Why travel only with 20 litres of water?

[Stealaway]

We wildcamp and would not leave home without full water and diesel, within legal weights.

Geoff

We only ever wild camp or use Aires but tend to move on every day.
We only top up with water when we need a shower.
In 12 years of traveling in motorhomes I have never yet failed to find water when I needed it.
It's sometimes takes a bit of forward planning especially in the UK but it's even becoming easy now in Scotland.
Even though we do tend to move on everyday we don't tend to travel far and half a tank of diesel lasts for over a week and there's never a garage far away, especially in this country.

 

[deleted79651]

Our van is 4500kg with a payload over the MIRO of 1350kg we only have about 250kg spare and we are couple of lightweights.

I'm built with the padded upholstery so weigh the same [or a wee bit more ...] as a couple of lightweights ...

Steve

 

[Stealaway]

Nearly every where we went in France a couple of weeks ago Bourns had out of order notices on them or water turned off. I think a lot were turned off last year to discourage people due to Covid.
We were travelling down to the south west corner from Belgium.
No problems in Spain.
We use about 35—40lt a day if both having showers.

Being the tight Yorkshire man - our Truma boiler hold 14ltr and I turn it of when it's up to temperature. That is enough for us both to have a hot shower so I guess it's going to be about the same when you mix the cold.
20 lt is going to be about right for two showers.
The other 20lt last 3-4 before the next fill-up

 

[TinaLes]

Its not just the 3500KG vans that may have a potential payload problem. Whilst down at our dealership last week having our van serviced I kicked the tyres of the new Carthago A Class on a Merc Chassis priced at £155, 575
Its a top spec "E Line" that I thought would be the ideal van to look at upgrading to one day maybe, then I spotted the useable payload, thought it must be typo on the door ticket, but having looked it up, its correct!
There is no way a van of this size should have such a low payload, @ only 469KG's if they charge more money to upgrade it at this price they are having a laugh IMHO.
LES
This will put me & Lenny HB off buying one either over here or over there.

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[mikebeaches]

When we had a 6-metre coachbuilt Chausson, the payload was surprisingly almost 800kg on a chassis plated at 3,500kg.

But when we got the 6.4-metre van conversion, the payload was well under 500kg. At the time I was somewhat shocked, because the body width is 25 cm less than the coachbuilt.

But of course, I guess it's obvious really that steel bodywork is going to be heavier than fibreglass.

And since we want to stick at 3,500 kg, we generally carry less water these days (between 25% & 50% full) - five years on and it's not caused us a problem so far. For the same reason, we often only fill the diesel up to about 75%-80% full. Works for us.

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[Shrimp]

In France we always make sure we have a minimum of half a tank-at least 80 or so litres.
In UK it’s not quite so important as we are usually going from CS to CS.

 

[glenn2926]

We tend to leave wherever full of fresh and empty of grey, black. Mostly we have a rough idea of where we will be that evening but that’s all a rough idea of the area. So it makes sense to us to be prepared for there to be nothing in the way of services. For the site only motorhomers it’s probably not that important but we don’t go on sites very often.
140 litres of fresh water can last us a week at a push.

 

[EuroTrotters]

It was suggested we carry 20 litres in our previous moho. La Strada Nova M.

It had two waste tanks too.

I insisted the dealer uprate the weight from 3,500 kg to 3,850

 

[MattR]

If we're wild camping, we fill our tank and have 20l fresh water containers for drinking water.
If going to a campsite /reliable water, we just have around 20l in the tank, one 20l water container.

In both cases ww also travel with empty waste.

We notice the difference when we have full water tanks and empty ones. The fuel savings might not be great but they mount up and the van is more responsive when driving if the tanks are empty.

 

[pandas]

In thirty-three years, I have never set off on a journey in a motorhome without my freshwater tank being full to bursting.

Not sure that answers the question being asked

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[pandas]

I would have thought most would have felt a slight difference in handling when traveling either full or empty. An additional 170 kg in our case. But probably the significant issue for some as mentioned earlier is the play load weight is so critical it would take it over the legal plated allowed weight of the vehicle. Not sure mpg would make that much, if any, difference.

 

[Jim]

Not sure that answers the question being asked

Never said i was answering it. It was answered at post 2.

 

[glenn2926]

I would have thought most would have felt a slight difference in handling when traveling either full or empty. An additional 170 kg in our case. But probably the significant issue for some as mentioned earlier is the play load weight is so critical it would take it over the legal plated allowed weight of the vehicle. Not sure mpg would make that much, if any, difference.

I certainly feel the difference. The water tank is low down and having it full reduces rolling of the body. It’s not baffled not even a bell baffle so at half full I can feel the push when braking. Full is much better. As you say the difference in fuel consumption on a 4t van is negligible. The fact I’ve always got plenty of water is worth a very slight increase in fuel consumption although it’s so slight it’s probably almost immeasurable.

 

[Stealaway]

Water pickup point's around me now.
I'm the blue dot and we are going North ish

 

[Northernraider]

Because some manufacturers think they are caravans not motorhomes. Unfit for purpose

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[Jim]

We notice the difference when we have full water tanks and empty ones

Can't say I've ever noticed a real difference Just like I don't when I fill up with fuel. A full tank isn't even 2% of the all up weight. Maybe I'm just not sensitive enough

 

[MattR]

Can't say I've ever noticed a real difference Just like I don't when I fill up with fuel. A full tank isn't even 2% of the all up weight. Maybe I'm just not sensitive enough

Full water tanks, drinking water and full fuel tanks amounts to around 5% of our vehicle weight. Full waste tank add to that. The difference in performance is noticeable but I've no idea on the difference in fuel economy.

 

[Jim]

Full water tanks, drinking water and full fuel tanks amounts to around 5% of our vehicle weight. Full waste tank add to that. The difference in performance is noticeable but I've no idea on the difference in fuel economy.

Maybe they are noticeable, but I don't notice it. Could be I'm not so sensitive as full has always been normal.

Can't remember the last time I had full fresh and waste. Normally if I am somewhere I can fill, I can empty too.

 

[62272]

+1

If I'm heading off Freedom Camping I travel full.

On Monday I'll be travelling to a booked pitch with a fresh water supply I will travel with one day's emergency fill.

I did the same (emergency rations of water knowing I was going to a CAMC site), except when I turned up at the site in Cornwall in September, the water mains nearby had burst and the water was off! When it did return, it was a brown colour for a few days, so had to go out and buy bottled water for drinking. Won't be doing that again, I have plenty of payload, so 50 litres in future and fill my 5 litre drinking bottle up too.