Always thought Halfords were a bunch of twats

So my van was booked in for MOT/interim service this morning. I always take ladders off,poles out,etc,etc. I also make sure my tank is less than a quarter full.

Halfords would not MOT my van!They said my water tank had to be totally empty as it was too heavy for the vehicle lifts!My van is a connect L2 240. Lots of vans are bigger/heavier and its well within my payload.

I should of listened to you Danny!I re booked my van in at my local garage where I used to live for a couple of weeks time.

Ive never ever had an issue MOTing any vans with tanks in the back at local garages

Did they service it? I would have driven off.

Quote from: KS Cleaning on January 12, 2026, 11:26:22 pm

So that’s me done a weeks work with my E Custom. The van itself is quite brilliant, a pleasure to drive, very smooth and it glides nicely over the various road surfaces, in fact it’s such a comfortable ride that I now find it a drag to drive our X4M about town as it obviously has much stiffer suspension.

I don’t have a home charger installed yet so I’m relying on public chargers at the moment which is a bit of a pain. The van only charges to 90% ( I will need to look into this ) which gives a range of 160 miles, the reality is that of the predicted 160 miles I will actually get around 130 miles in the winter months. Not a problem as I don’t do a lot of miles.

The ratchet strapping of the flat tank isn’t ideal but it is the best solution at the moment, I have one  strap going over the top to pull it down to the floor and another going around it pulling it towards the bulkhead, it does feel solid but of course it isn’t crash tested, but then the Waterworks professionaly fitted system for EV’s won’t have been crash tested either?

I mentioned in another thread that the water sloshing was terrible in the flat tank, I have added 25 metres of 100mm perforated drainage pipe cut into shorter lengths, this has made a big difference.

All in all a very positive first week, the only negative so far being that there doesn’t seem to be a viable option of a bolted in tank/frame.

The waterworks systems are crash tested now .

Are they crash tested in an EV? How do they secure them?

That's a new one, I understand if your tank is full but to have a quarter tank then is should be under the limit. Maybe a Friday and they have too much work on today. Will let my mate know who runs his own garage to see what he thinks.

I took all my equipment out and my tank was under a quarter full. How can it be overweight for a vehicle lift? It's a connect van!

They just look for cheats.

If you aren't cheating you don't need to worry.

They have algorithms largely on expenditure.

If I buy a property or a holiday home and have been declaring 20k a year and claiming benefits they will want to know why.

They will look at the year you bought the property and ask where the income came from.

They will look at your bank accounts.

They aren't worried if you have a receipt for a van MOT twenty years ago. They will just say 'you declared an average of 20k over ten years - how come you have bought XYZ big ticket items in year 7, 12  and 20?'

Again you are very naive if you think that’s how an investigation is carried out , I know several that have had investigations and only one was found at fault , they don’t need to see the original receipt for £ 20 of diesel but if you don’t have your records you can’t show what your expenses were and fight your corner .