Travel with water tank full or empty?

[MandM]

We have a couple of 10 litre water bottles that we use when travelling. Leaving the on board fresh water tank empty between stops. While in France we were advised by a fellow UK MH driver that he travels with the tank full for better stability. We also watched a large Concord owner (German) fill his two huge water tanks before departing....

Now this did not seem a sensible option to me. Less weight seemed to be the way to go especially as it might compromise the vehicle weight limit.

Thoughts please?

 

[MandM]

Do you travel with an empty or full diesel tank?

I like to run with a full tank of diesel especially after getting caught for 16 days on a French aires (Free facilities including power) when the French with the typical Gallic shrug created a fuel strike.

Regards

 

[Don Quixote]

For long distances FULL diesel EMPTY water (carry2 or 3 plastic litres bottles) - for short 100km ish enough water to get by for a few days. Each to their own way of doing things.

 

[Jim]

Just for the record my new van doesn't allow me to travel with a full tank. It has a lever i must set which drains the tank to 20 litres.

What van is that?

 

[Manic]

I like to run with a full tank of diesel especially after getting caught for 16 days on a French aires (Free facilities including power) when the French with the typical Gallic shrug created a fuel strike.

Regards

Yes but what a place to get stuck.
We meet you their with our balloon loving Jack Russell

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[eddie]

I have always lived by the mantra, if it should be full, ensure it is. This applies to freezer, food fridge, beer fridge, domestic gas, sock drawer, petrol tank, on road LPG

If it should be empty, travel with it empty:- Black tank, grey tank and rubbish bin

I am away in the van this weekend. Why on earth would I want to drive to a small CL in Wales, arriving in the dark, knowing that the temperature may be around Zero, only to wander around with a torch looking for a tap, which in all likelihood will be frozen solid?

I have a very large, water tank, in an internal, heated locker. This will allow us to use water with in reason, as if we were connected to mains water, till we leave Monday morning.

To me it's part of having a "motor home"

 

[Lot lover]

Diesel tank full - in rural France the price differential between supermarket fuel and village/town places others is 15 - 20 cents per litre and there are not too many of either on N and D roads. I tend to start looking for a supermarket at about half full (30 litres).

Fresh water - half full, hedging my bets.

Drinking water - about 10 litres in bottles or jerrycan.

Grey/black - as empty as possible

 

[funflair]

Problem with the onboard tanks we had on caravans was that they were right at the front of the van which was good for weight distribution but terrible for keeping the nose weight within limits.

Richard.

I guess it all depends how the van was designed and balanced, our tank was in front of the axle and it had two 13kg calor bottles in the front locker and it was designed to run like that so the nose weight was spot on, it just followed me around at up to 70mph.

Martin

 

[peterc10]

Just for the record my new van doesn't allow me to travel with a full tank. It has a lever i must set which drains the tank to 20 litres.

Suspect you have a Hymer. You do not "have to" drain it to 20l. All that Hymer say is that the Mass in Running Order (and therefore the payload) is calculated assuming that there is 20l in the tank. Since I have loads of payload I am happy to drive with it full without any problems at all.

 

[Minxy]

Think that depends on the van and the available payload. We all know that many vans sold as under 3500kg have a terrible payload available.
In our van, upgraded to leave us plenty of spare payload, we often travel with full 180 litre tanks.

Richard.

Wow ... that is a big fresh water tank!!!! Bet people love you at the borne if you have to fill it from empty!

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[Minxy]

Suspect you have a Hymer. You do not "have to" drain it to 20l. All that Hymer say is that the Mass in Running Order (and therefore the payload) is calculated assuming that there is 20l in the tank. Since I have loads of payload I am happy to drive with it full without any problems at all.

It's a Rapido 608ff according to his details - ridiculous to have to empty out (waste) a load of water every time you drive off though!

 

[Minxy]

Do you travel with an empty or full diesel tank?

We've got a 'long range' diesel tank in ours which takes 120L which is kept full if the fuel is cheap, otherwise we are able to let it get lowish until we see cheaper fuel again. We have a 100L fresh water tank which is also kept full as we usually wild camp or use aires, some of which require tokens so we can't access it, so prefer to carry as much as we can and top it up when the opportunity arises.

 

[Bobby22]

Suspect you have a Hymer. You do not "have to" drain it to 20l. All that Hymer say is that the Mass in Running Order (and therefore the payload) is calculated assuming that there is 20l in the tank. Since I have loads of payload I am happy to drive with it full without any problems at all.

Mine is a Rapido and it says i shouldn't drive unless the lever is in the 20l position.

I have ignored in and had 60/70l and can feel an unstableness!! Makes it difficult when wild camping in the highlands.

 

[Minxy]

It's a Rapido 608ff according to his details - ridiculous to have to empty out (waste) a load of water every time you drive off though!

@Bobby22 I've just had a look and can't find a Rapido 608ff ... is it a Rapido 680ff that you have??

 

[Mickey1]

Suspect you have a Hymer. You do not "have to" drain it to 20l. All that Hymer say is that the Mass in Running Order (and therefore the payload) is calculated assuming that there is 20l in the tank. Since I have loads of payload I am happy to drive with it full without any problems at all.

Same with the chausson I'm getting, can have 30 Ltrs or 125.

Mickey.

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[Mickey1]

@Bobby22 , must be different if it tells you not to drive it with over 20 Ltrs.

Mickey

 

[Mickey1]

Double post

 

[Spanda]

I have always lived by the mantra, if it should be full, ensure it is. This applies to freezer, food fridge, beer fridge, domestic gas, sock drawer, petrol tank, on road LPG

If it should be empty, travel with it empty:- Black tank, grey tank and rubbish bin

I am away in the van this weekend. Why on earth would I want to drive to a small CL in Wales, arriving in the dark, knowing that the temperature may be around Zero, only to wander around with a torch looking for a tap, which in all likelihood will be frozen solid?

I have a very large, water tank, in an internal, heated locker. This will allow us to use water with in reason, as if we were connected to mains water, till we leave Monday morning.

To me it's part of having a "motor home"

I'm with Eddievanbitz. Full fuel tank, empty grey tank and full freshwater tank. The last thing I want to do when we get to a site - usually late on Friday - is to faff about finding the tap and filling up the fresh water tank. Mine holds 100 litres of fresh water and 90 litres of diesel, so with an overall weight of just less than 3.5 tonnes, the extra weight makes almost no difference to the handling and little difference to the fuel consumption. What little it costs us extra in diesel - maybe 1 mpg - is well worth it just for the convenience.

 

[laird of Dunstan]

First time out with the Moho made my mind up ,i stood there at the campsite tap watching a trickle come out in the vain hope of filling a 98 liter water tank ,so i now run with a full tank of water,i had my diesel tank upgraded to 125 L tank , i was toying with the idea of using one of those super dooper filters and using it to take water from a river,but ive gone off that idea.

 

[Bobby22]

@Bobby22 I've just had a look and can't find a Rapido 608ff ... is it a Rapido 680ff that you have??

minxy, you are quoting your own misprint, my profile says 680ff

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[StitchesnFluff]

Other reason for us travelling full is a lack of mobility on my part so we always travel 'prepared', it's another potential stress removed

 

[Minxy]

View attachment 147372

minxy, you are quoting your own misprint, my profile says 680ff

Weird ... I cut and pasted it into Google from your profile ... Mr Google must have altered it somehow!

 

[MandM]

Yes but what a place to get stuck.
We meet you there with our balloon loving Jack Russell

You did meet us indeed. Poppy now gets through a bag of cheap balloons in no time at all. Currently enjoying ourselves down in Benidorm until the end of March.

Hope that you are all OK.

Regards

 

[Manic]

You did meet us indeed. Poppy now gets through a bag of cheap balloons in no time at all. Currently enjoying ourselves down in Benidorm until the end of March.

Hope that you are all OK.

Regards

I'm glad Poppy got the balloon bug, we're house sitting in chilly France near Cherbourg again, we hope you have a good time in Spain.

 

[Brian and Jo]

Yep same for us ,we always travel full ,it's part of having a Motorhome ,a full tank will last us a long weekend including both showering every night
Brian & Jo

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[MandM]

I'm glad Poppy got the balloon bug, we're house sitting in chilly France near Cherbourg again, we hope you have a good time in Spain.

When we came down through France over the new year period it was -7 on day 1 with Snow falls just south of Paris. Day 2 was -9 and so we stuck to the motorways. Then we followed the snow plough into Benidorm from Denia! We have had gales, hail, snow, rain and one day it was 24c.... Its almost the usual British all year round weather.

Take care..

 

[gus-lopez]

View attachment 147356 @Bobby22 , must be different if it tells you not to drive it with over 20 Ltrs.

Mickey

Your link says to throw a passenger out if you travel witha full tank.

 

[PeteH]

View attachment 147356 @Bobby22 , must be different if it tells you not to drive it with over 20 Ltrs.

Mickey

Somewhat "off Topic", But does anyone else think like me, that the idea of having to choose between sufficient water for your needs OR the carriage of passenger!, is a reflection of the current attitude of Manufacturers in general and the choices forced upon them by Legislators?.

Eg; because "Europe", including the UK, has such stupid restrictions on what can be driven on what licence (NON commercially), the manufactures are forced into choices of this nature, when all it needs is a clear reappraisal of the Licensing system, which would allow a Better payload capacity, across the board?. A true first step IMV would be an increase in the allowed GVW of the B licence to 4tonne?. This would include all but the heaviest of the current crop of MH, and leave said vehicles with an adequate payload even with all the latest "goodies", which we all seem to find "essential" to-day, fitted.

 

[eddie]

I am away in the van this weekend. Why on earth would I want to drive to a small CL in Wales, arriving in the dark, knowing that the temperature may be around Zero, only to wander around with a torch looking for a tap, which in all likelihood will be frozen solid?

Ironically, we were about ten minutes from the CL and Lyn asked if I'd remembered to fill the tank? So I ended up doing exactly what I said I would do

Being lazy you see, I'd dumped the waste tanks, and filled the gas tank when it started to rain so thought 'Bugger this, I'll do the water tomorrow'

Then forgot

 

[Kingham]

Somewhat "off Topic", But does anyone else think like me, that the idea of having to choose between sufficient water for your needs OR the carriage of passenger!, is a reflection of the current attitude of Manufacturers in general and the choices forced upon them by Legislators?.

Eg; because "Europe", including the UK, has such stupid restrictions on what can be driven on what licence (NON commercially), the manufactures are forced into choices of this nature, when all it needs is a clear reappraisal of the Licensing system, which would allow a Better payload capacity, across the board?. A true first step IMV would be an increase in the allowed GVW of the B licence to 4tonne?. This would include all but the heaviest of the current crop of MH, and leave said vehicles with an adequate payload even with all the latest "goodies", which we all seem to find "essential" to-day, fitted.

I don't think any such increased payload benefits would last very long as in the name of competition, the manufacturers would use that extra capacity up with the latest 'must have essentials' and we'd soon be back at square one, with restricted payloads, just at higher weights.

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[andy63]

But does anyone else think like me, that the idea of having to choose between sufficient water for your needs OR the carriage of passenger!, is a reflection of the current attitude of Manufacturers in general and the choices forced upon them by Legislators?.

Yep .. I think like that...
The vehicles as built are capable of a higher gvw .. and require only a paper exercise to up plate them...
The 3500kg is a licence thing so that's why the majority of vehicles have to be so plated ... ie to allow a larger market...
As you say it's encouraging manufacturers to turn out mh' 's that are not realy fit for purpose in there quest to give you some payload..
Andy..