Fresh water tanks

Keeping it simple we just carry a couple of 25L jerry cans and fill those if needed, just pop the whale pump in and job done. We do have a huge payload and plenty of space available though. Can't give any advice about fitting extra tanks I am afraid, as Manuel in Fawlty Towers said "I know nothing"

Was that Manuel - I thought it was Sgt Schulz from Hogans Heroes that said that....

The Bargee wrote:Thanks for all the comments. All sound wisdom & advice. 

I had hoped to keep under 3500, but have given up on that so am up plating. Seems easy up to 3900, and yes, heavy minibus chassis. Fact is that amongst other things 70 litres of water just isn’t enough. We are used to 4 tonnes (4000l) of water on the boat. You can wash your hands properly! And yes, new 121 load rated GG AT3  tyres, which are brilliant.

I spoke to Autocraft and they don’t seem to make the Kingham tanks, but I am still researching and exploring options. I can buy the tank from AS but it is a lot of money. It is a bit cheaper to get my normal boat tank man to make one, but it would still be a premium price for a one-off compared to Glynes suggestion at about £95.00 (but that one won’t fit). Might be cheaper to pay a CL fee just to empty the cassette and fill the water, but I love self sufficiency!

Ok if under 70

rgermain wrote:
Ok if under 70

Yes, that is an issue since I soon won't be under 70, but no reason to suppose as yet that I can't keep my C1. 

More to the point two of my kids don't have C1 so won't be able to borrow the van without taking an expensive course.

Bargee - I have wondered about marinas and canal quays for water supplies. The one nearest to us I think has the tap padlocked - is that the normal practice or could we usually hope to find a water tap available? I know all the places on the Isle of Man with accessible taps, and sometimes the taps don't have a handle to turn, just the square bit sticking out of the top in which case you need to take a tap head with you.
For me, the difficulty of obtaining water in England is the biggest reason to go abroad - I hate having to pay let's say for argument £25 for a camp site when the only thing I need is water. I too am trying to increase the capacity of my Bourton water tank. I have fitted a 25 litre plastic Jerry can under one of the inside seats. I need to find out how to drop the factory cold water tank  . . . . . .

Waterways managed by the Canal & River Trust (formerly British Waterways) use a universal Yale key (sometimes known as a “Watermate key”) for all facilities available to boaters, viz. water, toilet cassette emptying and sometimes rubbish). Strictly speaking these facilities are only for boaters’ use but C&RT is a charity and would probably welcome a small donation if challenged. The locations can be found on the C&RT waterways mapping online and in canal guide books. The facilities are located for the convenience of boats but certainly it can be useful to be able to make pedestrian access the elsan facility. The key is publicly available to buy from boatyards and online, even on eBay. 

Many private marinas will often also be helpful if asked at quiet times. 

For clarity, I am not suggesting that these are a public facility, merely that the powers that be may not object to reasonable usage, particularly in the absence of other facilities for motor homes.

Ah Bargee, you have made my year, thank you a thousand times! I'll get one of those keys. The car park at Foxton Locks which is reasonably near me is a lovely place to go, a lovely flat car park with no barriers. A nice pub and shop, and 13 locks, all in a row. When I go I amuse myself helping to operate the lock gates. In secondary school I hated history O level, it was all king this queen that, year this year that, just a memory exercise which had nothing related to the modern day. Then they announced that CSEs were coming as an option and we could swap from O levels to CSEs. I then did CSE history which was all about the history of transport. I learned all about canals, roads and railways so all these are real and relevant to today and dear to my heart. Needless to say I got a distinction.
As a sort-of assosciated aside I believe that it is standard practice in Holland for motorhomes to be allowed to park overnight at marinas.
 I imagine the canal trust would rather we dumped our cassettes in their facility rather than the canal or river. I never have done that and never will, I will even pay £25 to a camp site rather than do that, but it's nice to know that a marina minght allow it.

gassygassy wrote:Ah Bargee, you have made my year, thank you a thousand times! I'll get one of those keys. The car park at Foxton Locks which is reasonably near me is a lovely place to go, a lovely flat car park with no barriers. A nice pub and shop, and 13 locks, all in a row. When I go I amuse myself helping to operate the lock gates. In secondary school I hated history O level, it was all king this queen that, year this year that, just a memory exercise which had nothing related to the modern day. Then they announced that CSEs were coming as an option and we could swap from O levels to CSEs. I then did CSE history which was all about the history of transport. I learned all about canals, roads and railways so all these are real and relevant to today and dear to my heart. Needless to say I got a distinction.
As a sort-of assosciated aside I believe that it is standard practice in Holland for motorhomes to be allowed to park overnight at marinas.
 I imagine the canal trust would rather we dumped our cassettes in their facility rather than the canal or river. I never have done that and never will, I will even pay £25 to a camp site rather than do that, but it's nice to know that a marina minght allow it.

Expensive car park at Foxton, and only ten locks (two staircases of five each) but perhaps the old inclined plane remains score another ten!

I caught boats and waterways very young and only got through GCE’s on the basis that I could twist almost every essay topic to encompass boats and waterways, U.K. & European, whether the subject was history, geography, English, French or even physics with luck!

Quite a few U.K. marinas now also have CL/CS sites, and it’s always worth asking. When I owned boatyards we often welcomed respectable vans for a fiver in the back pocket if they asked nicely (it would be a tenner now though). However, most inland boats in the U.K. now have pump out toilets so marinas will not necessarily have a chemical toilet dump facility, but the C&RT Sanitary Stations fill that need. Note that C&RT also manage the Caledonian and Crinan Canals!

We use marina's in Holland whenever possible, all boats, visiting that is, have the same problems as us, need gas, need easy public transport, need toilets and showers, I could go on.

Hoorn is one of the very best and superbly located too, excellent bus and rail routes, combined location only 10 mins walk away

The Bargee wrote:Expensive car park at Foxton, and only ten locks (two staircases of five each) but perhaps the old inclined plane remains score another ten!

I seem to recall that Foxton car park charges are only some sort of daytime hours so if you arrive at 5pm you would pay for one hour, stay overnight and pay for another hour at 8am - ish.
I haven't been there since covid though . . . . . .