Waterbladders

Willem we have had people away with us that have used these bladders and have not seen any problems other than leaving the hose on and flooding the 4x4.

all the best
Eric

Hi Willem ,
I have had the 85 litre by Flex i Tank ( same as ARB jobbies) for a few years but have had a nagging delamination problem causing a 3 mm leak . The welding is first class and never fails . No probs with the ones installed inside various quarter panels though .
The idea is great , no venting req. & absolutley no tainting of the water if you follow the start up instr. unlike the others you are considering .
To their credit , they have replaced any faulty ones. I am now building a fibre glass 116 litre tank divided into 2 separate compartments mounted midships across the mid row passengers foot well with site gauges etc.

G'day Willie,
I believe there have been taste problems that has required persistance to remove. Ask the seller what you need to do.
See you Tuesday

Willem - I have a 60 litre Opposite Lock Bladder. No problems at all. The biggest trip with it was 4 months through Simpson, Gibson Desert, Canning Stock Route, Gunbarrel etc. I lay it on the back floor. Have placed Camera bags etc on top with no problems. The water taste and quality is fine Regards Plugger

We have a 55l Flexitank that initially tasted bad but after a few washes with water and bicarb of soda it was OK. It was a pain in the butt to fiill when installed in the car behind the front seats. You have to hold the neck up and put the water in with a hose. Takes a while to fill 55 lts because you cannot fill it too quickly. If you yawn you end up with water in the car. I made a box to put it in so we could stack stuff on top. We have had it about 15 months and it started to leak on our last trip. It was leaking on one of the end seams. I cannot be bothered to send it back. I think the high temperature in the car whilst parked does not assist. Threw it away and got out the jerry cans. Safer in that you do not lose all your water if one leaks and they are easier to fill as well.

Willem. I have the 60L Opp Lock bladder that sits on the rear floor. As with the rest of my gear that appeared to be a good idea at the time but didn't live up to expectations, it now collects dust in the shed.
I've returned to the trusty 10 & 20L plastic jerry cans for several reasons.
- Can lift them out of the car & fill them where ever.
- Don't get that annoying sloshing sound.
- The water in the bladder surges from side to side on corners. (When 1/2 full)
- With several containers I can fill up with 20L of grey water (not drinking) without contaminating the main tank.
- Filling or decanting water from the bladder often ended in spillage.
- Never really could get rid of all the vinal taste.
Unlike many who are fitting larger sized water storage to their 4by, I now prefer not to put all my eggs in one basket just incase I have a major leak.
The bladders do a great job of storing water in awkward places in the car but for convenience it's the Jerry. Cheers Craig...............

No Willem , the only repair job is welding by the manufacturer which worked OK

The leaks vary in position - they are now saying the fabric cannot stand the "sloshing " neither can I . Cheers

Hey Mr Willem
I'm not sure what your water requirements might be. I am sure though that you have had enough experience to tell you how much you will use within a given period, so, how much extra will you need between sources, for any extended (desert) trip.

My gripe is the cost per litre for storing in some of these special compartments when you only ever need the extra supplies every couple of years, and generally only for a day or two of extra supply. The good old blue plastic 20 lt bottle (or two) filled at the last possible moment may not be elegant, but its cheap and reliable.

Willem, I also have a GQ and through a friend of mine in the sheetmetal game, I made a 65 litre stainless steel tank that sits between the rear seats and my drawer system (also home made). It is only 150mm wide at the top but gets bigger towards the bottom and actually extends down into the well area in the floor just behind the rear seat. It's kinda triangular shaped with a bit sticking down into the well, with the overall height to suit the drawer system. It took a bit of measuring to get it right but it works a treat and basically takes advantage of otherwise wasted space. I have a tap which is simply gravity fed that extends out from under the passenger rear seat. Have had this now for about 3 years and works a treat. Wouldn't like to pay full price for the labour to make it, but if you know anyone in the game that can do it for mates rates... I think from memory, the steel was about $200 (I used top grade stuff) and the rest was paid in Jim Beam.
Cheers
Gerry

Hi Willem,

I'm happy to say I give our waterbladder the thumbs up! We had one custom made to fit between the ute tray and the front of the Black Widow drawers. It holds 90 litres and we have had no problems with leakage (apart from my initial shoddy installation which cleaned Big Al's shed floor for him), tainting, sloshing or spillage. The jerry cans we had previously been using emptied themselves on some rough sections of the Buckland and King Valleys. Yes, the flexible bladder was expensive, but the additional cost was compensated for (in my mind) by the ease of filling, the use of a previously wasted space and the discontinuance of lugging heavy jerry cans in and out of the vehicle.

YMMV

Hi Willem,

I have an inbuilt 60L tank behind my draw system. Its made from 6mm HDPE (High Density Poly Ethylene - very heavy duty black plastic, virtually bullet proof - literally). Its a rigid structure, not flexible and is plastic welded together. It is as close to indestructable as things come.

I had one for years in my 80 series before I got this one for my GU. While I had them custom made by a mate, they would cost ~$300 - $400 to have done normally. The big advantage of these is that you can make any shape to suit your needs, plus incorporate partitons to stop the sloshing and/or have differnt fluids (eg. oil etc - they are rated as a diesel tank once breathers etc added).

Just another idea to confuse you ;-)

Cheers

Captain

Willem
I've had two 50l water bladders made by float pac (they make the boat ones) for over 10 years now, the only leaks we've had have been when Richard Cranium put the bashplate off the troopy on top of the full bladder when up in the northern simpson, rubbed a hole in both the outer and inner.
One of them hung inside the inner and outer skins of the LH side behind the passengers door on a 75 series troopy for over ten years with zero probs.
I also have a 60 litre plastic caravan tank on the floor which has proved to be very durable too. Hook up a whale in line pump and the tap can be anywhere.
I've also used diesel bladders from the same place for the same length of time with no probs either.
Peter

Hi Willem,
I bought one of the 80ltr ARB ones for my trip around OZ in the footwell of the hilux and supplemented it with 2 20ltr jerries as a backup. The bladder has been great. With 120ltrs total water storage - I can be self sufficient for a long time - and with the bladder it really doesn't feel like it takes up as much room as it should for 80ltrs!

Initially I had problems filling it as getting the hose into the top of the bladder was a problem as I had built a shelf near it - and often I had trouble with air pockets gathering at the wrong end of the bladder and water went everywhere. But I soon figured out that there is no need to fill the tank from the top - simply attach the garden hose to the outlet pipe of the flexitank and fill it that way - works a treat. If filling from a river - I fill a jerry and attach a hose from the bottom of the jerry to the outlet hose of the bladder.

I often use the jerries with a tap attached for around camp - as getting the car/flexitank near camp can be annoying and restrictive. I fill the jerries from the flexitank and also connect the flexitank directly to the shower under the bonnet - if water isn't a problem a long shower is heaven!

I've heard of people talk of a plasticy taste but I haven't come accross it with mine. I was told that this taste is often caused by the garden hose used to fill it up - not the actual tank.

Anyway - in short - my bladder has been great in all conditions accross OZ- but make sure you protect it well from sharp objects with some carpet or similar and don't rest heavy objects on it. Also - as with any water containers - make sure you have more than one - just incase it leaks - which it sounds like you're planning to do anyway.

Cheers - Myfourby

Hi Willem
I had a 85 L flexitank from ARB it layed across the floor behind the front seats in a frame under a fails floor raped in rubber
it did around 4 trips one large trip across oz we followed all the cleaning instruction and was OK and water tasted OK when filled from tap (Perth) then before the trip across oz we filled it out of our rain water tank, by the time we had got to SA the water started to taste funny by the time we were in VIC 2 weeks later you could not drink the water.
after cleaning and filling out of tap (town Water) all OK.
Then a couple of weeks ago we had a inch of water in the foot well check the bladder and it had a small hole in it at the end.
E-mailed float pac to see how i could repair it or if someone in WA could all i was told was to go to Clark Rubber and get a pool patch,
I was worried about the two linings, had a go anyway week later i filled it up only to fined a small hole in the other end, drain all the water (waste) and checked it out the two linings had come apart, by this time i had had it so i cut the $200.00 odd bladder open and found the inner lining damaged, on one side the side repaired their were four tears only one on the outside there would of been on way of repairing this from the out side
Spoke to ARB and they had never heard of it happen ?
Anyway long story but i would have to agree with Crackles
I'm going back to several smaller containers so we can not lose all our water supplies in one go
Good luck
Richard
ps it hard learning the hard way

Willem, havent seen it mentioned here yet but the standard 20l plastic drum will take a caravan type plunger pump screwed into the cap hole & a length of about 12mm or thereabouts tubing long enough to poke out the window or canopy when you want a drink makes it easy.
As said before the drum is easily removed for filling if necessary & insides can be checked for algal growth. Some vinegar & water fixes that.Just a matter of what fits your rig.

Hi Willem,

We've been using one of the Opposite Lock bladders since 1998 without the slightest problem. It lies across the footwell in front of the back seat and always has a bit of stuff on top (eg. camera, bino's, shoes, snack bag etc). Our 3 yr old also walks all over it. Only thing we do is lay a thick towel across the top to provide some extra protection however, we are now thinking about making a sort of false floor to sit over it because of the kidlet factor. You do need to take care against spills when filling or emptying the bladder but after all this time, we have our technique worked out so it's not an issue. We have considered extending the filler/emptying pipes and fitting a tap but the fact we've never got around to it in 6 years just proves my previous statement.

A universal problem with bladders seems to be the tainted taste they give the water when new. We followed the instructions re flushing it out and did this several times but the water still had a funny taste. It took several uses for it to go away but until then, because the bladder is only one of our water carrying methods (you know...not putting all your eggs in one basket) we had the luxury of using the bladder water for washing only. The real plus with the bladder is that it utilises otherwise "dead space" and keeps the centre of gravity low. As we tow a campertrailer with 110L of tanks, the bladder also means that we have a water supply both in the car and camper so we are covered if we are away from camp etc.

:o) Melissa