As the date nears for the van to arrive, the questions are going to be posted at a rate of knots!  Question: should we consider a water filter?  If yes, what is best?  We are not going bush but will be free/independent camping when possible.

mike, peter placed a good post re filters and pumps if you are thinking of using creek or river water, if you have a decent size tank on your van (60 litres and above) then free camping for up to a week with cautious use would be achievable, inclucing carefull showers, thats all we use, if you are worried about the ammount of water and your tank is say 60 ltrs, then chuck it and replace it with a 100 or even a 120 litre tank if you wish to have filtered water in the van then place a "dual cartridge type" filter, the same as you would use at home, somewhere in the line maybe on the drawbar with a hose coming out the other side to fill the tank, the hose could be a permanent fixture running along the chassis and under the van, this would take most impurities out but not the "bugs" so please dont use this type of filter to screen river or creek water, use peters advice and treat that way we do not use river or creek water, we prefer to carry our own, what we carry in "little blue" lasts a week and if we are going further afeild then we take "squeeky" and we carry 2 weeks supply in there, even with the 40 ltr engel as well as "little blues" fridge we run out of tucker long before we run out of water, worse still the grog supply starts to dwindle and thats a state of affairs that cannot be tolerated at any stage!! mate dont over complicate free camping, people try to overcomplicate your water, power, food needs, it really is not that hard or complex, if you have enough to stay a week then that is plenty, even up far north it is rare to stay away from complete civilisation for more than a week, you can top up your supply from there, not too many people want to sit under the same tree for more than three or four days and then we move on, a couple hundred kms up the road and we squat again having probably gone through some sort of civilisation in the meantime, there you can "top up"

if you are anywhere near na ALDI they have a you beaut 2 cartridge filter system for $99 with replacement cartridges for around $26 a set. I fitted one and they do work well,and make "hosey" tasting water just like the bottled stuff.

Hi again.  I have a human consumption hose for use when in parks or filling my 2 x 60litre tanks. I try to fill up where I think the water tastes the best. I filter drinking water in a Britax filter jug. Be very careful at creeks and springs. There's always the risk of giardia, which can make you very sick. Even some town water way outback is dodgy, and they usually depend on rain water, if they get rain. Bottled water gets exy, but it's safe. It's not always necessary to boil water. While working on Kimberley cattle stations, where all the water used is bore water, chilling it was enough to kill giardia bug. I learned it after I contracted giardia. A very hard and painful lesson. Cheers.