des is doing. It wouldn’t be my choice but good luck to him.

bolero boy wrote:why don't AS fit some decent sized tanks....this seems to be a UK 'thing'....many continental PVC have tanks of around 100 ltrs...Adria, Carthago, Pössl for example...

For once I actually agree with you. I did think that the sizes might be limited by the fact that we are talking van conversions and not A class but I've just checked spec of a Globecar and they are fitted with 100lt fresh and 90lt waste tanks.

It's a difficult compromise though. A lot of people (like me) don't do a lot of washing up and use site showers most of the time, and they don't need 100 litre tanks, but the problem there is that if you fit them, even those who don't need that size still have to carry them around.

I've tried to guess how much a 100l tank weighs, along with the mountings and supports needed to carry a 100+ kilo load, and I would take a wild stab at 20 kilos per empty tank. That's 40 kilos off the van's payload, with nothing in them.

Maybe that's only 15-20 kilos more than the smaller tanks that they currently fit, but it all adds up...

Thanks a million for the helpful replies, plenty of food for thought.

First of all I should say that we are long term caravanners and have retained our caravan for non-touring trips - we typically make several of these a year.  For that type of trip, the caravan wins hands down due to the availability of a decent touring vehicle. For the caravan we use 40l and 25l aquarolls and a 40l wastehog which easily covers us for the day. I quite enjoy the filling and emptying rituals since it gives me a bit of exercise and fresh air - I don't have a pet to empty :-)

I retired recently and we are now spending more time on touring trips. The Symbol Plus is the perfect compromise for us between size and convenience, plus it has a nice lounge area with a huge sliding door you can gaze out of - weather permitting. The tank sizes are a little on the small size but this isn't generally a problem since we just refill/empty when we leave or return for the day. However on a few occasions we have found ourselves on sites with good public transport or within walking distance of attractions and that's when we find it more convenient to revert to our caravanning methods rather than pack everything up and drive to the MSP.

So far we've managed with collapsible buckets. We have 2x8l colour coded for fresh and waste and an additional 5l bucket and pump for filling the fresh tank. I start with 13l (5+8) and the van draws from the smaller bucket which I keep topped up with the larger one. Since I mostly use the on site facilities, we generally only need about 30-40l per day, so it's not so many trips. I also use the return trip to carry a bucket of waste. All in all a quicker procedure than packing up and moving the van - plus I still get my exercise. I have noticed one enterprising motor home owner using about 200' of hose to fill his van - I didn't ask him what he did with his waste water!

But back to the under van storage. As people have commented, I can't see any reason in principle why the space can't be utilised, the big problem is finding a safe and convenient method for securing the item. I like the sound of the Genie Drawers, but as has been pointed out, the basic design doesn't look suitable for a PVC due to the absence of a skirt. I've emailed J H Caravans to see if they have any suggestions and will report back. The other idea is using bungies, but that would involve a lot of crawling under the van which is far from ideal.

Thanks again for the feedback.

It does say on the website they make bespoke items so good luck with that!

Thinking outside the box how about starting with a caravan spare wheel carrier and a slight design amendment to carry whatever will fit
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David

Roopert wrote:It's a difficult compromise though. A lot of people (like me) don't do a lot of washing up and use site showers most of the time, and they don't need 100 litre tanks, but the problem there is that if you fit them, even those who don't need that size still have to carry them around.

I've tried to guess how much a 100l tank weighs, along with the mountings and supports needed to carry a 100+ kilo load, and I would take a wild stab at 20 kilos per empty tank. That's 40 kilos off the van's payload, with nothing in them.

Maybe that's only 15-20 kilos more than the smaller tanks that they currently fit, but it all adds up...

Roopert  perhaps your question should be "how more would a 100 l tank with all the fittings weigh compared to a 70 l one'....answer, not much more....they would probably be supported by the same fittings and the extra weight of a 30l larger tank isn't that much at all.

perhaps the other answer is to remove the tanks all together to save all that weight and then we can all have roller barrels and wastemasters like caravanners do....but then therse no sensible storage place for those either...

some PVC can supprt 100 ltr waste and fresh tanks, and two large continental sized gas bottles and a fixed bed and decent luggage space and.....all in 6m and run it at 3500kg...

some folk don't want to be on sites at all, let alone every other day to fill their tank, so as I mentioned, the self sufficiency in vans (not just AS) with tiny tanks is poor.

bolero boy wrote:
Roopert  perhaps your question should be "how more would a 100 l tank with all the fittings weigh compared to a 70 l one'....answer, not much more

Is that an answer? Or are you just guessing that a 100l fresh water tank and a 90l waste water tank weigh "not much more" than a 70l and a 40l tank?

As I said, it's a compromise. If they fit big tanks as standard then everyone has to carry them round, whether they need them or not - which is probably why A/S have made a judgement about what the majority of their customers will be happy with.

Roopert wrote:

bolero boy wrote:
Roopert  perhaps your question should be "how more would a 100 l tank with all the fittings weigh compared to a 70 l one'....answer, not much more

Is that an answer? Or are you just guessing that a 100l fresh water tank and a 90l waste water tank weigh "not much more" than a 70l and a 40l tank?

As I said, it's a compromise. If they fit big tanks as standard then everyone has to carry them round, whether they need them or not - which is probably why A/S have made a judgement about what the majority of their customers will be happy with.

my 'answer' was merely that a 30 ltr larger twnks wouldn't need more in the way of further fittings (straps, bolts, whatever....) to support it...and to that end, folk are already 'carrying around' the slightly lighter, smaller tanks whether they need them or not....
re, the op....why not remove the tanks and strap in a Wastemaster and barrel into the avalable slots....at least it would give those who wish to use these in lieu of tanks somewhere to carry them.....
no....not a good idea....
when they revamped the Select PVC range a couple of years ago, Swift actually made a budget version without tanks, akin to a large VW, to allow a cheaper van for folk who always camped on sites and used buckets and watering cans etc....it lasted 5 mins before being withdrawn...
having water tanks is one of the key differences between the typical VW 'camper' and a MH...
having large tanks that deliver decent self sufficiency is one of the key differences between a good MH and one with (IMO) a lack of flexibility....

Ah, right. So you were just guessing? That makes your "answer" actually just your "opinion" then.

Your opinion about what makes a "good" Motorhome differs from mine. Probably nothing more needs to be said.

DesG wrote:Hello

Looking for somewhere to store a largish waste container in a Boxer based Symbol Plus during transit

Coming at this from a different angle, is the roof an option?

An empty Wastemaster doesn't weigh much...

Couple of bungee straps to hold it in place?

Getting up there might be tricky though

Roopert wrote:Ah, right. So you were just guessing? That makes your "answer" actually just your "opinion" then.

Your opinion about what makes a "good" Motorhome differs from mine. Probably nothing more needs to be said.

whatever.....I think you supplied as little evidence as you say I did....I'm happy to be corrected with your vast knowledge of small waste tanks...
BTW, I know what a very good MH is, I own one:

Chris

Please answer one simple question.

What is your motivation for spending so much time on here trying to make members feel bad about owning an Autosleeper?

Just that simple - why do you do it??

Before I had my Fiamma 500 fitted to my Nuevo/Sigma, I used to strap my waste master to the rear ladders without any problems.
I have a Thule 900 back box attached to my towball ( Thule easy base rack) ,it holds all of my bulky items including our water container and waste hog.
Fitting a towbar/ball maybe a more expensive option ,however I now have the choice (if I want to in the future) to tow a trailer or tow a A framed car.
Boaby

burlingtonboaby wrote:Before I had my Fiamma 500 fitted to my Nuevo/Sigma, I used to strap my waste master to the rear ladders without any problems.
I have a Thule 900 back box attached to my towball ( Thule easy base rack) ,it holds all of my bulky items including our water container and waste hog.
Fitting a towbar/ball maybe a more expensive option ,however I now have the choice (if I want to in the future) to tow a trailer or tow a A framed car.
Boaby

Don't forget to apply for your C1E licence shortly though.