roof cage mounted water tank install

[denmonkey]

Hi all,

As part of my 'camper' build in the back of the Paj, I've been keen to come up with a solution to carrying some additional water.
If I'm towing the caravan, it has it's own 80l water tank, but when I'm camping otherwise without the van and heading a little more remote, I needed a way to cart water that wasn't going to take up valuable space within the rear of the vehicle.

I was lucky enough to be in the right place at the right time and pick up a slim line 35L water tank off gumtree from a local seller for 100bucks.
They normally retail about 350ish
The tank is nice and flat giving plenty of options for placement.

unfortunately the filler and both drain holes are all at the one end making filling vs usage quite difficult.
Unless perfectly flat you either can't fill it or can't get water out of it.
To fill it needs to be tilted downwards away from the filler but to use it, you need to tilt it backward towards the filler.
In the end I elevated it sideways with the filler higher and the drain on the opposite side lower.






It's not perfect but it works.
It is also baffled which is nice, to stop the water moving around too much. Still either full or empty is probably the best option when mobile.









Since I added solar panels to the roof cage, I can no longer use it for carrying items but this small tank makes use of that wasted space.
This pic is from the install with one of the panels flipped back onto the other one, but you get the idea.






I routed the hose off to the rear of the vehicle on the passenger side under the rack.




I may end up running a longer hose but for now this is a work in progress.
I'd be interest in others roof top tank installs if you have pics or want to share.

Whilst I'd prefer to have my weight low, I figure 35L is worth the bit of extra weight considering I won't be carrying anything else up there.
Overall, I'm happy with the results for now but I think this will go through a few changes before I'm totally happy with it.

As always, here's the vid

https://youtu.be/h-zreCj4ptY

cheers Brett

[Turorit]

Cool setup mate Do you use it for drinking or cooking/cleaning?

Does it get warm enough in the sun for shower?

I consider building a PVC pipe tank attached to the rack but decided it wasn't worth the money and effort for such little capacity

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[denmonkey]

cheers mate.

I only got it up there last week, so have spent this week driving around with it half full to see if the water moving around would be noticeable.

It aint



I'm heading away in a few weeks out west and will get to see how it goes in the heat.

As yet, i can't tell ya.



Mainly it's going to be my back up but I've got plans to use it with my hot water heater and build a shower unit to hang off the side of the cage when camping.

I've got some ideas but nothing firm yet.



I will be using it for drinking if I need to but mainly washing hands and the like most of the time.



I do like those pvc set ups but they're not baffled like this one is, so I'm not sure how the water movement in them would be when traveling.

Only one way to find out though.



and yeah, that size pvc aint cheap.

[twitchie88]

Mate thats a great indepth video too awesome job! And got yaself a new sub.


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[stumagoo]

I like it a lot.... I have a 40l PVC pipe tank (150d just over 2meters long) with a coil for solar heating on it, gets a nice temp and good for a quick rinse or supplies water for dishes etc. It is drinkable if needed but I also carry seperate drinking water as well whenever I go out I normally work on about 10l per person per day for water consumption all up of course longer trips will always need top ups or other ideas.