Water Tanks
Having had luck on our side and the water tanks arriving within the week, we decided to get on and tackle the installation. Little did we know that this weekend would be talked about for months to come…
Setting Up
Before the installation could begin we felt that we needed to make a few adjustments to the grey water tank. We’d noticed when looking at the kit that there were some drawbacks that would be relatively simple to improve upon. Firstly the the water inlet on the waste tank is less than half an inch wide, something we felt was not really practical. We could just imagine trying to drain a full sink or standing in a puddle of shower water waiting for it to go down, certainly trying to do both at the same time would be an issue! We found that it wouldn’t be that hard to cut this out and replace it with something more sensible, such as 1 1/2 inch connection. I found a nice replacement coupling from an aquatics website, which arrived promptly.
Another rather noticeable difference between the two tanks was the lack of a cleaning hatch. Understandably you’d want to clean the fresh tank out from time to time in order to stop mould and mildew developing, but we feel we’d also want to clean out the grey water tank as well. We most definitely would not want smells coming back up the drains and into the van and so we found a suitable hatch on eBay, that was perfect for the task.
Prepping the Tanks
As is common with any van work that requires us to be outside or under the van, the day started with patchy downpours of rain. Not wanting to waste any time we went ahead with the water tank modifications in the garage and the guys prepared themselves for yet another cutting episode. No matter how many times we do this it’s always a bit un-nerving, be it a £100 water tank or the side of the van. We wanted to start with the larger but strangely less complicated hole for the cleaning hatch, after applying masking tape to the intended spot out came John’s trusty compass from his university days! In no time we had our neatly drawn circle, a starter hole was drilled before Ben got stuck in with the jigsaw.
As always after Ben has set to with the jigsaw we were left with a nice neat hole staring back at us. The hatch comes as two parts: a threaded ring and the cap itself. The ring attaches to the outside of the tank, and is secured with a healthy amount of Sikaflex and some screws. With what looked to be a very short gap in the rain Ben dashed outside to spray paint the bare metal brackets, whilst John took a trip under the van to locate the installation points for the tanks. It wasn’t long before these activities were cut short by the rain and we all made a mad dash back into the garage.
Wondering if we were to get anytime outside without being soaked we continued to shelter moving onto the water inlet hole on the grey tank. After managing to saw off the existing spout Ben readied himself with the hole saw and completely removed the old inlet. The replacement coupling has been designed so that one side is mounted on the inside of the tank and the other half screws into it from the outside, making a water tight seal. Thankfully we’d drilled our cleaning hatch hole closer to the end we were working on, making this part a little easier. We attached both sides of the coupling and screwed them together with a little Sikaflex to aid adhesion.
The basic prep work was now complete, leaving me to wrap both the tanks with thermawrap, the ‘foil bubble wrap’ type stuff that we had used for our vapour barrier. We hoped this would help to insulate them a little from colder weather that we may experience.
Fitting the tanks
There was just no let up in the weather over the course of the weekend and no time seemed like a good time to get out and mount the tanks. Along our journey of converting the van we’ve faced many weather related challenges, wind, rain, hail, burning sun you name it. Each time we’ve done our best and tried to continue with the task at hand and today was no exception. We had the good fortune that John was also up for task and we had Linda to support us with warm food, drinks and clean towels upon our return indoors.
In a seemingly dry block of the afternoon we headed out under the van with John showing us the potential mounting points he’d sussed out earlier. We started with the grey water tank as we thought it was probably the easier of the two. The grey tank is mounted on the drivers side of the van, between the edge of the van and the structural members, which lie a third of the way in. The tank is mounted using the brackets that Ben had prepared earlier, by bolting them onto fixed points of the van. Easy we thought, but not so… After the guys had mounted one side of the tank the problem became apparent, the gap with which to tighten up the other side of the brackets was super narrow so I was called in to assist!
The three of us were now squashed under the van, trying not to elbow each other in the dark cramped space. It must have been quite a funny sight from the outside, with three pairs of legs hanging out from under the van. Even with my small hands it was a super hard task, I could barely turn my hand in order to tighten up the nut. Thankfully it wasn’t long before success was had and the tank was in place.
It was now getting dark outside but as it was our last day we wanted to get the installation finished, by securing the fresh water tank in place. This tank is mounted directly in front of the spare wheel, which is towards the back of the van and is fixed with yet more brackets to the same mounting point as the wheel holder. As soon as the guys were under the van and in position attempting to manoeuvre the huge tank in the limited space the heavens opened. It was almost like the weather had decided to wait for this exact moment to unleash a flood that Noah would’ve been proud of. I called out to the guys asking if they were ok and the response was that they were going to get this done, no matter the weather. I have to hand it to the guys, the determination was nothing short of impressive.
True gents that they are they braved the cold and wet by themselves insisting that I stay sheltered in the garage, venturing out only to bring tools and take some sneaky pictures. I was absolutely freezing and couldn’t imagine how they felt, not only cold but now absolutely soaked. John could only comment that the rain water had gone down his collar and out his trouser legs! It took rather a long time to get the tank in place as we needed to saw through two bolts in order to make the tank fit, by this time the weather had eased a little but left both Ben and John laying on the damp wet paving of the driveway. After a while they emerged soggy and victorious and we hurried inside, with the guys soaked right through to the underpants! A van session none of us will forget in a hurry!
Well done all!!!!