Water Tank - internal or external?

[VanBlanc]

Has anyone fitted an underslung water tank to a T6?

I am looking for about 40 litres and a pressurised pump system rather than submersible.

I would also like a level indicator but nor sure how well one will fir or work in a relatively flat tank.

 

[mhill]

Keen to see what you manage to find.

 

[VanBlanc]

Have spent a couple of hours fiddling with my CAD drawings and I think have found that I don't want / need to sling it underneath. It saves holes through the floor, freezing and road damage.

I can get a Reimo 49 litre tank (same as I have in my T5.1) in next to the wheel arch which means that I can simply pull it out 200mm to fill it, lift it 25mm to see how full it is and only have a single 15mm hose into it for pick up which keeps everything nice a simple. And when need be I can pull it out for cleaning.

 

[mhill]

That's a better idea, how are you looking to pressurise the tank?

 

[VanBlanc]

Not pressurise the tank just the water line. Going to use an external pump and an inline pressure switch so that the sink tap is just a tap.

The kit is available in lots of places and I have seen this done to good effect for example the Uberbus "Future Classic" layout. I think the idea comes from the marine fit out trade.

 

[BiTurbo]

I've got a 27litre under slung tank.

 

[mhill]

To slightly high jack you post, (but you seem to know a bit more than me what's available!) im looking to have a water tank that I can heat on demand for a shower after getting out of a smelly river / cold sea and such like. In the ideal world id have a Webasto / Eberspacher that functions as a convention blow air heater but also has a through flow type heat exchanger similar to an elctrice cold feed only power shower.

 

[VanBlanc]

Not something I would consider @mhill so haven't researched. If we need hot / warm water we heat a kettle.

 

[BiTurbo]

If you don't boil the water in the tank and just warm it enough. From what I've read warming the water will cause Algae to grow and render the water unsafe for drinking. Have thought of putting a fitting in the top and one in the bottom and using a thermo coil of 10mm copper pipe around the exhaust. But I won't bother now....

 

[mhill]

Yer your quite right @BiTurbo, no point heating it in the tank (unless to stop it freezing) im after more of a on demand diesel powered Kombi heater for my Kombi.

 

[VanBlanc]

I don't know that you will get diesel or even gas powered if you want instant heat. With any form of instant water heater there must be a short warm up period that will run off some of your valuable water. Aims electric is probably the closest you will get to instant.

 

[Loz]

Where I have done on-board water on previous overland vehicles I use a Sureflow 3 stage pump that includes an automatic pressure switch.

If you want instant heat for an exterior shower hose, you can get a simple heat exchanger that plumbs into your engine cooling circuit. You would just start up the engine and after a few minutes that part of the cooling circuit gets hot before the thermostat opens.

 

[VanBlanc]

@Loz the Sureflow pumps seem a bit overkill for a single small sink tap? Or am I looking at the wrong thing - do you have a link?

 

[Loz]

@Loz the Sureflow pumps seem a bit overkill for a single small sink tap? Or am I looking at the wrong thing - do you have a link?

Correct, but I have always pumped through a nature pure .2micron bacteria filter to ensure the drinking water is pure..

There are small submersible whale pumps but they struggle with the lift..

 

[former member]

Another Cali option is heated water and a shower attachment at the rear. Both were expensive though so we stuck to boiling kettles and a solar shower. The shower proved very handy a few times in Spain.

 

[Davenjo]

Another Cali option is heated water and a shower attachment at the rear. Both were expensive though so we stuck to boiling kettles and a solar shower. The shower proved very handy a few times in Spain.

We have that coming as part of our conversion - not sure how much we will use the plug in "activity shower" but hoping the hot water comes in handy (think its electrically heated so will only work on EHU??)

 

[former member]

We have that coming as part of our conversion - not sure how much we will use the plug in "activity shower" but hoping the hot water comes in handy (think its electrically heated so will only work on EHU??)

That'll be well posh! TBH we don't use ours loads in Winter but if we did, I'd want that for sure!

 

[Davenjo]

That'll be well posh! TBH we don't use our loads in Winter but if we did, I'd want that for sure!

To be honest, when we were pricing up I asked about deleting the shower option but they said that because it was part of their standard build it wouldn't really save us anything.

We are hoping to use the T6 through the winter as extending our UK camping season beyond April to October was one of the main reasons for getting a camper. I'm now starting to worry how useful our underslung water tank will be during the colder months - getting mixed messages about water freezing, etc.. Hoping that the heat escaping from the van be sufficient to stop the water freezing on all but the coldest nights?? Will probably suck it and see for the first winter and decide if we need to do something else with it next year.

 

[former member]

We went slightly subzero in our old Cali and all was fine.
I reckon you'll be fine unless you head up into the Arctic circle!

 

[ecowagon]

We fit a 72L external tank using a sureflo pump and a whale gas/240 electric water heater in some of our conversions . The tank mounts next to the exhaust so after a long drive you get warm water anyway We also fit the sargent integrated water level