As I’ve mentioned in a previous post I ordered my underslung water tanks from Barratt Tanks. Well they have now arrived.
The tanks look great and I’m really pleased with them so thank you to the people on the SMBCC Forum that recommended them. They arrived in about two weeks from ordering – not bad as they are custom built to suit the layout of my van.
The tanks are made for professional installations (Shaun makes the tanks for IH Motorhomes, Vantage and others) so don’t come with any instructions. A quick call to Shaun and he explained the fitting process quickly over the phone.
This is how my tanks should be fitted.
These are to fit the layout of my van which has the kitchen just inside the sliding door, the bathroom opposite and a rear U-shaped lounge/bed area.
I really like the fill/drain port design. Nice and simple, two taps, one to fill and drain the fresh water tank (with a hose connector already fitted) and another to drain the waste both mounted on a plaque to be screwed up under the side of the van.
The bit that stick out on the bottom right of the waste tank is to hold the hose from the fresh water tank in place to it doesn’t droop under the van.
Shaun also drilled the hole so I could fit the CBE water gauge kit. The prongs on the gauge are to long as they come but can be chopped down easily.
The fixing kit comprises of 8 long bolts that have hooks on one end (drill an 8mm hole into the box section under the van about 20mm up from the bottom then hook the hook in) and threaded the other end and four metal bars to hold the tank in place.
I’ve had a quick look under my van and it looks a pretty easy job to fit the tanks up at the weekend 🙂
So you don’t have a filler point cut into the side of your van to the fresh water tank ?
That’s correct (and one of the reasons I did it this way).
Here’s a not very good pic of the taps fitted:
http://myselfbuildcamper.co.uk/?attachment_id=761
I like the idea of no holes in the van sides.
Do you just jab a hosepipe on the yellow connector. How do you know when it is full?
Yep, that’s it.
I have two ways of knowing when the tank is full. The first is I have electronic sensors fitted to the tank (CAK Tanks sell these). This is great but I usually only use the gauge to know how much water I have left. The second way is much simpler. The tank has an overflow pipe fitted to the top. When it’s full water spills onto the floor and I turn the hose off.
Thanks for the explanation. I think when I come to build my van I’ll do it this way.
Where can you buy the taps in question ? in particular the grey waste water tap with the blue lever ? I require two of these for my IH motor home , one for the fresh water and one for the waste water.
Hi Paul, I bought mine from Barratt Tanks – http://www.tank.me/
Sorry for late reply, the taps above are Plasson item code 1300, and are available from any JDP branch or any other Plasson fittings seller