Driving With Full Water Tanks

[Bessy765]

Our Burstner fresh water drain tap has to settings, the first one is supposed to drain down to 20 litres left, the second completely drains it. Having measured it it actually leaves around 35 litres. We travel with a full fresh water tank, as we mostly wild camp late in the year and a lot of taps are turned off then. Also keep gray and black empty every time there is an official place to do so.

 

[gus-lopez]

From what I can gather with MH’s and self built campers is that not many care too much about the weight/ payload.
If an overweight motorhome came careering into me and maimed me or my passengers, I’d be pursuing them through the courts until they’re in prison!

I think you will find that most on here care about weight.Unfortunately we are in about 1% of the owners. The other 99% are what you need to worry about as they definitely have no interest or it would never occur to them ?

Public toilets are in short supply abroad.

News to me? Where in spain are you as walk in any bar & you can legally use the toilets unless they have an exemption inthere trading licence then it must be clearly stated on the premises that they are " for customers use only"

Carry 20lts in bottle for tea etc etc etc. Empty water tank and gray waste every time. Why carry 70/80/120lts of water and 50/60/70 of gray waste thats like carring another person or two in the back. Waste of fuel.

If you do not know where the next water is coming from.why would you not?

And … they were not allowed to dump water on the side of the autoroute either.

Does it not rain in Switzerland? I wouldn't even ask if I thought I was even anywhere near likely overweight.I'd just dump the water tank, grey waste & empty the6x5litre drinking water containers.

Are you assuming they would allow you to dump water before they weighed you or am I reading this incorrectly?....you would be weighed in the condition of the vehicle when you were stopped. They don’t allow you to dump water then weigh you. If you were overweight they would allow you to dump water then reweigh you to see if you were under permitted weight so you could continue your journey but the offence of overweight would be complete and you would be charged accordingly...if the figures were over!

You don't ask ,you just ignore them & dump it. yes you've been weighed over weight but who is interested?

You must therefore work, or have worked in the recent past in a related job to actually know that.

So, if a motorhome was pulled and weighed, and the overload was marginal, you are saying they would immediately issue a fine, or whatever notice, then let you go if you emptied your tanks so to be under the limit. No flexibility?

In the Uk up to 10% = no fine

you wouldn’t be allowed to unload vehicle first ie dump water from tanks.

as above you don't even ask.

You take however much water you think you’re going to need en route and on arrival taking into account whether you’ll be arriving late

That's only assuming that you actually "arrive" anywhere? I don't & why I run full of water & fill/dump at any opportunity.

On your other point, I stand to be corrected but I have never heard of French Police stopping camping cars to check the weight. I am sure it happens but must be a very rare experience.

Neither have I. Having said that I had a half-wit leap out at me 50m in front to direct me on to a weigh station on way home ,december 2019, north of Bordeaux- To say I wasn't happy would be an understatement & made it plain.Weigh man then berated them all for pulling in a camping car.

The manual says not to drive with full tanks because of stability issues.

They lied.

I think this is spot on and, in the event of an accident, an insurer could argue that you had an unsecure load (knowing how they like to wriggle out of paying out). Even if there were no personal injuries in an accident, having your insurance voided due to an unsecure load would mean paying for all the MoHo damage yourself. Not something I'd want to do.

In the event of an accident the wreckage would be in 17 million pieces & they'd be doing well to work out what was 'insecure'?

 

[iandsm]

I can carry all I need, so don't need another MoHo. The manual says not to drive with full tanks because of stability issues.

Yes well if that what your manual says you must be guided by that. By the way I wasn't suggesting YOU need another motorhome, I was suggesting that if people cannot load what they want to take with them without going overweight that they might need something capable of carrying it.

 

[Conrad J]

Presumably many people worry about the weight of the water because of fuel consumption. The major factor is your vehicles aerodynamics, or in the case of a motor caravan, lack of. That's why fuel consumption goes up twice as fast as your speed increase. I can get 35mpg at 50 mph, 33 at 60 but at 70mph down to 25. Once you're moving, except uphill, your weight makes little difference.

 

[pandas]

Presumably many people worry about the weight of the water because of fuel consumption. The major factor is your vehicles aerodynamics, or in the case of a motor caravan, lack of. That's why fuel consumption goes up twice as fast as your speed increase. I can get 35mpg at 50 mph, 33 at 60 but at 70mph down to 25. Once you're moving, except uphill, your weight makes little difference.

No that’s not the issue at all

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[Nirvanauk]

Presumably many people worry about the weight of the water because of fuel consumption. The major factor is your vehicles aerodynamics, or in the case of a motor caravan, lack of. That's why fuel consumption goes up twice as fast as your speed increase. I can get 35mpg at 50 mph, 33 at 60 but at 70mph down to 25. Once you're moving, except uphill, your weight makes little difference.

I don’t think the weight of the water factors into the equation too much when it comes down to mpg

 

[Skez]

Remember, extra weight equals poorer fuel economy and extra tyre wear albeit minimal

Life is way too short to worry about that minimal difference. Give me a full fresh tank and empty grey and black every day please.

 

[Captain Lloyd]

We always travel full, never know when we can refill, especially in France in winter, a full tank of 100lts is only 2% of our overall weight, so really makes negligible difference overall.

That’s quite a small water tank for a 5000k motorhome.

 

[DT]

Water, more important than diesel and beer. Maybe not beer.

 

[Graham Page]

Full tank always (120 litres) and we top up every opportunity - The only time we run with less is when on the way home from the last stopover. We do have a 4600kg gvw motorhome with plenty to spare so its not an issue weight wise luckily for us. Plus, we use all of our on board facilities including showers every day, washing dogs occasionally, cooking and washing up on board every other day etc.

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[Gillym]

They could get fined

We're currently on our very first trip with our new-to-us MoHo, in France. We've been on the same site for 2 days and, so far, I've seen 4 different MoHos fill their water tanks full before leaving. Two of them also filled separate water containers. One of them also had 4 adults and two children on board, as well as 3 bikes and no end of chairs, tables, BBQ etc. This wasn't a massive MoHo, just a normal 3.5t one (unless they'd had it re-plated. Anyway, as well as wondering what the weight must be like on these rigs, I'm also wondering why people would do this? Or is it just me being over-cautious about the weight and

We're currently on our very first trip with our new-to-us MoHo, in France. We've been on the same site for 2 days and, so far, I've seen 4 different MoHos fill their water tanks full before leaving. Two of them also filled separate water containers. One of them also had 4 adults and two children on board, as well as 3 bikes and no end of chairs, tables, BBQ etc. This wasn't a massive MoHo, just a normal 3.5t one (unless they'd had it re-plated. Anyway, as well as wondering what the weight must be like on these rigs, I'm also wondering why people would do this? Or is it just me being over-cautious about the weight and stability?

They would get fined if pulled over with extra weight. Stupidity!