How Much Is To Much

Wow thats a lot Daza - I guess we take a minimalist approach and amount depends on circumstances - but for our Canning trip we took 40 litres for a planned 2 weeks , always use supermarket casks for redundancy - no water allowed/needed for washing up etc.

Plan usually includes replacing water but only by running thru boiling process.

Had one 10lt cask spare after that trip which only took 10 days.

I suspect a lot of different answers to this one, & most maybe right. I travel with
a basic C/t & carry 40 litres in 2 containers, plus another 10L of drinking water in
the car. I refill with potable water if possible. Now that wont suit a large van with
shower/toilet set up, but to carry 300L ,& kilograms, appears a tad high. Leaving
out major desert crossings, I have never run close to running out, & you will never be far from water with a van that size. I forgot to include the many litres
of other , ahem, drinkable fluids that I always carry. I suppose your answer is somewhere in between. cheers....oldbaz.

Hi Daza,

I assume that there is just the two of you?

For the two of us in pre-trailer days we carried about 60 litres, made up of 25l in "deep storage" and another 30 litres in 10 x 3l plastic bottles which we filled at EVERY opportunity. But we managed on that for some pretty remote trips and even had some "good stuff" come home with us.

Yes some of the water was not too good, but that is part of the remote experience, and by having our "daily use" water in small containers we could easily keep potable water separate from less good stuff.

The trailer holds about 30l (not sure) so we now have a bit of an extra margin but find that we dont really need it. A tip for bore water is to use a dash of lime cordial to disguise the taste.

A lot comes down to individual preferences and useage but 300l seems rather a lot to be hauling around.

Cheers,

Val

hi dazza
dont know if you realize it
1litre of water weighs just over 1 kg

so in round figures thats 3ookg's of extra weight to drag around
-minus as you use it but the slosh factor while travelling would also effect your fuel consumption as well

the term free camping has a lot of hidden factors
and is not that free in the sense that its costing you extra to drag the water around
plus your gennie if you have one to allow extended free camp time
but the free camping has it's piecefull side benefits on the other side of the equasion
so i guess it comes down to what you can afford to do and at what cost is an exceptable level
but nothing is really free
when one throws in all the real cost factors and faces the honest hidden varibles of the excursions we undertake
i guess its exceptable as long as the oversee-her doesn't get wind of the real figures lol
cheers

roughing it in luxury 300 liters is about right...

Hi Daza,

All depends on where you are going. I had 120L in two tanks on my Camprite plus 60L in my vehicle water tank. If going remote, I filled the lot, but if coastal camping would only fill 1 Camprite tank and the vehicle tank.

I ALWAYS have at least two tanks filled, I have previously lost a tank of water when a rock richoched off the chassis rail and went sideways into a well protected tank and broke off the outlet fitting. Lost all the water from one tank and then required a closer monitoring of water use on that trip.

While one can minimise the amount of water they carry, it needs to be weighed up with how easily it can be replaced and where you are travelling. Does 60-100kg of water really make that much weight difference when the total vehicle and van weight is over 5 tons?

Cheers

Captain

I'm with captain on this.
I have a capacity of 220ltrs and always carry them full when possible.
We once encountered a van that had shredded a tyre which had caught alight.
We pulled up and hooked up our hose to our external outlet and using our van water put the said tyre fire out.
When I asked the chap why he had no water to do same his excuse was too heavy to carry. He only had a 40ltr tank.
Perhaps I should have let his van burn as a lesson.......??????.
You may also blow a radiator hose and sometimes it can be patched with tape etc and then topped up from the tank still leaving enough for a cuppa etc.

It is also recommended that one should carry 10ltrs per person per day when travelling in remote areas.

And yes you do use more fuel carting the water with you but it really is only a small price considering the total cost of your rig and the safety factor.

Maybe a fire extinguisher would have been handy in those circumstances.
Isn't it the law to have one in a new van these days?
Regards Philip A

300kg out a a perhaps 400kg payload

Not a lot left for food and clothing and all the other stuff..

We have the same issue with fuel - and often decide not to overload due to the same reasons as already stated for your water.... excess weight = reduced fuel consumption = increased cost of travel + increased accident risk. I wonder... can you buy G&T on tap?

Michelle

Hi Daza

We have four 80 litre tanks; one being dedicated drinking water, and we can last for weeks if we have to. In places like Winton or where drawing water from pool, rather than filter water into our tanks, i use it straight from the bucket (after letting sediment settle) and we have bowl baths rather than showers. This way our good water lasts longer and is usually suitable for drinking from all tanks.

Motherhen

It depends very much on time of year.

Some of the low figures mentioned in the thread were for mid winter trips where the need per day is much less than in summer. In mid summer inland allowing 8 litres per person per day is about the minimum and that is only for drinking. Say you are travelling two up that would be 16 litres per day. Assume that you want to be able to survive for 7 days, if broken down, that would take 16x7=112 litres.

Now if you think about it any drama is not going to happen when you have full water on board. It might happen when you are well into the trip and may be carrying a lot less water. Say you are using water for a shower occasionally or washing or washing up etc and drinking some water in the days before a mishap it is likely that at best you would have 50% water on board at the time of mishap. To have 112 litres available for emergency drinking purposes only it would be likely that twice that or more would be needed at the start of the trip or 224 litres.

Now 224 litres is a fair amount of water but it is realistic and is, if anything, a bit on the low side for desert trips in the hotter times of year. As others have pointed out there are radiator leaks and other contingencies like helping others that could use a lot of water.

Flynnie

Hi All

Thank you for all your answers and suggestions.

Cheers