Travel with water in tanks.

[6894]

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.

 

[Grasmere9]

Thats interesting about useing your tank water for tea. I have wondered if people do or how many dont

Always use our freshwater tank for tea... don't fancy using the grey

 

[eddie]

So the converters are saying you have to intend on staying on campsites if you buy their conversions because

1. The conversions are poorly thought out
2. Their workmanship is poor
3. Their mechanical engineering is poor
4. Their conversions are overloaded from the factory
5. They assume you’ll buy their products, despite the above reasons and bravely travel from home, to a campsite, close enough you don’t need the loo, or a cup of tea en route

Pathetic!

Please remember ALL motorhomes are converted chassis with bought in bit bolted on, and some bits manufactured in house. No one manufactures a motorhome in Europe (some say VW do, but is it a motorhome?)

 

[Dinosaur]

Have tank half full ,drinking water in separate container ,fill up when we get to destination.( you can only drink tank water if you clean tank and pipes regularily )

 

[TonyEmm]

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.

I always brim my tank before leaving. However, I don’t have an issue with payload! The only issue I’ve had was a perished “O” ring on one of the inspection/access caps which meant we were leaving a dribble of water behind us!

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[TonyEmm]

Have tank half full ,drinking water in separate container ,fill up when we get to destination.( you can only drink tank water if you clean tank and pipes regularily )

Having had yachts for 25+years I NEVER drink tank water! Bottled is cheap enough at Aldi/Lidl! For Info, I’ve also had https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Campylobacter which is not remotely funny.

 

[carolyn]

Some designs are terrible. When we were on our Turkey tour last year one of the couples had a big expensive A class , they’d had lots of problems from day 1. Their huge water tank unbeknown to them, had an inspection hatch halfway up the side but accesible from the bedroom , under the bed. We’d been driving over really rough roads and this had loosened. When we stopped gallons of water came flooding though the van. Whose stupid idea was that, certainly not a motorhomer.

 

[nicholsong]

Having had yachts for 25+years I NEVER drink tank water! Bottled is cheap enough at Aldi/Lidl! For Info, I’ve also had https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Campylobacter which is not remotely funny.

Other side of the story - I had a boat in Greece for 30 years and I DID DRINK WATER FROM THE TANK. My tank was S/Steel not fibreglass so maybe that helped.

 

[Mclouis700]

Just remember that a 100lts of water weighs 100kg. If you only have 500Kg payload, two people at 70kg each, plus a couple of gas cylinders doesn't leave much for anything else. However I rarely travel with no water, and if I expect water to be difficult at the far end, will take on half a tank at home in the knowledge that we can do a couple of days. Certainly no problem with the tanks though. They are pretty robust.

That's the big bugbear with low payload in modern vans. I had a shock recently when I put my Van onto Local Farmers new digital weighbridge Full Fuel tank +2 full 11kg Cylinders + Full 100ltr of Water. + driver 85kg result 40kg overweight no room for wife!!! or goodies !!

 

[Shortap]

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.

For us it’s a decision based on payload & fuel consumption but we always fill up with 20 to 25 lts before setting off. The only exception is when we expect to be off- grid for 3 days or so. We’ve an Elddis 255 so our rig is very similar to yours. Hope that helps.

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[Mal+Moy]

A few thoughts about Fresh water tank usage
If you are motorhoming/ campervanning with babies or young children consider what change in water types may have on their metabolism if you live in soft water area's such as Wales and travel to a hard water area such as the South east the sudden change in water may be a cause for unexplained tummy troubles. I found this out when my children were younger through travelling back and for - Wales and Kent, once we started carrying home water everywhere tummy problems while camping ceased.
My previous life was an engineer at sea, so we had to look after our own water, what's to look after you may ask quite a lot. Any hoses, connectors filling tubes or containers are a potential contamination source. If any items are left with a drop of water in and are stored in say your van garage where the heating boiler is the garage ambient air temp can easily rise to 25° C, this is the magic temperature when any air-borne legionella bacteria become capable of becoming active. Water chlorination does suppress this but the residue amount in water supply systems from the major companies soon disappears when exposed to air i.e. filling a water container. I normally flush through such items 3 times a season with water and some bleach (just enough so you can just smell it in the water) then wash out the items 2 or 3 times with clean water until you cannot smell the bleach. Cheap bleach with do it's all Sodium Hypochlorite anyway, this was part of our planned maintenance on ships and records were checked by occasional port state inspectors. Tanks are another matter even those on vans have a large inspection cap for a reason, the tanks always have a slimy build up on surfaces this initially isn't a problem because the magic 25° C is not reached in a storage tank but a least once a year you should sterilize your whole system i.e. Tank, pump, pipes and taps, preferably at early spring before the camping season starts. The large opening allows you to get a hose in the tank and give all the surfaces a good spraying before sterilizing. To sterilize put 250ml of cheap bleach into the tank then fill your tank right to overflowing, whilst filling open all the taps, shower, boiler etc and leave to flow until you can smell the chlorine in the water coming out. Shut off all taps and once overflowing tank shut off and leave everything sealed up overnight. In the morning drain out entire system open anti frost valve as well. System should now be refilled and flushed at least 3 times after which you should not be able to smell chlorine ( if you can just smell or taste the chlorine flush again). The system is now ready for the season and you can safely drink the tank water. This is the system adopted on ships and I've done the same for the past 8 years in various vans and no-one has ever had a problem drinking on board water. You can of course ask for this to be done as part of the annual habitation checks but beware of the cost!!
Hope this helps anyone wanting to keep their on-board water safe

 

[poppycamper]

This is the system adopted on ships and I've done the same for the past 8 years in various vans and no-one has ever had a problem drinking on board water.

Not disputing what you say... however I will add that i never do any of the above and drink from tank and have never, in all the years of motorhoming and tugging have experience any ill effects.

 

[BikerGraham]

A few thoughts about Fresh water tank usage
If you are motorhoming/ campervanning with babies or young children consider what change in water types may have on their metabolism if you live in soft water area's such as Wales and travel to a hard water area such as the South east the sudden change in water may be a cause for unexplained tummy troubles. I found this out when my children were younger through travelling back and for - Wales and Kent, once we started carrying home water everywhere tummy problems while camping ceased.
My previous life was an engineer at sea, so we had to look after our own water, what's to look after you may ask quite a lot. Any hoses, connectors filling tubes or containers are a potential contamination source. If any items are left with a drop of water in and are stored in say your van garage where the heating boiler is the garage ambient air temp can easily rise to 25° C, this is the magic temperature when any air-borne legionella bacteria become capable of becoming active. Water chlorination does suppress this but the residue amount in water supply systems from the major companies soon disappears when exposed to air i.e. filling a water container. I normally flush through such items 3 times a season with water and some bleach (just enough so you can just smell it in the water) then wash out the items 2 or 3 times with clean water until you cannot smell the bleach. Cheap bleach with do it's all Sodium Hypochlorite anyway, this was part of our planned maintenance on ships and records were checked by occasional port state inspectors. Tanks are another matter even those on vans have a large inspection cap for a reason, the tanks always have a slimy build up on surfaces this initially isn't a problem because the magic 25° C is not reached in a storage tank but a least once a year you should sterilize your whole system i.e. Tank, pump, pipes and taps, preferably at early spring before the camping season starts. The large opening allows you to get a hose in the tank and give all the surfaces a good spraying before sterilizing. To sterilize put 250ml of cheap bleach into the tank then fill your tank right to overflowing, whilst filling open all the taps, shower, boiler etc and leave to flow until you can smell the chlorine in the water coming out. Shut off all taps and once overflowing tank shut off and leave everything sealed up overnight. In the morning drain out entire system open anti frost valve as well. System should now be refilled and flushed at least 3 times after which you should not be able to smell chlorine ( if you can just smell or taste the chlorine flush again). The system is now ready for the season and you can safely drink the tank water. This is the system adopted on ships and I've done the same for the past 8 years in various vans and no-one has ever had a problem drinking on board water. You can of course ask for this to be done as part of the annual habitation checks but beware of the cost!!
Hope this helps anyone wanting to keep their on-board water safe

It’s good to sterilise to help to reduce bacteria in general. I do.

But

With regard to legionella.

It proliferates between 20 and 45 degrees C.

below 20, it’s dormant.

Above 45 it’s starts to die which is why we say keep the hot hot and have delivery temperatures above 50 with heater (calorifier) at 60 C.

Many will note their water heaters high temp being 60C. Yes there is a reason for that figure.

25 degrees and airborne - not sure what you are implying but well it seems wrong. It’s mixing two different hazard groups. But to be honest, raising awareness is good.

However, for it to cause harm to vulnerable persons. Fine airborne droplets have to be breathed into the lungs I.e. aspirated.

Water with the bacteria in it could be drunk without issue.

In a motorhome, the only really risk area is the shower. So flush it through with high temp hot water and sterilise the head. As you should do at home anyway.

 

[Bern8]

If I’m going to a site at the end of the day I fill around 25%. I carry 2-10 litre containers with fresh water in for drinking. It was perfect when we broke down on our last trip. Enough for toilet, washing hands etc.

 

[Mal+Moy]

Just as an after note My previous note was from the statutory instructions issued by the Marine and Coastguard Agency to British flagged ships to maintain clean water tank, as you could not always trust water suppliers including some of the big UK companies. We also had to chlorinate all water filled to tanks as well but that I think is a bit OTT for our small tanks

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[BikerGraham]

Just as an after note My previous note was from the statutory instructions issued by the Marine and Coastguard Agency to British flagged ships to maintain clean water tank, as you could not always trust water suppliers including some of the big UK companies. We also had to chlorinate all water filled to tanks as well but that I think is a bit OTT for our small tanks

Remember having a tour around a ship a number of years ago and was fascinated with the water systems. Purification and quality was something way above what our water suppliers provide. I was immensely impressed.

 

[Mal+Moy]

Lots of ships distil fresh water from seawater in a vacuum (low temp) treatment of that is a whole different ball game as you have to provide mineralization as well as purification

 

[treblid]

So flush it through with high temp hot water and sterilise the head. As you should do at home anyway.

Hands up how many people sterilise their shower head at home........

 

[nicholsong]

Just as an after note My previous note was from the statutory instructions issued by the Marine and Coastguard Agency to British flagged ships to maintain clean water tank, as you could not always trust water suppliers including some of the big UK companies. We also had to chlorinate all water filled to tanks as well but that I think is a bit OTT for our small tanks

How many people bother to check under which flag a ship they are on is sailing? Even if they see the ensign how many would recognise it?

 

[BikerGraham]

Hands up how many people sterilise their shower head at home........

thought that would get a reaction.

You’d be surprised what I do to flush through when getting home after being away for a while.

But anyway, in the workplace cleaning and sterilising shower heads at least every 3 months is a requirement of legislation compliance guidance.

So we should also do it at home. But most don’t as they are not aware

However, landlords should provide written instructions to their tenants to do exactly that.

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[Bobbejaan]

That's the big bugbear with low payload in modern vans. I had a shock recently when I put my Van onto Local Farmers new digital weighbridge Full Fuel tank +2 full 11kg Cylinders + Full 100ltr of Water. + driver 85kg result 40kg overweight no room for wife!!! or goodies !!

Easy Solution >>>>> DUMP THE WIFE, then you'll only need 1 Gas cylinder and half the water or less ..... Then you can load up with Extra Goodies for yourself.

 

[BROOMYS]

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.

Always travel with at least 50%. You never know where you are stopping. You have been warned/ advised

 

[bigtwin]

The more mass you have.. the harder it is to stop.

Indeed, the more passengers you carry the harder it is to stop.

Ian

 

[roadwarrior]

we travel light from home for 2 reasons, our home water is good for making beer ( burton on trent) but my wife only makes coffee which tastes shite with hard water, secondly we carry some lemonade bottles full of water for making coffee enroute, and use that on the road and fill up when we find better water, of course I put a bit in the tank for washing up/toilet ect but travelling light works for us, on longer journeys rules change/ aires/ campsites but we always use the bottles of water for coffee rather than out of the tap everywhere we go.

 

[pandas]

An important criteria and possibly more important than the convenience in my view would be the impact on the stopping distance. 150ltrs - around 1 1/2 tons (6 bags of cement) increases this quite significantly. Easy to google the calculations. The manufacturers weight criteria normally include the driver (not passenger) and a full fuel tank and 20/25 litres of water I believe. I wonder what volume of water a shower uses?

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[nicholsong]

An important criteria and possibly more important than the convenience in my view would be the impact on the stopping distance. 150ltrs - around 1 1/2 tons (6 bags of cement) increases this quite significantly. Easy to google the calculations. The manufacturers weight criteria normally include the driver (not passenger) and a full fuel tank and 20/25 litres of water I believe. I wonder what volume of water a shower uses?

Back to school. 1000lts/1000kgs is one metric tonne.

 

[eddie]

An important criteria and possibly more important than the convenience in my view would be the impact on the stopping distance. 150ltrs - around 1 1/2 tons (6 bags of cement) increases this quite significantly. Easy to google the calculations. The manufacturers weight criteria normally include the driver (not passenger) and a full fuel tank and 20/25 litres of water I believe. I wonder what volume of water a shower uses?

Apart from the fact that your maths is way out, did you Google the calculations? we are of course ALL driving around in vans that are converted from vehicles, who’s primary design role, is delivery!

 

[bigtwin]

150ltrs - around 1 1/2 tons (6 bags of cement)

Oops!

Ian

 

[pandas]

Apart from the fact that your maths is way out, did you Google the calculations? we are of course ALL driving around in vans that are converted from vehicles, who’s primary design role, is delivery!

only out by a decimal point

 

[eddie]

only out by a decimal point

It was the 1 & 1/2 Tons that gave it away

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[Bobbejaan]

An important criteria and possibly more important than the convenience in my view would be the impact on the stopping distance. 150ltrs - around 1 1/2 tons (6 bags of cement) increases this quite significantly. Easy to google the calculations. The manufacturers weight criteria normally include the driver (not passenger) and a full fuel tank and 20/25 litres of water I believe. I wonder what volume of water a shower uses?

I know many have already commented on that statement ...... BUT I am always interested in New Technology.

My drinking water and the Radiator water for my diesel power-plant weighs 1kg per litre.

As your water appears to weigh 10kg per litre from your post ... I have TWO questions, please.

Q1 >>> Is your 10kg per litre water perhaps "HEAVY WATER" for your Nuclear Engine Powered van ?

&

Q2 >>> If so, can you kindly tell me where I can buy such a replacement engine to power my van at a cheap price ?

***********

Sorry ... I couldn't resist ..... I'll get ma-coat & ma-hat ..... but NOT ma-hat ma-ghandi !