[trhoppe]

Maybe I'm overthinking this, but have a few opinion questions about mounting my water tank.

I'm definitely going above the wheel well, so it's going to be about 18" off the floor built on a frame of 2x4 and 3/4" plywood. That part is easy. The question is on the dimensions of the tank.

It's a 20 gallon tank and I have the option of 32" long x 12" tall x 12" wide or 36" long x 16" tall x 8" wide.

While the 8" wide tank sounds great, and I'd gain a bit of floor space, I'm slightly afraid of mounting that as the base is going to be shorter than the height. I'm worried about stability and tipping. The 12" x 12" sounds, on the surface, to be a bit more stable.

Thoughts/opinions?

 

[El Guapo]

If it's built inside a cabinet or something to hold it in place then it should be ok. I'm assuming that it's going to be built laying down. Or are you going to stand it upright 36" tall?

 

[GaryBIS]

Hi,

Bear in mind that if you are in a crash, that 170 lbs of water in a 30g crash is going to be 5000 lbs trying to rip it out of its mounts to join you in the front of the van. You really want to tie down heavy items like the tank well.

Gary

 

[trhoppe]

It will have a 2x4 frame to sit on and be strapped down with 4 metal strips AND be closed in with 3/4 plywood.

It's also going to be layed down either on the 12" wide side or the 8" wide side.

I was just thinking that the 12" wide one will have less force and a lower center of gravity, so there will be less sideways pressure on both the plastic, the wood, and the straps. Just "seems more stable"

 

[ShaunB]

Just to add some other thoughts on this......

I am going with 20 gallon (8"x16"36") and I will be mounting it standing up behind the wheel well. I know this won't work for layouts that have the bed mounted to the side rails in a transverse orientation (36" is too tall). However I'm putting my bed (54" wide) longitudinally, which allows space on either side. The reason I went with a standing up orientation was to try to reduce the sloshing around of water when accelerating and decelerating. The 36" will enable me to strap it to the horizontal supports that are 30" off the floor. I'm actually installing two 20 gallon tanks, one each side, connected with Pex under the plywood floor. Although they will rarely need to be filled to capacity it gives me the extra water should I need it, for showering, cleaning the bike, etc.

 

[trhoppe]

I went to the actual van and measured and test fitted and for my use case the 12x12 is going to end up being better. Same reason as you just said, the horizontal supports.

The 12" tank, on top of the 18" wheel well, with 3/4" plywood underneath is a perfect fit for the 30" horizontal support and I will get a real nice tie in into that. If I were to go with the 16" tall tank there, I'll be 4" OVER the supports and will have to go back down into them or something like that, and it won't be as nice.

 

[jasonsickle]

I went with the 36x16x8 tank also above the wheel well. Put it to use this week and everything is working fine. A full tank is lasting us 3-4 days. Check my build site for several photos on the tank install.

 

[medicineman4040]

Our water tank just arrived yesterday. A 10 gallon tank. Volume wise that amount is perfect.
Fit wise dubious at best. It tucks nicely behind the driver's wheel well but the angle iron placed
for the platform bed is just a bit in the way
Under consideration is to Rotozip out a round portion of the KK-Plus hardwood flooring directly under the
tank. Thinking long and hard on that one.
We do like that location though, in a crash it would be hard for that 80 pounds to move forward.