Traveling with water onboard

It was a no brainer from my very first trip, never go without water, after that tea, coffee, milk, fuel! Gas and or cable. See you soon.:giggle:
 
Same as most others, top up water and empty tanks at every opportunity. Only exception is the black tank, only empty when 50% to 75% as Morelo advised more chance of sludge build up if emptied too frequently at low levels, best to be almost full and shuggled before ditching. However, emptying is not so easy in U.K. so empty when we can and increase tank flush frequency. Also add more black tank additive between more frequent empties.
 
drpeej said:
I once ended up washing in Perrier water when our main tank ran out when I was half way through a shower
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and when the Perrier runs out there is always Goat milk to bath in ;) I hear it makes the skin soft

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We always travelled with the fresh water tank between 25 and 50 % full and with 10lt of water in bottles.

In Italy we part filled the tank with bottled water on a couple of occasions. Once because there was no fresh water and once because of a warning of high limescale issues.
 
GMLS said:
We carry 1 or 2 10litre bottles of drinking water all the time (saves constantly purifying the main tank) and then fill up the tanks as required I.e 25% for emergencies and then 50% to 100% depending on duration of event and ease of getting top ups.
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Always carry enough water for cuppa and loo flush on route 25% ,if going off grid fill 100% up . Never in 60 years of Motor homing have I ever needed to purify a water tank, just flush out at end of season and clean tank.
 
Jammi said:
We always leave home with full water tank and toilet flush. Even if heading for a site.
That way when you arrive you just get the chairs out and open the wine. No faffing.
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It's the same faffing, just at a different end. Coals to Newcastle?
 
stewartwebr said:
Only exception is the black tank, only empty when 50% to 75% as Morelo advised more chance of sludge build up if emptied too frequently
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If only I had that problem 🤔😂😂😂

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gpat said:
It's the same faffing, just at a different end. Coals to Newcastle?
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True. But I don’t mind faffing before we go away, it’s just part of the packing/loading up the van. Usually do it all the day before we go.
If we set off after work on a Friday, we might not arrive at our destination till dinner time.
 
gpat said:
It's the same faffing, just at a different end. Coals to Newcastle?
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Not really. At home I know where the tap is, there's never a queue, and I don't have to fill up when it's pouring down or I'm ready to relax after driving. I set off with a full (220L) tank and don't use, or carry, bottled water.
 
Sdrawde said:
I promise I did a search for this but couldn't find anything (which as I write this, makes me think the wording of my search criteria might be poor).

We don't have our Moho yet but I'm trying to cover as many learnings as we can do it's possible to just set off when we do get it. We have had caravans in the past so I'm aware of correct loading, but I like the idea off for a 'short ish' journey with some clean water on board, so do people do this?

The Moho we are getting will be a bare minimum of 3500 kg.

Thanks again from the Edwards crew of two.
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Depends on your van, and type of trip, and other factors or preferences. We have a Hymer (from new) and the manual states quite clearly don’t travel with more than 20% full of fresh water. We never travel with grey or black simply because we always empty on site. Therein lies another clue, some people are off griders and so have to travel with water, grey and black.

We use sites 95% of the time so they are usually pre-booked and have water on tap so why would I carry it just to add extra weight. We do though carry a few 2 litre bottles of water for emergencies. That allows us to flush the loo on the road and make a brew, etc.

There are some exceptions, if we are going just down the road from one site to another, we won’t empty out the fresh, but we try to make sure we have no more than around 20% in the fresh tank. In fact our fresh water tank has a valve specifically engineered to dump the fresh water leaving 20% still onboard.

When we dump the pressing fresh water after a trip we usually just open the taps (kitchen and bathroom) so that it simply flows into the grey. Then we dump the grey at the service point.

We clean the fresh (and the grey) usually by adding some cleaning agent, forget what it is called, about twice a year. We add this to the 20% fresh so it jiggles about on the road then dump it it’s to grey as above when we get home and then completely flush the fresh, etc.

We never drink the fresh direct from
The tank, only boiled in tea and coffee, etc. we always use bottled water to drink on trips.
 
I'm usually asked by the warden when being shown to a site pitch if I need to fill up or empty. I'd be mortified if I had to say 'Oh yes - can you wait there 15 mins whilst I just fill the tank'

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Orion said:
Don’t forget to factor in the bald tyres inflated to circa 90psi as well! Did you do the cadence braking in the days before ABS as well? Straight across the skid pan aimed at the perimeter wall and pumping the pedal for dear life!
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1973 was a long time ago! I do remember the instructors telling us 'hit the armco and you go home'.
 
1/4 tank for us. Enough just in case en-route to our destination (which came in handy when we broke down). Always carry fresh drinking water. Fill up at site we stay at.
 
Very rarely set off with a full tank of water, maybe 40% full most of the time as I'm always aware of my payload I'd usually fill up with the cheapest fuel when returning from the previous trip. ;)
 
We probably leave home with about half a tank of fresh water plus maybe 5 or 10 litres of the cheapest Peckham Spring wer can buy. We also fill the bottles with tap at home rather than buy new spring every time.

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Always as full as possible, we're only supposed to carry 50%, but I didn't know this when we first had the van so filled it to the top. 5 yrs & 45k miles, no issues yet. Carry a wide variety of tap connections & we have some foldable bottle things incase we can't use the tap!
 
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Diabalo said:
Always try to travel full and drink water straight from tank, can't be faffing around with bottled stuff.
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The thing with bottled water is you don’t know how it’s been stored.

If it’s been left in the sun the chemical reaction that turns it that nice shade of green has begun 😊

This is why your Moho tank is hidden out of sunlight.
And the water your filling it with comes from pipes underground out of the sunlight 😊

Maybe your bottled water isn’t quite so healthy as you thought 🤔😊
 
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Sdrawde said:
I promise I did a search for this but couldn't find anything (which as I write this, makes me think the wording of my search criteria might be poor).

We don't have our Moho yet but I'm trying to cover as many learnings as we can do it's possible to just set off when we do get it. We have had caravans in the past so I'm aware of correct loading, but I like the idea off for a 'short ish' journey with some clean water on board, so do people do this?

The Moho we are getting will be a bare minimum of 3500 kg.

Thanks again from the Edwards crew of two.
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Travel full, and keep it topped up when on site. Also keep a small supply of fresh for drinking.

The tap is never that close in my experience, and I almost never get to use the flat hose we carry. Certainly wasn’t near at the eisteddford last week.
 
Silver-Fox said:
The thing with bottled water is you don’t know how it’s been stored.

If it’s been left in the sun the chemical reaction that turns it that nice shade of green has begun 😊

This is why your Moho tank is hidden out of sunlight.
And the water your filling it with comes from pipes underground out of the sunlight 😊

Maybe your bottled water isn’t quite so healthy as you thought 🤔😊
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I kind of see what you are saying

However. You have to remember bottled water has a sell by date. It is also dechlorinated before bottling (usually by carbon filtration) and treated with UV light to disinfect it. Yes its true that if its left for a long time it will start to go green. That's because the tiny algae spores can get through the filters and it will start to multiply after a while. Its harmless but doesn't look good.

Saying that though I would put more faith in bottled water being safe to drink and make a decent cuppa that I would in water that's in a plastic tank and contains chlorine. Whilst chlorine is a massive contributor to public health, its downside is that it imparts taste into the water on exposure and if it gets warm. Some people cannot taste it, but many can. Including me. I cannot drink tea that is made with water that has been standing and contains chlorine.

The exposure to chlorine forms compounds like trihalomethanes. These bi products ae referred to as Chlorination biproducts in the industry and are regulated

Disinfection by-product - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org en.wikipedia.org

So maybe your tank water is not quite so healthy as you thought. That's from a chartered chemist with 42 years Industry experience

PS. We never buy bottled water at home. However on the road we use it exclusively for drinking. Never from the on board tank.
 
Sdrawde said:
Would using Milton solution or tablets be better than other cleaning agents?
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Used to be advised NOT to use Milton as it can affect the stainless steel within the boiler.

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