Travel with water in tanks.

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6894

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Elddis 194
Hi all,
Can anyone confirm as to wether it is safe to travel with tank full of half full? I'm wondering if the tank is constructed to withstand the forces and the weight of all that swishing water. Or should I be travelling empty and filling up at sites? It's an Elddis 194 btw.
I have looked at the Elddis website and there is a recommendation not to travel with water, but no reason given as to why. It just seems a bit daft if we're traveling for a few days without using designated sites.
Many thanks.
 
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Hedgewitch said:
Any recommendation for the water filter you fitted, please?
Click to expand...

I bought this filter and filter housing along with this tap and other bits and bobs to install them for just under £100 when I bought them a couple of years back, so they have gone up a bit but not by much.
The other odds and sods to complete the system are all available from the same site and John was more than happy to answer the question I had before I purchased.

https://www.directwaterfilters.co.u...ng-Ultra-Disruptor-PAC-Nano-Filter-Cartridge_

https://www.directwaterfilters.co.u...ntemporary-style-single-lever-filter-tap.html

Filters last for 12 months and replacements are under £38.45 and remove pretty well everything.

0.2 Micron Ultra Disruptor best water filter to remove hormones, pharmaceutical drugs, micro plastics , hormones

0.2 Micron nanoceram, Ultra Disruptor PAC + best water filter to remove hormones Replacement Filter Cartridge
www.directwaterfilters.co.uk www.directwaterfilters.co.uk
 
Upvote 0
Hedgewitch said:
Any recommendation for the water filter you fitted, please?
Click to expand...
I had a whale aquasource inline water filter fitted on the kitchen tap feed.

It works well and used them for years in caravans too.



IMG_4482.png
 
Upvote 0
poppycamper said:
Well that tells me only one thing...
Hymer fresh water tanks are:--
"Not Fit For Purpose"
Click to expand...
To be fair, they say in the instructions, and on the valve tap."
"Do not fill to more than 25% when travelling".

It would be fine to travel full on a French motorway.
But not on a UK residential area filled with potholes and speed bumps.

Frankly I'd suspect all plastic tanks are much the same unless they either have a lot of baffles or are of a honeycomb design.
(Or a sited on solid internal floors)

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Upvote 0
We always travel with a full water tank.
Fill up as soon as returned home from being away. If we think may be longer than 4 weeks before next trip, we also put in silver tablets. Keeps water fresh for 6 months.
Also double filter after pump so tank water us used for everything... including hot water bottles (y)
 
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Our epiphany happened early on in our families motorhoming passion, with us arriving at Roscoff, in a ’just made it manner’ Lyn me and three little boys, AshVanBitz Simon Select & James Andrew James Motorhomes (NickVanBitz wasn’t born then) the loo was full, the gas was on fumes, the grey water full, the fresh water empty, as was the fridge and the cupboards !

But it didn’t matter, there at four o’clock check in, let the boys run around and look at the docks (you could then as the suicide bombers hadn’t realised that life was better in the afterlife with their allocated virgins in those days) buy them ice cream, board the ferry which departs at five o’clock, dinner on the ferry, arrive at Plymouth, get three sleepy little boys in bed and drive the hour or so home to Brixham!

Loving this Motorhome lifestyle with kids!

Approaching the terminal lanes there certainly was a lot of cars, and big electronic signs, in French scrolling away

”Attention, the carpet is brown in Spring, but can be demanded” I read out to Lyn who’d gone back to sort out a squabble (Ashley had stuck a small toy plane up Simons nose from memory)

”What?” Asked Lyn, so I pointed at the sign and read it again with my best schoolboy French

”Attention, the cow is brown, and your mother smelt of elderflowers“ “Oh it’s changed I said

”Idiot” Lyn said, and as she gave a shit at school read out “The ferry has technical difficulties and this evenings sailing is cancelled till tomorrow morning” (which is close I’m sure, to what I’d translated, however

A Sunday evening in Northern France is bad enough now, but thirty years ago, a ghost town, and had everything that should be full, full, and everything that should be empty, empty it wouldn’t have mattered one jot, just a lovely evening parked alongside a beach somewhere, instead of a memory of a different, more difficult night filled with ‘I wished we’d done xyx’
 
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Upvote 0
A good read (above)!

Back to a more prosaic response:
1. My 90 litre tank is under the half dinette and so well forward of the rear axle. I aim to travel with it circa 1/3rd full.
2. Having only recently acquired my Hobby T500 I am wary of using that tank water for drinking. Although the van arrived with a full and decent service history I prefer not to take risks with what I drink erring on the side of caution with this van which has just had its 17th birthday! Anybody any thoughts on that subject?

Chris
 
Upvote 0
PlacidoD said:
A good read (above)!

Back to a more prosaic response:
1. My 90 litre tank is under the half dinette and so well forward of the rear axle. I aim to travel with it circa 1/3rd full.
2. Having only recently acquired my Hobby T500 I am wary of using that tank water for drinking. Although the van arrived with a full and decent service history I prefer not to take risks with what I drink erring on the side of caution with this van which has just had its 17th birthday! Anybody any thoughts on that subject?

Chris
Click to expand...
Mine is also an older van, 2006, and we use the tank water for everything including coffee/tea.
All I did was treated the system with a water system purifier when we first got it, Puraclean iirc, and flush it through with the same stuff each winter.
Water tastes fine and hasn't caused us any problems.
 
Upvote 0
eddie said:
Our epiphany happened early on in our families motorhoming passion, with us arriving at Roscoff, in a ’just made it manner’ Lyn me and three little boys, AshVanBitz Simon Select & James Andrew James Motorhomes (NickVanBitz wasn’t born then) the loo was full, the gas was on fumes, the grey water full, the fresh water empty, as was the fridge and the cupboards !

But it didn’t matter, there at four o’clock check in, let the boys run around and look at the docks (you could then as the suicide bombers hadn’t realised that life was better in the afterlife with their allocated virgins in those days) buy them ice cream, board the ferry which departs at five o’clock, dinner on the ferry, arrive at Plymouth, get three sleepy little boys in bed and drive the hour or so home to Brixham!

Loving this Motorhome lifestyle with kids!

Approaching the terminal lanes there certainly was a lot of cars, and big electronic signs, in French scrolling away

”Attention, the carpet is brown in Spring, but can be demanded” I read out to Lyn who’d gone back to sort out a squabble (Ashley had stuck a small toy plane up Simons nose from memory)

”What?” Asked Lyn, so I pointed at the sign and read it again with my best schoolboy French

”Attention, the cow is brown, and your mother smelt of elderflowers“ “Oh it’s changed I said

”Idiot” Lyn said, and as she gave a shit at school read out “The ferry has technical difficulties and this evenings sailing is cancelled till tomorrow morning” (which is close I’m sure, to what I’d translated, however

A Sunday evening in Northern France is bad enough now, but thirty years ago, a ghost town, and had everything that should be full, full, and everything that should be empty, empty it wouldn’t have mattered one jot, just a lovely evening parked alongside a beach somewhere, instead of a memory of a different, more difficult night filled with ‘I wished we’d done xyx’
Click to expand...

Perfect example of what its all about, nice read :thanks3:

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Upvote 0
Brains said:
The Hymer blurb says no more than 25% full when travelling.

I found out the hard way they are correct.
Travelling with a full tank means the bottom of the tank flexes as you go over bumps.
This was enough to disengage the rod between the drain tap and the valve.
Which meant I was unable to drain the tank until I had figured out what was wrong and then using all my contortionist skills managed to fix it.
Click to expand...
I've had 3 Hymers always traveled with a full tank never had a problem in 16 years and over 100,000 miles.
 
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Brains said:
To be fair, they say in the instructions, and on the valve tap."
"Do not fill to more than 25% when travelling".
Click to expand...
Yes indeed... and to to my suspicious way of thinking, that is them admitting that they know they have an issue with their tanks..
 
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I've owned a lot of motorhomes, including Hymers, always travelled full. But build quality changes and, who knows, these new vans might use cissy tanks and fittings. If corners can be cut, you know almost every maker will cut them.

But they have to build in redundancy because if they don't, over time even 20L will break free. And It's all right to fill up on a site and then go and get pitched half a mile away over a bumpy rally field.

If I bought a new van today, I would want to see the tank and fittings for myself, but I'm still sceptical and think it's all about payload rather than tank safety and drive stability. :RollEyes:

One RV I owned I had a large square tank. I think it used to hold 225 litres. Except I put a tap on the overflow pipe, so if we were headed somewhere with no chance of water, I would turn the overflow tap off and fill. I swear that the square tank was almost completely round by the time we set off with around 300+ litres
 
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If your really concerned about travelling with water tanks full, buy some of the new dehydrated water tablets advertised eight or nine weeks ago

25, 50 & 100l size saves payload and worry the tank securing self tappers may pull out

We use the “travel” dehydrated water tablets to make a decent cuppa in the mornings
 
Upvote 1
Brains said:
It would be fine to travel full on a French motorway.
But not on a UK residential area filled with potholes and speed bumps.

Frankly I'd suspect all plastic tanks are much the same unless they either have a lot of baffles or are of a honeycomb design.
(Or a sited on solid internal floors)
Click to expand...
My plastic water tank is pretty substantial, and is held onto the underside of the van by steel straps and coach bolts. (It used to be held on with flimsy aluminium straps but these snapped when I ran over some debris in the road. Hence the removal of the tank and my inspection of it's substance!) I travel with it full on a regular basis. That said, my van is a littlie so my tank is probably smaller than many of you with your biguns!

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MrTVR said:
We have been motor homing for decades and always travel with a full tank if we can. It’s always nice to arrive ready to go with minimum setup. Just plug in the electric and pour a G&T.
Click to expand...
I find I can equally well "Just plug in the electric and pour a G&T" with a 25% full tank. :unsure:

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Upvote 0
Someone mentioned earlier on about the fittings that hold the tank which brought back bad memories.
We have 2013 Swift Bolero and found out to our cost that they fittings are not the best on ours.
We hit a large pot hole on a side road in Scotland on our way to Skye. It was one hell of a thump so I clambered underneath to check for damage and assumed I had whacked the spare tyre cage and all seemed ok. We then carried on with our journey for another 100 miles plus and time was getting on so I didn't hold the horses around some of the challenging twisty cliff top roads on our way to Staffin. We then spent a great night on the beach. However on leaving the beach on the single track road at around 10 mph if that, I felt a bump. Low and behold our fresh water tank had fallen off and was wedged under the van on the floor and yes it was full. It's a long story but we blocked the road to the beach for over 3 hours which obviously the fishermen and tourists were not very happy. When I eventually got the frame off that holds the tank it is just bent steel bars with a nuts and bolts sandwiching the frame underneath.
As an engineer I thought was a really flimsy set up to be honest.
I only carry a full tank these days if going local after that experience.
Can you imagine if the tank had fallen off when I was whizzing around those cliff top bends etc and the frame had dug into the tarmac like it eventually did. Frightening really
 
Upvote 1
Don Campbell said:
How many times did I say we'll fill up when we get there and then get to the site, get levelled off and set up and then utter the magic phrase - "Sh*t (or worse), we forgot to fill up". Always travel full unless there is a really good reason not to.
Click to expand...
And how many times have you got there and there is a queue to fill and empty their motorhomes..??
 
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just a Transit Custom day van for me. Though I live in it for 3-4 days at a time when at work.

The Barratt custom tank under the driver side is 60L fresh and 20L waste. The water is used for washing up and teeth cleaning mostly. Cold only. I use my microwave for brewing up. Makes it far quicker. I left home with it full, but now top up from Tesco. Good value actually for the Highland Spring 10L boxes.

One a week is enough. The waste has a leak I need to sort out at some point…🙄

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Water or no water? Depends what we are doing and where we are camping. Leaving home and heading for a campsite, I’m happy to go empty. We are on a water meter. Fill up there it’s at their cost. If we are going non campsite, depends how many nights. Half a tank will do us 2 nights. If it’s more nights then need more water. Only ever need enough for 3 as the toilet won’t last any longer. As for drinking tanked water each to their own. We are happy to drink it if it’s been boiled.
 
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Wildax Altairs now have a sticker on display unit saying fresh tank 100ltr to be empty when travelling . Ours didn’t but I’m now wary of putting more than 20 ltrs in for start up .
 
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We don’t use campsites so always leave home with a full freshwater tank.

We don’t however use that water for drinking, we prefer our separate under sink refillable 15L container to any filtered water system. It’s pumped to a separate tap, ala Greg Virgoe.
The best tea needs the best water 🤭

Easy to remove the 15L container and top up at any drinking tap, or using 5L bottled water if necessary.

IMG_5171.jpeg
IMG_5172.jpeg

IMG_5167.png

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Last edited:
Upvote 1
6894 said:
Hi all,
Can anyone confirm as to wether it is safe to travel with tank full of half full? I'm wondering if the tank is constructed to withstand the forces and the weight of all that swishing water. Or should I be travelling empty and filling up at sites? It's an Elddis 194 btw.
I have looked at the Elddis website and there is a recommendation not to travel with water, but no reason given as to why. It just seems a bit daft if we're traveling for a few days without using designated sites.
Many thanks.
[/QUOT
6894 said:
Hi all,
Can anyone confirm as to wether it is safe to travel with tank full of half full? I'm wondering if the tank is constructed to withstand the forces and the weight of all that swishing water. Or should I be travelling empty and filling up at sites? It's an Elddis 194 btw.
I have looked at the Elddis website and there is a recommendation not to travel with water, but no reason given as to why. It just seems a bit daft if we're traveling for a few days without using designated sites.
Many thanks.
Click to expand...
I had someone run up to me in a layby near the tank museum asking for some water to boil a kettle. I asked why and she said because they drain the tank down when they come off site... Haven't worked that out yet 🙂🤔
Click to expand...
 
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