Water Tanks

William, I've had Aluminium tanks fabricated im many different shapes and sizes to fit in hard to use spaces in my vehicle. One good place is the foot well in the back seat . For instance, a tank 1.5m x 40cm x 10cm deep will hold 60 litres and only raise the floor 10cm.. Good luck, Mal T.

William, Big W sell pale blue water plastic containers in a range of sizes. The largest are 25 L. I usually carry three of these and decant enough for each days use into a smaller 5 L one which is easy to carry and pour from. Being 25 kg, the big drums can be moved around if necessary whereas a 60 L drum ain't goin' nowhere.

Hi,

I'd be a bit concerned about using aluminium to fabricate water tanks - there's a growing link between aluminium and altzheimers. You'd want to make sure the tank was plastic lined or something!

Steve, I had oldtimers disease long before I started using Aluminium tanks. Mal T.

William, I had a 45 L tank fabricated from 225mm diam X 1200 mm long welded black polyehtylene stormwater pipe (10 mm wall thickness). A central bulkhead splits it into 2 separate 22.5 L tanks. I strapped it down behind the back seat to stop it becoing a projectile. There is an outlet syphon hose from each tank which extends beyond the tailgate when required. The outlet is also the inlet and a separate valve on the vent provides an extra level of security. Before the first use I flushed the tank with cholorine and then with bicarb of soda to kill germs and get rid of any tainting. Two tanks gives great flexibility in case you pick up some bore water which can be segregated from your better tasting drinking water. DETAILS: Each tank has one vent and one outlet which doubles as the inlet. Both openings are mounted on the top so there is no possibility of any leakage. The vents have a ball valve fitted, to which I connect a short overflow hose when filling. The outlet has an internal spear to within 5 mm of the bottom of the tank and a hose with a ball valve on the end that can act as a syphon when the vent is open. I carry about 2.5 meters of extra hose to attach to the outlet valve for filling. All hoses are 1/2 inch clear reinforced hose rated for drinking water with standard 1/2 inch click-on hose fittings for attachments. The tank cost about $300 to fabricate and the fittings about $100. We used it for a 4 week trip recently and it worked a treat - no more lugging water around. Hope this gives you some ideas of your own.

I have recently seen a prefabricated platsic/PVC/poly/whatever tank in some 4wd accessory stores. I can't recall the brand. The tank is rectangular, covered with marine/outdoor carpet, and looks to be about 60 L capacity. It comes with straps, so I presume the concept is to fix it the the floor(if in a 4wd, behind the rear seat). It is capable of being pressurised. Hpoe this helps. Cheers. Rick. p.s. I have a Patrol 4wd, and use a Floatpac tank in the rear quarter panel, and several 20 L,10 L and 5 L poly/plastic containers. The are easy to move, easy to pack in several different spaces, and if damaged, I won't loose all the water I carry at once. Rick.

Thanks for all the great ideas!

William if you can conveniently carry them, square plastic toy crates hold six four-litre wine box bladders and I have found that to be a most convenient way to carry and access water. And it can be a lot of fun emptying the bladders in the first place! 10 litre casks can be obtained at your local pub before they hit the rubbish skip. While they are strong they are not as easy to handle as the 4l's. Have a good one, Ed B

I have a 65ltr tank intergrated into my rear storage, got it from Rays Outdoors.

Has a tap on it and a filler hole I get to from the side window of the car...

Cant as for more!

William,you say you're going on a long trip so I can't imagine you would scrimp on the cost of having a properly installed stainless steel tank. We have had 2 different versions, one underbody and one inside a side panel in the car with an external filler that you fill from putting a hose or nossle in the window. A tap is at the bottom and more details are in our Hot Topic feature on "Vehicle Setup" - under water tank. The underbody tank often delivers hot water (gets hot from the exhaust) whilst the only problem with the side panel one is that you can hear the water sloshing if you sit in the back seats while you're crusing quietly in the suburbs (you don't hear the sloshing when offroad due to other noises!). The side panel option uses otherwise unusable space so its a great storage option. I just can't believe that anyone would consider doing a dodgy bodgy with their precious water supply when planning a long term trip - its your life source. Other than that, water from stainless taste the best and is refreshingly cool (if not heated from the exhaust).

William. What type of car do you have? I have an 80 series with a steel TJM bar which can take a winch. In place of the winch, I have fitted S/S water tank which holds approx' 25 litres.

Use pete soft drink bottles. Heaps of 'em. Stash them here there and everywhere. They are as tough as old boots, food grade, and fit in all sorts of nooks and crannies. They are easy to pour from and several people can access several at a time.... BUT HERE'S THE BEST BIT. If one breaks or is damaged. ONLY THAT ONE IS LOST. You have all the rest of the water safe. They can rub together for ages before any wear takes place. You can distribute the weight well. You can wrap some and keep them in ice to keep them cool. You can even buy them ready filled with extremely bad for you but better than bore water, soft drink. [or 'cooldrink' as they call it in the west] Cheers Royce