Everyone has different uses, I have no need of a van and have a separate family car for every day use. I bought mine to be a tent on wheels first... and nothing else - that’s its only role, which is why I went for one with hot water, toilet, shower, fridge, heater etc, it’s a self contained mini motorhome that goes everywhere. I rarely use sites unless my granddaughter is with me.
On Board Water Or Bottled Water
- Thread starter joe_j_barnes
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- water tank
My Westfalia has what looks like the same hot water setup as @Tony&Dawn and @Davenjo ’s Hillside. Works very well and provides as much hot as I need
Each to his or her own I guess. Had a six Europe week trip in our T6 last year and planning on heading off for 3 months soon. Mostly wild camping and aires. Only bought 10l of water once otherwise the 2x12l worked out fine. The portable containers mean they are easy to fill up anywhere where there is a portable water tap. We have a portaloo but no shower or hot water. Funny enough had to buy 5l of water last October on Mull as there is a shortage of portable water taps about the place.
The three vans I had converted in the past (big Iveco, 2 x Ducto's) all had under seat/chassis clean and dirty tanks. When touring with the family, it was useful to have these especially when camping in Disneyland car park. However, like many others have said, the majority of our stays were at nice sites so we didn't need them but was still handy. The issue was travelling with half-full tanks and the extra weight "just in case" we needed water? I preferred to empty - drive - fill up but the Mrs liked having some for washing hands! Could easily have managed with 25l jerry can type tanks.
Cleaning wise, when we were using it often we felt that was enough - using treated water through food grade tanks/pipes to keep it clean. After long periods of none-use I did use the treatments but didn't feel it did anything but had peace of mind and we weren't drinking it.
Again, as others have covered, we carried separate water for consumption so the tanked water was for washing/showers/washing up which was probably overkill. It was quite easy to carry the 5l bottles for the kettle/cook and smaller bottles for the kids etc..
Cleaning wise, when we were using it often we felt that was enough - using treated water through food grade tanks/pipes to keep it clean. After long periods of none-use I did use the treatments but didn't feel it did anything but had peace of mind and we weren't drinking it.
Again, as others have covered, we carried separate water for consumption so the tanked water was for washing/showers/washing up which was probably overkill. It was quite easy to carry the 5l bottles for the kettle/cook and smaller bottles for the kids etc..
Use our onboard plastic tank for everything, regularly sterilise the system with puri clean and always rinse the tank before refilling and never been an issue for us. Wouldn’t entertain a fixed underslung tank for drinking as it amazes me how quickly any sitting water goes stale and mould appears so the requirement to be able to see the state of the tank was a must for me.
As we are off to Mongolia (and back) our requirements are probably more extreme than most. We have designed a 80ltr tank that fits around the offside rear wheel, inside the furniture. One of the main reasons for this is that our van is a 4x4 so a lot of space is taken up by the transmission system and enlarged spare wheel carrier. As we don’t know where our water supply is coming from we have fitted a 10” replaceable in-line filter that contains Dacron/Carbon/Silver elements and a 20ltr waste tank fitted outside/underneath the drivers seat ( I believe its now compulsory to have waste tanks when camping on sites on the continent) I think some of the weight of the water will be balanced out on the near side by our long-range (140ltr) fuel tank. The water tank took 3 weeks to design and fit and although the filter holder is easily available (Amazon, etc) the three stage filter element was only available from one source (Ro-Man).
If you’re going to come on this forum and promote your product then take out a trade membership
We drink form our tank and clean it if not used for over a week or two with no issues. The military drink for large trailer sized tanks and have done for years.
We also carry a 20l clear jerry can that we drink from for the first couple of days after a clean if the tatse is bad and also to fill up the van if we cannot be bothered to move it on site.
We used to use bottled water however I will use this anlogy of milk (which is accurate for the town we live in) on why we no longer do -
As a family of four we use approx 16 pints if milk a week, so on average 4 pints each.
Our town has approx 25,000 residents, so 100,000 pints of milk a week.
Assume that's a 2 pint plastic supermarket bottle.
Would mean just one small town generates 50,000 plastic bottles of waste every week that either goes to landfill or has to be paid to be recycled.
I drink a minimum of 3 pints of water a day year round, more when it's hot or exercising, which I do a lot from the van. If every van used bottled water the waste burden and associated costs (direct and indirect would be massive).
We also carry a 20l clear jerry can that we drink from for the first couple of days after a clean if the tatse is bad and also to fill up the van if we cannot be bothered to move it on site.
We used to use bottled water however I will use this anlogy of milk (which is accurate for the town we live in) on why we no longer do -
As a family of four we use approx 16 pints if milk a week, so on average 4 pints each.
Our town has approx 25,000 residents, so 100,000 pints of milk a week.
Assume that's a 2 pint plastic supermarket bottle.
Would mean just one small town generates 50,000 plastic bottles of waste every week that either goes to landfill or has to be paid to be recycled.
I drink a minimum of 3 pints of water a day year round, more when it's hot or exercising, which I do a lot from the van. If every van used bottled water the waste burden and associated costs (direct and indirect would be massive).
About time we got back to using glass milk bottles again. When I am at home don't drink bottled water for the plastic issue.
The big issue with water is convenience… as a youngster I’ve drawn water from a well and water taps where a novelty..so I’m quite happy to use a refillable container to collect tap water at camp sites….but even off grid you can always find water in this country ( streams rivers ..even snow) being ex forces I’ve even had canned water…but it’s all down to convenience
I hope you are taking some kind of filtration/purification system if planning to take water from streams and rivers, and especially if the snow is not white
Nature Pure filtering is what I use, never had a problem using it filling up from streams etc. I have never ever bought a single bottle of water in the UK. Only time that I have was whilst in Egypt.
(Funny how there are so many replies since the spammer's post - yes, I reported it!)
(Funny how there are so many replies since the spammer's post - yes, I reported it!)
Mk1 kettle…don’t eat yellow snowI hope you are taking some kind of filtration/purification system if planning to take water from streams and rivers, and especially if the snow is not white
We get our milk delivered 3 days a week from a local farmer in glass bottles, along with eggs. Wife drives past our milk machines every day on the way to work.
MMM Puritabs
.Most campervan taps have a gauze filter at the tap outlet, any film or jelly growth will show in this. I’ve never found any.
If you want to clean the fixed tank half fill it with water and some steriliser ( i use milton fluid ) and leave for a few miles driving preferable over some rough roads so it’s sloshing about. Run some through the tap but drain the majority through the cap in the bottom of the tank so that it’s a rapid and complete drain.
If you want to clean the fixed tank half fill it with water and some steriliser ( i use milton fluid ) and leave for a few miles driving preferable over some rough roads so it’s sloshing about. Run some through the tap but drain the majority through the cap in the bottom of the tank so that it’s a rapid and complete drain.
Hey Byrn, how are you getting on with your 95 litre tank, have you got any more specs on that, is it underneath the van? I have only found the 70 litre ones so far
It's a custom made 2mm 316 Stainless steel tank that i designed to go over the rear wheel area.
We haven't run out while travelling, but 70 litres would be an good sized water supply.
As for collecting water from the roof, in my view it wouldn't be worth it, as any water you do collect would contaminate your water supply.
Roofs are dirty, road grime, bird waste droppings are just a few things you will find, on a residential roofing system connected to water tanks, best practice is to install a first flush device, to discard the initial water and the water is normally treated by filtration and UV treatment before use within a dwelling.
I’m looking at the underslung CAK skirt tank for fresh water on my build. How do you protect the vents on these, so contamination doesn’t come in the top? As far as I can tell the vents are just two little holes, but I would be very happy to hear differently.
