# Where's all my water gone?



## PF13 (Aug 2, 2013)

Been really careful with water, but tank is almost empty now and reading is showing zero. But, and this foxes me, waste tank is showing 58% full. We have been drinking bottled water so all water used has gone down plughole. Tank was definately full at the start as i checked in the top, and is definitely nearly empty now, dont feel we have used 100 litres so is it leaking out? How good is that orange plug? What stops it sloshing out the blue overflow when driving?


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## gaspode (May 9, 2005)

Never believe anything that motorhome water and waste guages tell you - they're notoriously unreliable.
When the tap runs dry you'll know you're out of water.


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## rayrecrok (Nov 21, 2008)

> PF13"]Been really careful with water, but tank is almost empty now and reading is showing zero. But, and this foxes me, waste tank is showing 58% full. We have been drinking bottled water so all water used has gone down plughole. Tank was definately full at the start as i checked in the top, and is definitely nearly empty now, dont feel we have used 100 litres so is it leaking out? How good is that orange plug? What stops it sloshing out the blue overflow when driving?


Ah bless. :lol:

ray.


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## peribro (Sep 6, 2009)

Some water has presumably been going down your toilet bowl if you've been using the flush?


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## cabby (May 14, 2005)

You beat me to it, yes the fresh water tank also supplies the flush on the toilet.

cabby


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## rayc (Jun 3, 2008)

> cabby said:
> 
> 
> > You beat me to it, yes the fresh water tank also supplies the flush on the toilet.
> ...


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## TheFlups (Nov 9, 2012)

Defo the Bailey has a separate loo flush tank.

Our Bailey water gauge tells lies and has done since day one! Once, we lost all the water we put in due to the bung not being in tight enough!

It's just a case of the more you use the van, the more you get used to how long the water lasts I'm afraid. The gauges just give you an estimate. I fill ours to overflowing, drive a few miles and what was 100% turns into 79%...amazing.

The other thing I noticed was that from about 75% up to 100% the system only seems to take about 5 litres!

Can't complain about the rest of the van though...ours has been great.


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## gaspode (May 9, 2005)

Hi
Just re-read the O/P and conclude that you filled the fresh tank before driving to site?

I have no specific knowledge of Bailey systems but I do know that some makes of M/H have a nasty habit of self emptying via a badly configured overflow whilst on the road.
Never experienced this myself but then again, I never travel with a full tank anyway. Apart from payload considerations, there doesn't seem a lot of point in lugging around 100 litres of such an easily replenished commodity as water unless absolutely necessary.
Same thing applies to grey waste, never leave a site without an empty waste tank if possible.


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## HarleyDave (Jul 1, 2007)

Why do you drive with 100% (or 79%) full water tank - won't there be any water where you're going?

We drive with empty tanks and about 5 litres in a separate bottle for tea on the way.

Just asking

Cheers

Dave


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## SNandJA (Aug 22, 2008)

PF13 said:


> Been really careful with water, but tank is almost empty now and reading is showing zero. But, and this foxes me, waste tank is showing 58% full. We have been drinking bottled water so all water used has gone down plughole. Tank was definately full at the start as i checked in the top, and is definitely nearly empty now, dont feel we have used 100 litres so is it leaking out? How good is that orange plug? What stops it sloshing out the blue overflow when driving?


I have a different make of Motorhome but our waste tank has a larger capacity than our fresh water tank. If Bailey capacities have similar difference then this may explain the % difference?

Steve


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## rotorywing (Jul 19, 2010)

My Philosophy whilst touring France is Full Fresh water and empty toilet and waste tank before departing, in fact I keep my fresh tank full all the time with the 'watering can method'. In UK its different as its 99% camp sites anyway !!.

Martin


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## Camdoon (Sep 21, 2012)

Bailey is 100l in 100l out. We use our van at home and find that roughly fill 3 times for 2 empties. The usage would all be showers and hand washing. We do tend to save water by wetting, soaping then rinsing off rather than having the shower blasting away. So figures given are not amiss to mine.
I use the overflow to know when full and the indicators for both tanks are accurate enough to work with when away.


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## listerdiesel (Aug 3, 2012)

We get through approximately 35 litres of water a day for cooking, drinks, showers and washing up.

Peter


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## Penquin (Oct 15, 2007)

We never worry, we have water with us until it runs out then we refill and we empty grey whenever we want/can.

The gauges are rubbish and even empty we still have 50% according toi the gauge, and yet other times it reads 0%.....

The easiest thing for us is to have a quick look by opening a side cupboard - the water level can be clearly seen........

Dave


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## andrewball1000 (Oct 16, 2009)

PF13 said:


> ....What stops it sloshing out the blue overflow when driving?


I would investigate this further as it may be the cause of your loss. I dont about Baileys but my Knaus had an overflow that lost 1/3rd to a 1/2 of the water when driving until I modified it.


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## Mrplodd (Mar 4, 2008)

Never yet found a fresh water gauge that's anything approaching accurate!! 

I cannot for the life of me understand why, on such an expensive item as a MH, the standard practice is not a float gauge as in the fuel tank. THEY seem to work pretty well for the entire life of the vehicle don't they??

Like others I travel with minimal fresh water (unless I know I am going to be wild camping as most Aires have fresh water.


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## geordie01 (Apr 20, 2006)

Check the orange plug we have lost water overnight with this not fitting properly (must get around to modding it)
never travel with a full tank 1/4 max


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## pete4x4 (Dec 20, 2006)

I too have lost water due to the bung not being pushed far enough in but only once!

I have found the gauge at the low end to be reasonably accurate, 20l in 20% on the gauge. I travel with around 20L in the tank and 10l in the hot water tank.


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## Geriatricbackpacker (Aug 21, 2012)

I have lost our water due to my lack of attention and chin wagging. Stupidly half filled the tank and removed the tap end of the hose leaving the other end in the tank. Got back to the van and started chatting before removing the other end of the hose. Upshot was that as the water ran out at the tap end it siphoned the tank almost dry. Got quite a shock when we pulled up and went to draw off some water. I thought I had a problem with the tank until I realised that the problem was me. We filled up at an aire en route so no damage done just a lesson learnt.


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## PF13 (Aug 2, 2013)

The guage seems ok. It went down fairly consistently, then when it got to zero the taps ran out so i am reasonably confident in the fresh water tank guage. Next i will check in the waste tank and see if it looks like it is approaching the 60% full which the guage says. If it is then i think i need to check the overflow. It is the bllue pipe hanging out of the tank. I wondered about clipping a bit of flexible pipe to it and then fitting a pipe clamp to the flexible bit.......


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## pneumatician (May 1, 2005)

Our Level Gauges have never worked. I did tat about for a while then just gave up.

We always travel with just enough fresh water for a couple of flushes and a pot of tea. Grey tanks and Loo are always empty in transit.

Based on the principle that to carry 125L of fresh and possibly 100L of Grey must be quite uneconomical. ( 222 Kg)


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## alexblack13 (Feb 10, 2013)

HarleyDave said:


> Why do you drive with 100% (or 79%) full water tank - won't there be any water where you're going?
> 
> We drive with empty tanks and about 5 litres in a separate bottle for tea on the way.
> 
> ...


Same here. Way too stingie to use up fuel to humph a tankful of water around the country, We just fill up when we get where were going. Never yet had a big problem obtaining water.. As above we carry enough for drinks etc in the fridge.

Why carry water around? Esp in the UK? .. 8O

Alex B .....


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## nicholsong (May 26, 2009)

One answer to keeping the tank reasonably full, which is pertinent to the thread, is the unreliability of tank gauges and/or any inadvertent loss of water.

For those of you asking 'Why carry a full tank of water?' for us the answer is for our choice of wildcamping, and to drive around remote areas to find water could use more fuel than saved.

As to the cost of the extra fuel and being '..too stingy to use fuel...', I am sure the extra cost of fuel is much less than the cost of a campsite or even water at an Aire, unless you are carrying it for hundreds of miles.

Geoff


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## fatbuddha (Aug 7, 2006)

pneumatician said:


> Our Level Gauges have never worked. I did tat about for a while then just gave up.
> 
> We always travel with just enough fresh water for a couple of flushes and a pot of tea. Grey tanks and Loo are always empty in transit.
> 
> Based on the principle that to carry 125L of fresh and possibly 100L of Grey must be quite uneconomical. ( 222 Kg)


222kg in a m/h that probably weighs anywhere between 3500 and 4000kg is hardly going to make much difference to fuel economy - maybe 5 or 6% difference. hardly worth worrying about imho


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## Mrplodd (Mar 4, 2008)

As far as fuel economy matters are concerned I would simply point out that modern manufacturers spend a lot of time and effort keeping vehicle weight down for the simple reason that weight does have an impact fuel economy.

As an example in F1 (yes I know its not a real environment but..) the performance of the cars increases as the fuel load goes down, likewise lap times do the same for the simple reason that there is LESS mass (fuel) to accelerate and brake. 

I accept that MH's are VERY different to cars (especially FI cars) but to quote Scotty from Star Trek "Ye canna change the laws 'o physics Jim" :lol:


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## fatbuddha (Aug 7, 2006)

no doubt Mr P, but frankly I can't be arsed worrying about saving a minor amount of fuel just because I have a full tank of water and carry grey waste. taking 5mph off the speed will save as much fuel with full tanks, than keeping to the same speed with empty ones.


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## PF13 (Aug 2, 2013)

Well to return to my question.....

The guage works well. It goes down as the tank does, confirmed from looking inside.

Today i brimmed the tank and it was overflowing out of the blue pipe so was completely full. Drove then from calgary to tobermory via dervaig, about 15 miles on hilly single track. Checked the tank before the ferry in tobermory and it was down to 70%. I can only conclude that it is coming out of the overflow when driving im going to try to fill tank tomorrow and then attempt to block the overflow to see if it improves at all.

As to the debate on water and travelling with it or not, if anyone can suggest an easy water supply between sanna bay and castle tioram or between tioram and arisaig i would be most grateful......


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## nicholsong (May 26, 2009)

PF13 said:


> As to the debate on water and travelling with it or not, if anyone can suggest an easy water supply between sanna bay and castle tioram or between tioram and arisaig i would be most grateful......


My point exactly, as in my post above, about travelling in remote areas and needing water.

The old army saying comes to mind - ''Keep your kit with you"

Geoff


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## klyne (May 10, 2005)

My tank (Bailey 740) was showing almost empty the other day when I knew that it was not! I removed the inspection fitting and I would say it had at least three quarters of a tank full. Does anyone know what sort of gauge there is in a Bailey and why it would start misreading?

David


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## SteveB123 (Jan 28, 2013)

David
I have a Bailey 760, you can recalibrate the water sensors from the control panel above the door. I have had to do a it a couple of times when the readings are wrong. I will email you instructions if you want. 

Steve


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## Pollydoodle (Aug 18, 2005)

I always filled our Elddis tank to overflowing before we left home and by the time we had reached our destination (I sound like a sat nav!! lol) we had lost a good bit of water from the overflow during the journey. The gauges were never accurate. In theory, the fresh water tank held more than the waste, but I could fill with fresh water twice to emptying the waste once.


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