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Travelling at motorway speeds with full water tank

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Wannabecamperman

Messages
228
Location
Birmingham
Vehicle
Looking to buy
Morning all,

So I'm finally seeing some of the MY23 Oceans dropping to around the £65k mark (which is my absolute max budget)

New & Used Vans for Sale - Auto Trader UK

www.autotrader.co.uk www.autotrader.co.uk

However when viewing one last week I was told by the guy at VW Van Centre that I shouldn't travel on the motorway with the water tanks more than 20% full as the weight cause instability at speed and it can invalidate the warranty. Straight to the CC forums I thought, for a second, possibly more reliable opinion based on actual experience...

Is this the case in reality? Has anyone travelled on bends at 70mph with a full water tank, and if so was there an issue? Or is it a case of VW being over cautious, perhaps?

I intend using the vehicle for several weeks long solar-powered off grid summer adventures, mostly using Brit Stops (mainly pub carparks) and had envisaged filling the water and fuel tanks at a garage or motorway services, then heading down A roads and similar, to the eventual overnight destination, as not all of the advertised locations have water available.

All advice / tips and real life experience of driving with a full water tank appreciated. Thanks in advance.
 
I agree, it’s designed to be driven with whatever amount of water you want to carry - if there was a maximum there would be a warning sticker somewhere. I’d rather have a full tank than half full - less sloshing about.

Ask him to show you this limit in writing. For such a complicated vehicle I do feel some of the sales staff really don’t know their product. We were lucky with Breeze, but I did go to one dealer who informed me that in 2023 model year Oceans the rear climate works independently - even when the engine is off. Errr…??
 
Utter rubbish. Apart from anything else, vehicle movements on a motorway are very gentle and progressive compared to driving on say an A or B road. As above, 30 litres is nothing either in the scheme of things, 1% of the GVW. The fuel tank is double the mass when full (and in reality it won't "slosh" unless it's less than full) and a shape that's far more likely to have an effect, but it doesn't.
 
Absolute sh1te,where do VW find these numpties? So if I bought 30l of water from the shop I have to reduce my speed? I would be having a word with this nobhead. The diesel tank Carrie's 70l of fuel,best drive slower when full eh
 
What the sales person is saying makes no sense. The clean and waste water tanks each hold about 30 litres, so 60 litres in total. They are saying you shouldn't travel with tanks more than 20% full, so you shouldn't be carrying more than 12 litres in total. A litre weighs roughly 1 kg. In which case, the sales person is telling you that any more than 12 kg on one side of the van will make it unstable at motorway speeds. That's ridiculous.
 
Wannabecamperman said:
Morning all,

So I'm finally seeing some of the MY23 Oceans dropping to around the £65k mark (which is my absolute max budget)

New & Used Vans for Sale - Auto Trader UK

www.autotrader.co.uk www.autotrader.co.uk

However when viewing one last week I was told by the guy at VW Van Centre that I shouldn't travel on the motorway with the water tanks more than 20% full as the weight cause instability at speed and it can invalidate the warranty. Straight to the CC forums I thought, for a second, possibly more reliable opinion based on actual experience...

Is this the case in reality? Has anyone travelled on bends at 70mph with a full water tank, and if so was there an issue? Or is it a case of VW being over cautious, perhaps?

I intend using the vehicle for several weeks long solar-powered off grid summer adventures, mostly using Brit Stops (mainly pub carparks) and had envisaged filling the water and fuel tanks at a garage or motorway services, then heading down A roads and similar, to the eventual overnight destination, as not all of the advertised locations have water available.

All advice / tips and real life experience of driving with a full water tank appreciated. Thanks in advance.
Click to expand...
No idea about the warranty although sounds very unlikely they could do anything if you don't have water in when you turn up for a warranty claim, how would they know !
But in real life I cover at least 6000 miles per year in my one with a full water tank and have not had any problems with it, it does not notice when driving.
Out of all the things we load in the van, the 4 bikes on the tailgate bike rack are the only ones that seem to affect the drive at all (they make the steering feel a tiny bit lighter at the front) but even they still feel perfectly safe.
 
Justinitus1972 said:
I agree, it’s designed to be driven with whatever amount of water you want to carry - if there was a maximum there would be a warning sticker somewhere. I’d rather have a full tank than half full - less sloshing about.

Ask him to show you this limit in writing. For such a complicated vehicle I do feel some of the sales staff really don’t know their product. We were lucky with Breeze, but I did go to one dealer who informed me that in 2023 model year Oceans the rear climate works independently - even when the engine is off. Errr…??
Click to expand...
Yes the rear heater works after the engine is turned off and the rest button is pressed.You get about 20 minutes of heat from the engine.Thats on our T6 California.
 
Full water tank = 30 litres approximately 30 Kgs.
Full fuel tank = 80 litres approximately 80kgs.
4 full grown adults + approximately 320 kgs.

In the great scheme of things a tank of water is going to make no difference whatsoever.
 
He maybe getting confused with the Grand California, where it is recommended that you don’t travel with more than 20% of water in the tank. Even that’s a bit silly but on a Cali Ocean that’s ridiculous.
 
Wow folks, thanks for absolutely squashing what I thought at the time sounded rather odd advice.

Being generous, I'll assume he was getting confused about something he'd read re the GC as per @Mr T post above, rather than attempting to appear knowledgeable / zealous (nice one!) about the Cali Ocean and delivering me a great big pile of steaming BS as it evidently was.

Really appreciate the many often amusing replies to this one.

I should finish by saying that the abundance of accurate, concise and frequently entertaining advice and knowledge freely shared by you fabulous members of this forum, adds a substantial plus point in Cali's favour when researching and considering what camper to buy as I have been for some time.

Cheers!
 
Wannabecamperman said:
Morning all,

So I'm finally seeing some of the MY23 Oceans dropping to around the £65k mark (which is my absolute max budget)

New & Used Vans for Sale - Auto Trader UK

www.autotrader.co.uk www.autotrader.co.uk

However when viewing one last week I was told by the guy at VW Van Centre that I shouldn't travel on the motorway with the water tanks more than 20% full as the weight cause instability at speed and it can invalidate the warranty.
Click to expand...
Please please have him get this in writing and send it to his boss and VW UK to expedite natural selection
 
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