The human body has five basic needs to survive; oxygen, food, shelter, sleep and water. The van on its own provides us shelter and a place to sleep. We will be installing a gas tank to fuel our heater and oven but even without that, fire could cook our food and keep us warm. Now water, thats a biggie we need to have a supply of clean water to survive off grid.
After weeks of research and deliberations we had decided on the size, the location and tanks that we wanted. We ordered one 68 litre fresh water tank to be mounted under the van on the drivers side between the cab and the rear wheel arch and one 36 litre waste water tank. The waste tank will sit under the van opposite the fresh tank on the passenger side. We decided to mount them to the underside of the van so we could preserve as much space inside the van as possible.
When the tanks arrived we realised that they didn't have access hatches, meaning that there would be no way to clean them and it would also make the task of installing the level sensors more difficult. Rob got to work cutting the access hatches and installing the water level sensor. We bought the water level kit online, the sensor has three prongs that you can cut to size, one short length to indicate a full tank, a medium length and a long length to indicate low water. This information is then fed to the display panel inside the van so we can always know how full or empty our tanks are!
Before the tanks were mounted we decided to wrap them in insulation. We used double bubble foil insulation as its quite literally all we could fit under there. We don’t plan to face any extreme weathers in the van so we’re not too concerned about the tanks freezing over, the insulation just gives the tanks a little bit of extra protection!
The tanks came with a mounting kit that included hook bolts and a metal cradle. We decided to build custom brackets using the item from the kit provided, unistrut and threaded rod with the hope that the tanks wont rattle around too much whilst we are driving.
We attached the hook bolts to the underside of the van which are then secured onto a solid piece of unistrut. The metal cradle that fits around the tanks is then secured to the unistut with threaded rod, steel square plates and nylock nuts. The finished product may be overkill but is definitely not going anywhere…!
If you want to see more on our water tank installation you can head to our YouTube Channel were you’ll find a full video showing what we did step by step.
All of the exterior tasks for our tiny home to be are nearly complete. The fan and solar panels are on the roof, the water tanks are underneath. The gas tank is coming soon, this will mark the final step in becoming off grid. Then all we have to do is, you know.. build the interior of the camper van. Which should be easy enough…. right?
Rob & Adele
Products used:
Reflectix: https://amzn.to/2KJybwB
Foil Tape: https://amzn.to/2V5kuMp
Access Hatches: https://amzn.to/2Pfchjk
Water Sensors: https://ebay.to/2VcIhu4
Unistrut: https://amzn.to/2ZkLqXF
Threaded Rod: https://amzn.to/2UZC2tt
Steel square plates https://amzn.to/2Vbfohy
Nylock Nuts M8: https://amzn.to/2V6xIZd
Tanks + Mounts: www.vanbitz.co.uk
Angle Grinder: https://amzn.to/2CwZaVH
Safety Mask: https://amzn.to/2CzNqSm
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