Water Tanks
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Water Tanks
Windsurf1- Member
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Re: Water Tanks
When arriving on site, I don't wish to be fetching water , I stopped caravanning years ago.
Last edited by Paulmold on Thu Jul 28, 2022 8:52 am; edited 1 time in total
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Paulmold- Donator
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Re: Water Tanks
I like convenience of arriving on site and not having to visit service point, and having water in case our plans change, otherwise I would have bought a caravan.
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Bilbobaggins- Donator
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Re: Water Tanks
Dbvwt- Member
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Re: Water Tanks
Windsurf1- Member
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Re: Water Tanks
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Bilbobaggins- Donator
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Re: Water Tanks
Peter Brown- Donator
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Re: Water Tanks
In that way we are covered through to Plan Z!!
If you want to calculate the extra fuel used be sure to use a calculator with lots of zeros in the % scale!!!
IanH- Donator
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Re: Water Tanks
VDYBDUB- Member
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Re: Water Tanks
I was educated in imperial measurements, a gallon of water weighs 10 lbs.VDYBDUB wrote:I would have thought that EVERYONE would know that 1ltre of water weighs 1kg, critical sometimes to know the basics !
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Paulmold- Donator
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Re: Water Tanks
Very roughly, the forum seems to be divided into two. I'm in the camp that travels the initial leg of a longish journey with fresh water tank empty, and 5l of fresh water in a water carrier inside the van. On a long trip - for example from SE England to Scotland - this can mean ~60 kilos less load for several hundred miles.
Once at the first campsite I then half-fill the tank and continue the holiday with roughly half-full tank. If I know I'm heading off-grid for more than one night, I fill the tank completely at the last on-grid site.
In fairness to the other point of view, I suspect that the actual cost savings in fuel are probably pennies, or tens of pennies, over the course of a 2-week holiday!
It's also worth saying that my van does not have a shower, which means very moderate water usage.
Roopert- Member
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Re: Water Tanks
VDYBDUB- Member
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Re: Water Tanks
On a van weighing, say, 3500kg worrying about any extra fuel used by carrying 60kg of water seems pointless.
Tinwheeler- Donator
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Re: Water Tanks
A serious point though, some (mainly Continental) motorhomes have such low user payloads that the manufacturers advise travelling with 25% water on board. Hymer and other have been guilty of this. Pretty disgraceful to have a 100 litre tank but only be able to travel with 25 litres on board.
BornAgain- Member
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Hot Water
Last edited by Paul Bullas on Thu Jul 28, 2022 5:50 pm; edited 1 time in total
Paul Bullas- Member
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Re: Water Tanks
Sorry to continue the Mick take, but if it didn't weigh 1kg/ltr your windsurfer would sink!!!!Windsurf1 wrote:60 Litres of water weighing 60 kg's? Don't think so?
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Re: Water Tanks
Slow-Lane- Donator
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Re: Water Tanks
Needless to say, I always travel with completely empty grey and black water tanks.
Last edited by Caraman on Thu Jul 28, 2022 8:01 pm; edited 1 time in total
Caraman- Member
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Re: Water Tanks
There is no straight answer, if heading to a club site I probably wouldn't bother to take a tank of water with me, heading off in to the boonies then its a tank of water plus two jerry cans of 25L each. Might cost a few cents extra to carry it but if you are stuck in the a*se end of nowhere without water that is a money well spent.
Our van weighs 3880kgs laden and will out drag many city cars so the difference the extra water makes to performance and cost is negligible, if I wanted to save money on fuel I would just back off a few clicks. On a small van of course it may be a different story.
groundhog- Donator
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Re: Water Tanks
Your van will have vent holes in the top four corners of the tank. It would have had nylon inserts in each hole that were pushed up by water surges and sealed the hole but they will have gone and the water surges out when you brake. When I had a van with a tank of that type, I had those four holes sealed and a new vent taken up to the filler. The work was done by the as service centre st Willersey probably in 2005 , and that solved the problem.Slow-Lane wrote:I think our van loses water as we travel. I assume it sloshes about and comes out of the vent holes on top of the tank. We seem to have less water at the end of a journey than we did at the start. Is this a problem others have encountered, or is it just us? Our van is a 2006 Pollensa on a Transit base vehicle - if that is any help.
Peter Brown- Donator
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Re: Water Tanks
Many thanks for the information. I'll plan making a similar change to ours. We don't normally travel with much in the tank, but on occasions when one does want to arrive somewhere with a tank of water it's annoying to find quite a bit of it's gone on arrival.Peter Brown wrote:Your van will have vent holes in the top four corners of the tank. It would have had nylon inserts in each hole that were pushed up by water surges and sealed the hole but they will have gone and the water surges out when you brake. When I had a van with a tank of that type, I had those four holes sealed and a new vent taken up to the filler. The work was done by the as service centre st Willersey probably in 2005 , and that solved the problem.Slow-Lane wrote:I think our van loses water as we travel. I assume it sloshes about and comes out of the vent holes on top of the tank. We seem to have less water at the end of a journey than we did at the start. Is this a problem others have encountered, or is it just us? Our van is a 2006 Pollensa on a Transit base vehicle - if that is any help.
Slow-Lane- Donator
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Re: Water Tanks
groundhog wrote:I always thought carrying half a tank of water was bad form as it sloshes about and causes more stresses.
That's true - I had forgotten about that aspect.
You get two unwanted effects - one being the extra stress on both tank and mountings under heavy braking, and the other being the "weight transfer" effect on cornering, where the water mass hits the side or end of the tank a few fractions of a second after you turn into a corner. With half a tank being 30 kilos (typically) it won't be a big effect, but it's still something that most drivers would probably not anticipate.
Though I suppose you could argue that if a tank is not safe to cope with the stresses of a 30kg load moving about, it probably wouldn't be safe carrying a static 60kg load either!
As others have already said, there's no clear right or wrong - just pros and cons on each side...
Roopert- Member
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Re: Water Tanks
i agree with Roopert and there is a recent documented case on this Forum of a member whose water tank dropped off when they were touring! I also think it depends on the type of van. A PVCs' handling is much better than coachbuilts which are rear heavy and front light. Carrying large volumes of water in a coachbuilt exacerbates this. Most of us have FWD so the more we can lighten the rear axle and shift weight to the front the better.Roopert wrote:groundhog wrote:I always thought carrying half a tank of water was bad form as it sloshes about and causes more stresses.
That's true - I had forgotten about that aspect.
You get two unwanted effects - one being the extra stress on both tank and mountings under heavy braking, and the other being the "weight transfer" effect on cornering, where the water mass hits the side or end of the tank a few fractions of a second after you turn into a corner. With half a tank being 30 kilos (typically) it won't be a big effect, but it's still something that most drivers would probably not anticipate.
Though I suppose you could argue that if a tank is not safe to cope with the stresses of a 30kg load moving about, it probably wouldn't be safe carrying a static 60kg load either!
As others have already said, there's no clear right or wrong - just pros and cons on each side...
Caraman- Member
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Re: Water Tanks
Peter Brown- Donator
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Re: Water Tanks
I thought you might bitePeter Brown wrote:The failure point on each of the tank brackets was the corner that, over the years, several technicians bent to get access to the top of the tank without completely dropping it - nobody will be doing that again and I don't plan to lose another tank, I do still travel with it full.
Caraman- Member
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