This Water Upgrade Gets Me WEEKS Off-Grid

But there's only one problem. I can't use that waste tank that was under the van for fresh water. I forgot just how much of a challenge it is trying to manhandle these tanks on your own. And I'm actually really pleased with how it's come out. It's a lot better than I thought it would have been. I think Johnny Leaf Blower's gone so we can open the door again. All right so I'm a few days away from doing some pretty big power upgrades on the van but before I do that I've got one other big upgrade which I want to do which is kind of last minute. I only really just thought about it and it was from a point of view of the fact that I'm up-plating the van. I'm going from three and a half tons to four and a half tons so I'm able to carry a ton more weight than I am at the moment which is great and even by upgrading like the batteries and a few other things that i'm going to be doing which you guys will see either in this video or in another video very soon the other thing i thought about upgrading was the water tanks so i'm able to carry at the moment 92 liters of fresh water and 62 liters of waste water which is amazing that's a lot of water i'll try and put on screen the tanks that i have so it's these tanks here which are amazing they go right in the center of the van so the So the weight's kind of evenly spread and they've got a cool. Cool cut out for the handbrake. I'll show you on this one here. So the handbrake cable kind of runs down the center here and you've got all these notches which are cut out, which kind of sculpt around the chassis underneath. They're amazing. That's my waste water tank that I've just pulled out underneath the van. And then if I show you the fresh, and then that one there, is my fresh water. So you can see it goes all the way back to here, comes along and then the waste water one goes here and comes up to this part of the chassis here. So it kind of fits in this area here. And then there's the handbrake cable that it kind of goes around. But as I say, because I can carry More weight now. I did have this crazy idea, which was to take the 62 litre tank, which is next to the 92, and join them both together, which I know you can do and I've been told you can do, so as I have 154 litres of fresh water. I think that's right check me on my maths. But I thought it was an amazing idea because then I can obviously stay off grid for longer, I can go away for longer periods without needing to you know worry about topping up fresh water. But there's only one problem I can't use that waste tank that was under the van for fresh water because it's already been used for waste, it's already contaminated and I don't even want to try and like clean it all out and use it for waste. I'm just not into that so I bought another tank which is exactly the same. It's a 62 litre tank and that one we're gonna insulate. I've already got the insulation here which is from DodoMat and everything I'm talking about as well I'll leave links down in the description for you guys. DodoMat is the insulation I've used throughout the whole of the van. And this stuff is amazing. It's only like five mil thick and you've got the foil on one side as well so this stuff's amazing. This is kind of what it looks like. That's how it'll go on the tank. So we'll get that tank wrapped in insulation and then that will go next to the 92 litre one under the van. So we then have 154 litres. And then this waste tank will go at the back of the van. So the 62 litre will go here. So we've got the 92 up there which is obviously just in front of the airbags. And then the 62 we're going to kind of mount. I've got to create a little bit of a framework. So we're going to have the mounting points up here. And then it will come back to about here. And that will be the 62 litre waste. And then we'll run our pipes down here. I have had a couple of comments about these not being insulated as well. Which are for the shower. But if you've seen my other videos you'll know that I moved the water pump from the back of the van. So the water pump used to kind of sit around here in the back of the van. And I moved it all the way to... About here, so it's just behind where the kitchen is, which means the feed pipe for the tank, feed pipe is now here, so this is the water inlet, and it currently goes across and then joins up in that back corner there to feed the pump. But what I'm gonna do is when we have this new tank in place and they're both joined together, then the new feed will be in this corner. So the water only has to travel from this point Up a pipe, straight into here, and into the pump. There's not really far for it to travel at all. Which is awesome, because the further away your pump is from your water tank, the more it's going to kind of struggle to pull the water through. And I've had issues before where I filled up, and then it takes forever to bleed it, or you end up with like 20 litres left in the tank, but there isn't kind of enough water pressure. Behind the pump to be able to kind of like push it through and it just takes forever to get water through so it's a massive improvement putting the water pump where it is but what I'm going to do now now that I'm happy with it where it is and I'm happy with pipe runs I've done and I've tested the shower and made sure that all works I'm going to now get all those pipe runs put in place properly and get them all insulated and get it all done nicely so that it's ready to go up to Scotland. End of September time and we're all good for this winter. So like I say, this was kind of a last minute decision and I thought to myself, do you know what? I'm just going to get it done because it's going to save topping up on water every week or two and we're going to be able to stay off grid for a lot, lot longer. So the only thing I'm not sure about is on my tanks, I do have, so I've got the level sensor here for the waste, which is obviously going to stay in position. I don't need a level sensor in this one because obviously the tanks are going to be joined together and when I fill them, they're both going to fill up at the same time and they'll both go down. at the same time so I don't need a level sensor in this one because I already have one in the other one so that's going to basically take a reading of the you know the two tanks will basically be one whole tank if that makes sense. The only thing I'm not sure about is I do have heater pads on these which are normally turned on automatically but I'm going to make them manual so I fitted those and they are controlled by the Victron by the Cerbo GX which is the kind of brain and computer of the van. Basically when the temperatures drop down to about three degrees outside the heater pads come on automatically and they start heating the tanks through so that my outside water doesn't freeze even though the tanks are insulated and it ensures that yeah I don't have frozen water or my waste tank doesn't freeze and then I can't empty my waste tank. What I'm probably going to do is leave that heater pad on the waste tank because I don't want to not have one on there but I haven't got another one to fit to this tank and to be honest with you I probably don't really Got one on the other tank, the 92 litre one under there. Then as that heats up, it'll kind of feed like the lukewarm water through to this tank and they'll both kind of, you know, stay lukewarm. It was only an idea I had to stop it. Like if it does get really cold, like if it drops down to like minus 10, minus 15 outside, there is a chance the tanks could freeze and I could end up with frozen water. But do you know what? It's never actually happened. And the insulation is so good on the tanks as well that unless I go down to like temperatures Minus 20, minus 25. I don't really see my water freezing so if I feel like I need another heater pad in time and that you know that that isn't working the solution of just having one on there and not on there then I'll get another heater pad but for now I think we're going to be fine. I think first job like I say I've taken this tank out already I've disconnected my level sensor and the heater pad I've got to sort all the cables out underneath the van but I think the next job all this insulation I put on like a year or two ago it kind of ripped at the front and then dirt started and it just was kind of flapping around so that's why all that's hanging off so I need to redo the insulation on the waste tank we're going to insulate this one this is the stuff to do it and yeah that's the first job get this insulated then we can get it bolted up and then we can worry about all the all the connections and joining them all together and all that stuff so yeah that's my plan so this is actually another reason why I love these tanks on these you've got these got these little bits here which sit lower than the rest The rest of the tank, so... When it's obviously down like this you can see yeah obviously the water is going to come right into this low part here and go through these two fittings so that you get all of the water out and you're not just having a load of water still sat in the tank and they're really nice BSP fittings as well which is good. I think this is inch and a quarter and then you've got three quarters an inch or half an inch there and then you've got all the nice stainless steel brackets as well stainless Stainless steel fittings, yeah, they're really good. Really good quality so if you want if you want something a little bit more substantial than kind of the standard tanks you find that have just like the the wrap around I don't even know what you call it like brackets like wiring or straps that you have. I highly rate these so they're not cheap um but they are worth they're worth every penny. And there we go. One tank insulated. It's not perfect, but it will do. The only thing I haven't got, which I forgot to pick up, was some tape, which I use to do the joints. You can use like, you know, the kind of foil tape or duct tape works just as well. It's only to stop the edges from coming up. This is going to be the top of the tank anyway, so this will be pressed up against the chassis. So yeah, I'm not too worried about all the joints being on the top. That's kind of why I made all the joints on the top. A really important note. If you're going to fit these as well and insulate them, make sure you cut holes where your breathers are, because this is where the water needs to come out to allow for the difference in the tank. So you don't want to block those off, so make sure you cut those out. I've left this side blank, because that butts up against the other tank. And then I've just left the connections down here. This is going to be for the dump, for when I want to dump the fresh water. I'll explain more about that when I do those. And then that's going to be the feed. So yeah, if I flip it over... All right so there you go you can see the underside now so there's one bracket the other bracket will go in there which is on the van and then I've just got this one edge here to tape which I will do when I get tape but the rest of it is um yeah all the edges are on the top so yeah good times pleased with that. So now I just need to get this one bolted in place and then I'm going to worry about the connections and where the waste tank is going and everything else. I forgot just how much of a challenge it is trying to manhandle these tanks on your own and get them bolted up underneath the van. So I handle them out here, but when you're up underneath the van by yourself, it's a bit challenging. So this is the waste. Put the other brackets on here. So we've got one here, one here, and then we've got the two at the front, which I've just adjusted. And then what we're going to have, we've got a blanker here. We're going to have the outlet here with the dump valve. And then this one here is just a 40 mil. This is where the waste used to go in. But I'm going to put a blanker there, seeker flex that in and cover that. And then I'll put the inlet, so the waste in here. I'm going to drill a 40 mil hole, put a barb on the end. And that's where our pipe's going to go in for our waste because it'll be more direct coming from the sink straight into here. So then obviously you've got your breathers on the top. Obviously the whole tank, if I tilt it up. So the whole tank does need re-insulating and I've pulled off all the stuff that was all loose and hanging off because I said this one was actually the one that was sitting up the front so I'm going to re-insulate this but like I say I'm going to drill that hole around the front first. I've got a blanker coming tomorrow which I'm going to see if I can flex that in there and then this will all get insulated all the way around all underneath. I'll leave the heater pad coming out of the side there and then we've got our waste sensor as well which is in the top and yeah that's ready to go up and then that's going to go up under the back and I'm Unfortunately, there's no chassis points for these to go in, so I do have an idea on these. So if I bring you guys under the van and show you what I'm thinking. What I'm thinking is, is the front of the tank is going to sit kind of around here. So the first bracket needs to go up around this area and it needs to be, obviously you can see the main fresh tank here and that's where the bracket is. This chassis leg here is about 80mm. So what we're going to do is I'm going to get just some timber from the DIY shop and I'm just going to bolt a piece of timber here going straight across I'm going to bolt it through to the uh yeah to the floor pan of the van and then that will give us I'm going to do it so it's 80 mil deep and then that will give us something nice to then bolt the tank to so I'm going to do one piece along here and then we'll need another piece along here because the other bracket sits about So we'll have a bracket here and a bracket here bracket there bracket there and then our timbers just bolting across. They're going to be quite lightweight so that's no issue and obviously you can see the you can see the airbags but they're quite compressed at the moment because I need to get this leaf out. If you've seen my other videos this is what I mean. The airbag here It's like I say, it's very very compressed and we need it to be kind of expanded a lot more. And because I've got the airbags in now, I don't necessarily need all three leaf springs. And as you can see, this last leaf spring here, I mean, that's nearly an inch thick, that leaf spring. We're going to get this one dropped out. We're just going to run with two, and then we're going to have our airbag, which will then be able to expand more, which will also, it will do two things. Number one, it will give me a way better ride than I've got at the moment. And number two, it's going to drop the actual back of the van down a little bit, which is good because it's sitting way too high as it is at the moment. And then when the water tank does go in, obviously I can run these pipes So I'll probably have them bolted up here and then running along here, here, and then I'll probably put some 90 degree bends and have the 90 degree bends going up. Into where the shower is so they can all be tidied up I can run this cable here as well properly because that is the pump feed at the moment Which is actually the wrong gauge cable, but I just ran just one cable down there That's all I had just because I wanted to prove a theory and prove the fact that you know The pump was gonna work there so and obviously you can see I've uncovered it, but that's the outlet for the Fresh water tank which we're gonna move To the other side, which will then obviously feed the pump, so we'll just put a blanker over there. And then that white one there at the top is where filler is. So I have, not sure I can show you from here, but there's the outside filler, which I plug my hose into, and then it goes in and up, and then there's a one-way valve in line up up there that little brass thing and then there it goes Along here and then straight into the tank there. There's hardly kind of any pipe run and super fast at filling. But I think that's all I can do for today to be honest because I need those other bits to turn up for the waste so I can finish drilling the holes and doing whatever I need to do to the waste tank. And then yeah, I need to get under here tomorrow with the tank with some timbers, mark out where these are gonna go, get all those glued and screwed in place and then then the waste tank can go up. Then once the waste tank's up, then I can plumb everything in and swap all the pipes over and do everything properly. So yeah, making progress. All right, so here we are nearly two and a half months later after starting this kind of water expansion on the van. I'm sorry about the noise as well. I'm on this beautiful campsite here. If you saw my last video you'll recognize where I am. It's still on Highlands End, been here for a good few days. I extended my stay because it was so nice but the gardeners are out today. If we have a look through the gap in the fence the gardeners are over there at the moment. They were around here this morning doing all this and all these lawns but they are currently over there and the view is spectacular. You can see all the way up to the beacon there which is where we hiked in my last video. And, uh, yeah, these guys have got a cracking view down here, but it has been incredibly windy the last 48 hours. So I'm very, very glad that I'm parked here and I have some shelter and, uh, yeah, it is a lovely site. Like I say, if you saw my last video, then, uh, yeah, you'll know where I am, but, um, right, let's get back onto these water tanks. So the waste water tank, I'll tell you what I'm going to do. I'm going to grab a towel and, uh, then i can kneel on my towel under the van otherwise trying to kneel down on gravel not pleasant All right so this is my new waste water tank. So as you can see it's a little bit different from how you saw it last time. It's all completely bolted up and what I actually decided to do I had enough insulation to actually go over the tanks one more time. So not only did I wrap this tank twice the waste tank but I also did the fresh tank. So I actually took the entire lot out at my mum and dad's and I re-insulated it again. So you've got about 12 mil insulation the on the fresh tank and the waste tank and then what I decided to do was wrap them in damp proof membrane and one of the biggest reasons for that is like when you look at the van from a distance you can actually see like especially on this one here at the back you can actually see the silver of the actual waste tank. Before I did these you saw the silver at the back and it kind of didn't look very good and I've always noticed with the fresh tank as well that you were able to see the silver insulation when you kind of were walking up to the van and it just didn't look very good so So trying to look for something that I could wrap them in that was was black that would also not rip easily and that's when I decided on the damp proof membrane and it's very very thick stuff it's very durable it doesn't tear easily and that is simply just spray glued on so I've used some spray adhesive on both the tank side and the damp proof membrane side and then yeah I carefully just applied it wrapped it around the tank and got all the tanks bolted up and I'm actually really pleased with how it's come out it's a lot better than I thought So yeah this is the waste tank at the back now I've obviously dropped this down it hasn't been bolted up right onto the van floor because I needed to drop it down the same height as the fresh tank so is that when I put my waste into it any pipes that come out of the van normally they run along the kind of floor supports and stuff here under the van so if I was to kind of then take that pipe and go upwards it wouldn't go into the tank it would just kind of sit in the pipe. I had to have the tank lower than where the pipes would be if that makes sense. So to get this The tanks sit in the same level as the fresh tank. I basically just bolted these C16 Timbers, which gives me a total of about 85, 90 mil from the floor to the top of the tank, which is the same height as to where the fresh tank sits. And then I just bolted the tank to those and it's all very, very secure. And yeah, that isn't going anywhere. So getting under the other side here. All right, so this is the other side and you can obviously see I've now insulated all my shower pipes as well so they go up into the van so they are all done because i was happy finally with the position of those and i needed to obviously leave them uninsulated while i was messing around moving the pump and testing a few things. Waste tank here and then this here is the dump valve. Moving a bit further up this is the outlet. from the bottom of the tank which is a 40 millimeter it's kind of an aqua fittings like for ponds and aqua things so that's 40 millimeters and then it comes into a bend here and then it goes into the dump valve here which if you're interested in these guys i'll leave a link below this is basically just a 12 volt dump valve which is done from my switch on the dashboard so when i flick that switch this valve opens and then it allows me to dump the waste without having to operate a manual valve underneath the van and then I obviously just have it coming off onto a little bend here and it just comes straight out of the bottom and it's little things like that that yeah they do take a little bit of time to install but it's so nice being able to just dump your waste on a switch and not being able to like crawl underneath the van and the weather's bad and stuff and you don't want to kind of keep yourself dry and stay in the cab then you can and it's nice and easy. So yeah that is the waste tank all finished that's a 62 litre tank I'll leave all the links below if you guys are interested in those and obviously round the other side that's the fill that's where the waste goes into the waste tank at the top there so it comes from my sink it runs kind of into that pipe and then goes into into the waste tank before it goes into that pipe, though, it does actually go into a trap. so as I don't get any smells from the tank come up into the come up into the sink. I'll show you that that's on this side because it kind of goes from the sink straight down to the trap and then straight out to the waste tank. all right so we're under the passenger side of the van and this here is the trap so this is the near side rear wheel. and then just under here is my trap and i've placed it here so as i can easily also if for some reason i drop bits and pieces down the sink i can easily unscrew this and then clean this out and then screw this back on so it's kind of nice and easy for maintenance and then so it comes from the sink into the top of here and then from there it comes out of this pipe and then straight down to my waste tank in the back there and then we've got my fresh water tank. There's one process I didn't record doing this, which I kind of wish I had, but I was just trying to get it done at the time because I had so many other things that I was trying to deal with. But the actual water pipe that connects the two tanks together, it starts on the off side of the van. So on the right hand side of the tank, you have a 40 mil connection, which then comes out of there. And that's the bigger of the two tanks. That's the 92 liter one. So we have a 40 mil connection coming out of there. Then that wraps around the back of the tank. And then from there, the pipe joins up here. You can see the pipe coming along here and it travels all the way along. to here and then if i get a little bit closer you guys can see so it then we've got a 40 mil connection here which is the other tank so this is like the 62 liter one and then this one here joins into this here which is how both tanks are linked when water gets into this pipe both tanks will kind of fill up in unison and drain equally as well and then this big valve here this big kind of lever is how i actually dump the Fresh water tanks. So if for whatever reason I'm going on a really long drive and I don't know, I've just filled my tanks up and I don't want all the water that I've got in the tank, I can just rotate this. So I think it's this way. And then I can actually just drain out the fresh water from the tank and I can empty the tanks, which is kind of cool. And I didn't put that one on an electric dump valve purely because of the amount of time that I'm actually going to do it. Like I'm probably going to do it when I go to Scotland and I'll probably drain the tank completely Maybe 10, 20 liters of water in there just until I'm up in Scotland, then I'll find somewhere and I'll fill up completely. And it just saves on weight because there's 160 liters of water in these tanks when they're full. And that's 160 kilos of obviously extra weight when I'm driving. So it's obviously going to have a big difference on my fuel economy as well. So yeah, this is how both tanks are joined together. So it's through this pipe system here, this 40 mil pipe. Now, I haven't actually got this connected to the tank at all. They're all obviously Obviously joined together here, very securely. They actually, the connections wind into the tank a long way and on the other side, but the actual pipe that travels down the side here, All I've done is actually put these straps over and they're basic just ratchet straps and because the pipe is I designed it so as that the pipe was flush fitting right on the side of the tank I'm probably just going to get some seeker flex and just put a little bead at the top and at the bottom just to stop that kind of moving around but it isn't going anywhere and I'm kind of happy with how it's been at the moment. The only thing left to do which I need to do before the cold weather really sets in and I'm talking like December January time is insulate I'm actually late at that point. I'm going to find some 40 mil insulation ideally, insulate this pipe so that that doesn't crack and then probably wrap it a little bit more as well. I don't know how I'm going to do it yet. I'm probably going to use a similar stuff that I use to wrap the tanks in and I can kind of wrap that around the pipe. And yeah, just try and protect it from the cold as much as I can. And while we're under here, actually, this is where the cables are for the power system. So all my cables, like the sensors for the tanks, the heater pads, all of the cables that I have running all over the van, any that are under here, are all in this armor conduit. There's a load the other side as well, which go off into the fuse box in the van. And they're all in this armor conduit. So it prevents them from rubbing and chafing and, yeah, getting any kind of damage underneath the van. So there you go that's kind of um that's kind of it. It's been a long process to kind of get that done as well because again I had to stop that and then get on with the electrics and do a bunch of other things and then come back to this. Yeah a lot of life has happened in between as well so it has been like a two and a half month three month process just to get these kind of tanks done but I'm really glad that I have because as I've spoken about in this video doing the weight upgrade on the van I knew that I was going to be able to have a big payload. Payload is basically your extra weight that you're allowed. Say, for example, if the van weighs in at like four tons and I upplate it to 4.5 tons, that gives me half a ton, so 500 kilos, that I can kind of put in the van payload before I need to kind of worry about it and before the van's overweight. That's a lot. So even putting that extra tank on, the tank weighs, I think the tank weighs like less than 10 kilos. And obviously that's giving me an extra 60 liters of water. So an extra 60 kilos. So the total weight is like 70 kilos which isn't a lot really and for kind of touring around Scotland and for kind of trying to stay off grid as long as I can. Having extra water on board is just an absolute game changer. But one of the major things I did do when I did this kind of refit of the water system was move the pump. So the water pump itself actually used to live in here. So this is the left-hand side locker in the garage space. And the water pump used to live in here along with the water filters. And if you saw my van tour from earlier this year, you'll kind of recognize this cupboard and know that that's where that lot used to live. But Evo Designs hooked me up with a couple of shelves, so shout out to Evo Designs, they're the guys who helped me out do all the kind of custom cabinetry in the van, but I decided to obviously get rid of the water pump and all of the pipe work in here, get rid of all the filters and actually put two shelves in here and have it as a usable space. That way all the gear that I use on kind of a weekly basis or any kind of emergency gear or handy tools to have are easily accessible. And then like I say, the pump The pump itself and the accumulator I've now moved to the, well, underneath the sink in here, which I'll show you. So we've obviously got the sink up here and then in this cupboard here. I'll put a light in here so we can see what we're doing but the pump itself lives underneath here with the accumulator which is nice and easy and nice and accessible as well so all I've got is four screws remove this shelf and then I can get to all that lot and service that if I need to and then in the back here is my single water filter so again done away with the three little bit over the top we've just got the single water filter in place and yeah nice and easy to change And I think I'm going to have to shut the door because Johnny Leafblower is back again. It's just been relentless for the last few hours. I certainly picked a day to do this. And like I say regarding dumping the uh dumping the waste tank when I'm sat here in the cab obviously the switch is just here and then all I do is lift that up and uh yeah turn that on and that dumps the waste out the back so and I say there's a super bright light on there as well so when I do do it I can see I'm doing it and then I always remember to flick it back down before I start driving again. In regards to filling the uh oh dear hang on wait for the camera to catch back up Actually, I think our... I think Johnny Leafblower's gone so we can open the door again. Honestly, I think it was about up past 10 this morning I set out to film this video and I thought I'll wait till they're gone and they've been going around the park all day. It's now quarter past three and I've been desperately trying to get this done and yeah, just constant. Constant. So filling the tanks is actually really simple as well. So I monitor it on my Victron display panel so I can see when the tank is filling up, but kind of a more accurate way of me doing it since having these tanks done, because I also wanted to know how many liters were actually going into the tanks. So I could be a hundred percent sure that they were both kind of filling up at the same time. I actually have my, well, my connection that I put my hose onto is on the on the outside of the van and that uses 15 mil pipe on the inside I think it is which has got John Guest fittings and that goes into the top of the tank which then obviously because they're both connected together they then kind of fill up equally and I did fit a little one-way valve in there which again I mentioned in this video and that's to basically stop the water coming back out the tanks. So if I didn't have that in place there is a chance that the water could then start dribbling out and then siphon out and I wouldn't want that to happen and empty my water tanks. So I put that little one-way valve there to prevent that. I also have a water meter which I connect in line with my hose and that is also bluetooth to my phone so I basically when I'm connecting up the hose to the van I put this water meter in line and then turn on the app on my phone and I can actually see how many liters are actually going into the van which is really cool and both these tanks combined is just over 160 liters which really surprised me and yeah is awesome so it's going to enable me even more time off grid and almost gives me an unlimited supply of water because normally i have to top up kind of every seven to ten days and i find myself wanting to go to a campsite normally every two weeks that's kind of a good time for me because after about two weeks on the road normally i'm ready to go to a campsite i'm ready for a hot shower i'm ready to kind of do all my washing and and get the van up together for a another two weeks on the road so the fact that I can really stretch my water supply to kind of two weeks and beyond now is an absolute game changer and I've kind of not really been tracking my water supply that much and not being that careful and it lasts me way longer than two weeks at the moment which I'm really really really excited about. So I think that just about wraps up the water system. The only thing I was gonna mention is about the dump valve. That actually runs through a fuse box, which is on the vehicle battery side. The same as the two heater pads, which are connected to the fresh and the waste tank under the van. They actually run through two switches just to the bottom left of the steering column. And they also run through that mini fuse box, which is now on the vehicle battery and not the leisure battery. And again, if you saw my electric setup video where I kind of completely overhauled my electric system and fitted my new batteries and things, I actually mentioned it in there and the reasons why, because I didn't want those heater pads drawing a massive amount of current from those leisure batteries, draining those down when they can run from the vehicle battery. And when I do need to use them, I'll simply just start my engine. turn on like the fresh tank heater pad leave it on for like half an hour let that tank heat through a bit then i can turn that off and kill the engine and it kind of saves on power so when i am in the middle of nowhere i know that it's basically just kind of running off of my generator which is the engine and it means that my leisure batteries aren't being touched and saves all that power for me actually living and surviving in the van anyway i think that just about wraps it up like i said in my electrics video i know these Types of videos are a little bit different for the channel. It's not kind of the usual van life content, but I figured this again would be kind of helpful if you're looking to build your own water system on the van or you're wondering whether or not actually connecting those two tanks together actually works and it's something you could do. Yes, it does. Obviously, the only thing to bear in mind is the weight when you fill those tanks up. Obviously, you're carrying a lot more weight in the van. So for me personally, normally I run them half full when I'm just kind of pottering around town and not really going anywhere. and I'm kind of staying local and then when I travel to places and when I actually want to go touring for a few weeks at a time and for like when I go up to Scotland they will get brimmed when I'm up there and then I will be able to stay off grid kind of as long as I want but like I say I'm going to leave all the links to everything I've spoken about in this video down in the description below. I'll also put a link there for my van tour and the electrical setup that I did last week as well so if you guys haven't seen those videos I'll link them below but as always I truly appreciate you guys watching and if you haven't already maybe consider subscribing as it really does help out the channel and I will see you guys in the next one.