New Carts - Volume 2: the Water Tanker

[Mr_Bober]

Today we're going to explore a few ideas for new carts. Let's continue our series with a movable version of a cistern: the Water Tanker - aka cistern on wheels.

A Water Tanker would be, as the name suggests, a mix between the cart and the cistern. An efficient way to carry large amount of liquids without resorting to the usual cart+boat options. It could be limited to water, but I don't see why not allowing any liquid to be placed in it tbh, like tanning fluid or tar...

Considering a Water Tanker would be a giant barrel on wheels, it would require the Wheel Wrighting and the Metal Working skills most likely.
To buil a Water Tank you would require mostly wood, as well as some metal (any metal, most likely). [Note: there would be the option of making this out of glass, but it would feel both unrealistic and impractical]

The Water Tanker should be more efficient at moving liquids than the current system of carts, barrels, and boats. A normal cart filled with barrels can bring up to 600 litres. That's 700 if you also lift a barrel, or 800 if you lift a boat with two barrels in it. That being considered, the Water Tanker should carry at minimum 1000 litres, but to make it worth a while I believe 1200-1500 would make for a fair amount.

Obviously using a large boat (snekkja or knarr) filled with barrels would still allow to carry more litres at once, but the Water Tanker would make for a good way to load and unload the liquid content of such ships.

Not sure if this is doable, but allowing for a Water Tanker to be filled directly at a well would make for an amazing extra feature. Although it would be nice to get such a feature, I'd rather have it without it than not having it at all.

[Kamekono]

+1 but why not make them work as barrels on wheels, carrying anything a barrel can?

I want a cart filled with opium!

[Mr_Bober]

+1 but why not make them work as barrels on wheels, carrying anything a barrel can?

I want a cart filled with opium!

I guess that could work, but I doubt anyone would need a 1k+ litres container for anything but water. Maybe for seeds, but when do you ever need to move that many seeds over a long distance?

[FaithfulToadd]

I was just going to write up a new suggestion for Butts and Tuns, but this thread will do, I think.

Allow me to suggest the following:

- The Medieval Tun, a unit which historically measured 954 liters. I would round this up to an even 1000 liters for the game - exactly 1/2 of the Cistern's capacity. Tuns should not be liftable unless empty, but can be loaded into a cart or a specialized water tanker, similar to OP's suggestion. Should require planks and metal nuggets or 1 metal bar to craft.

- The Medieval Butt, a unit which historically measured 477 liters. Round to 500 for the game. A Butt should be liftable by hearthlings of sufficient strength even if holding liquid, and require planks and metal nuggets to craft.

See here for further reading. Traditionally, these units were for measuring wine and vinegar, but I don't see why other fluids shouldn't work.

In any case, +1 for some method of higher volume liquid transportation, whether it be a new cart or a larger barrel. My ranch now produces vast quantities (Butt-loads, even) of cow's milk, and I would like an easier way to transport it all to the curding house cisterns.

[Mr_Bober]

Totally forgot about this!

I'd still love to see it implemented.

Not sure why I didn't think of it at the time, but this would be even better if it was a Wagon. Of course with much larger capacity, as it should be replace a wagon full of barrels.