Exterior Travel with or without water?

[davemc]

Ok thought from the other thread I start a poll.
If your heading to a park with water do you normally leave the tanks full.
I have been told by a few friends when we first got the van to always travel with full tanks as it lowers the centre of gravity. So we always leave home full.
Although it adds to weight and TBM.. Your burning extra fuel for nothing

So what do people normally do?

 

[bigcol]

Your burning extra fuel for nothing

exactly why I dont carry water
the only time I have ever carried water in the Van tanks was when I was travelling in the Pilbarra, you can NEVER have enough water then

all other times, I dont carry as I dont need to

 

[davemc]

@bigcol do you fill them at home or store empty? Again something I was told if nothing in the pipes or tanks things grow
Could just of been my mate leading me astray old wives tales

 

[bigcol]

I have been known occasionally (when I think about it) to fill the tank while home, to stop any little bugger making a home in the tank

but I drain if I'm about to pack and head off

 

[davemc]

thinking about fuel usage not sure it make much of a difference.
Up a hill the extra weight would cause more drag although on the flats/down hill it be the van size and height (wind drag).
When we went 17.58 to 22.68 our fuel usage went up 2-3 liters only and thats pop top to full van which weights 600kgs ATM more.

 

[bigcol]

I know the extra 180L (180kgs) of water wont change the fuel usage that much, but
I figure, why carry extra weight, if I dont intend to use it?

as I said, I have only ever filled the tanks, and dragged it with me when heading to the Pilbarra

only because a mate of mine was caught for a week on the side of Rippon Hills Rd because of flooding, as he said after, if he didnt have his tanks full, he would have been stuffed, as he was between 2 floodways and about 250km from Pt Hedland and about 150km from Marble Bar

 

[dagree]

Always travel with both tanks full.
Couple of reasons....
Firstly for emergency reasons (Luckily not required "Touching wood!") ie: Stuck somewhere as per @bigcol 's comment.
Secondly after having been in the water industry for over 40 years I've seen how it is treated statewide . Water is filtered from the home tap!
Park water is used for washing, showers etc and tanks are used for making coffe/tea, cooking etc. Kettle is emptied into bottles and put in the fridge for drinking if required.

Tanks are stored full and emptied onto the lawn and gardens (The Greenie coming out in me!) then refilled prior to leaving.

Couldn't say if full or empty makes a difference to fuel usage as have only towed with them full and I try not to concern myself by keeping track of fuel usage anyway.... The results just might scare me

 

[Dobbie]

Always leave home with full tanks....we prefer our own water and free camp more often than not.
When heading for a caravan park we let the tanks get lower, then fill up again.

and always store the van with full tanks..no little green things then ...and flush out if it's been sitting there for a while. We then have access to extra water in the shed if we need it.

We test the water regularly with a marine quality testing probe.

 

[Drover]

Doing a park run only fill one tank so I have some water, free camp both tanks chockers, bottled water for drinking usually.

Stow van with tanks full and use it to wash van every couple of months and refill before departure......never bothered testing home water tanks in 20 odd years still alive !! sometimes run a filter but not often even though I know I should do it all the time but if topping up from a park or other suss area plug it in, if going by the experts on water quality I should have died as a kid from drinking out of creeks, hoses and bores.......nothing worse than drink from creek then find further upstream a dead cow in it.

 

[Dobbie]

Our water testing kit is a leftover from sailing ..we've disposed of most of our boating gear but decided to use the water tester in the van as we had it already and were used to using it.

At home, on tank water, we still use it when we remember and haven't bothered with water filters in the house, just throw a packet of bicarbonate in the tanks if we know a big downpour is coming.

No health issues in over 25 years from that rather haphazard approach to water purity.

and, like @Drover , we carry a filter but usually can't be bothered using it ...unless we're doubtful about the taste or smell when filling. Even then, if we're still iffy about it, we boil it before using.

and we always carry a slab of drinking water. We've just noticed our latest slab from Costco has square bottles rather than the usual round ones so they pack more effectively and don't roll around as much. Small things make it easier.

 

[Drover]

Our old bore water (Spa water) was great for clearing out things from the tanks, top up tanks and all manner of things would get deaded by the spa water, once the gas had cleared it was great water, like flat soda water all dead things flushed away across the yard.

 

[mikerezny]

Hi,
how much water we carry very much depends on where we are going and for how long.
We don't have a shower, toilet, or washing machine, so our use is minimal.

Our Penguin has one 82l water tank.

But the minimum is half a tank: about 40l. I can measure that easily by looking at the level in the clear filler hose
and relating it back to the moulded horizontal ridge in the tank.

Seems like two of us use a tad over 10l per day. So half a tank is easily good for 2-3 day weekends.
A full tank is good for a week.

Still half a tank even if we go to a caravan park. We still use some of our tank water since we haven't used powered sites and thus have never hooked up to water. Sometimes our free camping spots have untreated water and the usage from our tank is reduced basically down to just drinking water.

But, in case of emergencies, or problems with the tank springing a leak etc, we carry a 10l container of water in the boot of the car.
If it isn't used, I pour it into the tank just before we pack up to come home. On longer trips, I intend to carry a 20l container.

We also have four 600ml bottles filled with water for walking and driving, and a 1l container in the fridge, so that is another 3.4l as a backup.

cheers
Mike

 

[davemc]

Keep it coming
We have three tanks so thats 240 litres car pulls it fine we just pretty close ATM/GVM. So think I may dump the first two when we travel next get it weighed again see if we are more under then close weight wise

 

[Tone]

We travel with ours empty unless free camping or one night stops. If just going to caravan park we might just put some in for drinking. Don't see much point lugging more weight if not needed. I also find with the rear tank full notice slightly more lurching on the towbar.

 

[Crusty181]

We travel full all the time and store full. If we're heading off the grid Ill put another 70lrs in the jerrys. We've found almost every single time we don't top up, the circumstances or destination changes mid route and we regret not having topped up. We've come across some nice spots that we wouldn't have been able to stop, or it would have been less than ideal if we didn't have water onboard.

Im with @bigcol, I can't see the weight making any significant difference.

 

[Pauly]

We start our travels with tanks full and usually come home with close to empty tanks. I haven't noticed any negligible difference in fuel use or handling either way.
I usually aim to fill them when parked up at home but sometimes forget to for a bit. That reminds me I better fill em as one is empty one is half;-)

 

[Drover]

On this soon to happen Sojourn, Big Mal will probably be full tanks most of the time if not all the time, as like el @Crusty181 I don't want to go "Damn No Water" as we will mostly be free camping and am not sure of availability and can change mind as to direction, so fill em up, including the 3 Jerries in the ute, have chucked out a ton of gear to ensure BIg Mal is a light as possible. Been looking at fitting an extra water tank but no room really except for right at the front so Jerries in the Ute will suffice. Soon see if full or empty chew more juice, well enough to matter anyway.

 

[Dobbie]

I'm doing the same....but it's taking longer as we're setting it up for the first time.

We'll always travel with full tanks for that very reason...if we stumble on a free camp site we need the water....with the extra Jerry can for water and the Costco slab.

and I've just set up,the back of the car and tossed out duplicate tools and the heavy fish filleting case (a present so I thought I'd better use it).....I just feed the fish anyway and all I need is a good knife in case I'm lucky.

Extra versa lights are also removed and I can't believe how many charging cables I've found.

Hey @Drover we finally sorted out the problem with the Projecta 25 amp charger....poor stripping of sensor wires on installation. Narva Projecta guys have been great...couldn't recommend them enough. They've been in constant contact with photos, suggestions and lots of follow up. Batteries are now charging beautifully and it's peaceful,without the alarm going off. I almost miss it!

One thing I do need to sort out is the filling and balancing of the water tanks on the Golf. There's one filling inlet so that will need adjustment but we'll see how much of an issue it is before we change it...and add the Topargee monitor. If it's a pain that will be done sooner than later.

Jayco tanks setup is far better and their strange looking sullage fitting much more user friendly. The Golf has a screw cap over a much bigger sullage outlet and getting a reducer to fit the hose was interesting. Done now.

I'm not sure how we'll go with the full water tanks....195 litres ....bigger tanks....so if you don't hear from us, you'll know we're still clean with all that extra water! I didn't notice any issue with the full tanks when we picked up the van...it towed beautifully...but then we didn't have any of our usual crap in it.

:focus: Sorry again @davemc

 

[Dobbie]

Don't know if this helps anyone or not but I'll indicate our average water use in normal (not extreme) weather conditions. This is what we use for our estimate for free camping in particular.

Two people....drinking water from slab of Costco water ...so nil from tanks
Other..washing up, shower, toilet ....20 maximum

So, up to 20 litres needed for two people per day on average, but certainly less if we reduce shower water by having a quick wash.

In caravan parks, obviously almost nil.

This discussion is more about whether we need to keep tanks full or empty but, as a few of us have indicated, one major reason we keep tanks full is so we can take advantage of free camping opportunities when we find them.

 

[mikerezny]

Don't know if this helps anyone or not but I'll indicate our average water use in normal (not extreme) weather conditions. This is what we use for our estimate for free camping in particular.

Two people....drinking water from slab of Costco water ...so nil from tanks
Other..washing up, shower, toilet ....20 maximum

So, up to 20 litres needed for two people per day on average, but certainly less if we reduce shower water by having a quick wash.

In caravan parks, obviously almost nil.

This discussion is more about whether we need to keep tanks full or empty but, as a few of us have indicated, one major reason we keep tanks full is so we can take advantage of free camping opportunities when we find them.

Hi @Dobbie,
this is useful information.
What water do you use for coffee, tea, cooking?

cheers
Mike