Towing with full water tank

[CaptnJohn]

Originally Posted by KansasJohn

I always like to travel with a full water tank if I can, for a couple reasons:

1. My Mini-Lite 1809 is light on the tongue to begin with, so a full water tank actually makes the trailer tow better with my Silverado 1500. (Water tank is in the front, under the bed)
2. I like to have use of my kitchen and bathroom when on the road traveling
3. Even though I don't drink out of my onboard tank, I have seen some pretty bad RV park water sources!

I travel with a full tank also. My tank is at the very rear. 60 gallons reduces pin weight well over 100#

[Simplewon]

Originally Posted by MilCop4523

Fresh water tank fell out!! - CrossRoads RV Family Forum
"I recently purchased a 2013 251BH.... I was de-winterizing and sanitizing it.... added my bleach/water mix to the fresh water tank, started filling it with my hose.... went in the house for a while, came out to see if it was full. well, to mySURPRISE..... the tank was laying on the driveway!!! both straps broken, hoses broken, wires stretched...... my Dealer came and picked it up, said they'd never seen this before..... anyone else hear of this??? I'm glad I wasn't toolin' down the highway when it decided to drop out!!!"

just saying...

This same thing happened during the pdi on our previous trailer. A 2015 grey wolf. Camping world performing the pdi started filling the fresh tank by sticking a hose into the fill inlet and walked off to do something else. A mechanic said he noticed water shooting out of the fill knock around the hose and out the overflow. He said he ran to shut the water off then found the guy who was prepping the trailer. After hitching my vehicle to the trailer ready to send us on our way another mechanic yelled stop. The tank is on the ground.
Sure enough, two thin metal straps holding the 50 gallon fresh tank broke and the tank was sitting on an axle.
We waited another hour for them to put the tank back in place and install real steel underneath it.
Learning what I did that day I will never fill it and take it down the road. I do keep my fresh a quarter full.
I should add some steel underneath the camper we have now but have not...yet...

Anyone that leaves the garden hose in and on unattended it will expand the tank to the point it breaks what ever is around it. Hydraulic pressure is pretty much unstoppable.

As far as it handling a full tank going down the road it probably would but none of them are going to handle being over filled.

The thin straps will snap quickly if loaded over a pot hole i'd suspect.

[Martsing]

Why not drink from the on board tank? Our trailer is new and I have sanitized the tank. I drink from it with no worries. Am I missing something important?

Marty

[bikendan]

Originally Posted by Martsing

Why not drink from the on board tank? Our trailer is new and I have sanitized the tank. I drink from it with no worries. Am I missing something important?

Marty

In our modern "bottled water" society, many have becomed picky about their water.
Even though there have been many studies showing in blind taste tests, that the majority end up choosing pubic water over expensive bottled water.

We've been drinking out of our 3 different RV's FW tanks for the past 25 years, with no issues or problems.

[CaptnJohn]

Originally Posted by Martsing

Why not drink from the on board tank? Our trailer is new and I have sanitized the tank. I drink from it with no worries. Am I missing something important?

Marty

No reason not to, we simply prefer not to even though we keep a filter on the hose when filling the tank or connected to city water at a CG. Our 5er is new and we still just use bottled for drinking and cooking.

[nomad297]

Originally Posted by Mr Havercamp

No they haven't. They'll just continue to apply band aids.

I would take everything this guy says with a grain of salt. He is a perpetual Forest River basher and thinks he knows everything about every model ever made by Forest River.

Bruce

[northstar1960]

fun discussion . full tank depends on where i'm heading . if off for a week of boondocking . i call it dry camping by the way have for the last 35 yrs . i will fill my tank full . not worried about it falling out if it was going to it would have and warranty would ave fixed . when i'm heading from destination to destination then i will travel with about 20 gallons for the stop overs in rest areas etc . so to each their own everybody has different needs when it comes to water and just about everything else . there's not one right way to do it

[Mr Havercamp]

Originally Posted by nomad297

I would take everything this guy says with a grain of salt. He is a perpetual Forest River basher and thinks he knows everything about every model ever made by Forest River.

Bruce

Funny stuff Bruce.

Perhaps I would not have to perpetually bash Forest River as you call it, if they provided me with water tank supports that did not do this on a 2017 after an 80 mile trip home from a PDI. Especially when it was only 3/4 full. Which is why I am fairly certain that they have not beefed up the support on a 2017 2109 which was a question asked by Campah, which generated my response which you so graciously quoted. Thank you very much. I am still not drinking the kool aid Bruce but I am liking my Forest River product more and more every day.







On the right, the stock support, on the left one I made up.


The way they should be installed.



What should be taken with a grain of salt is the belief that your water tank may still be with you when you arrive at your destination.

[mountainjunkie]

Originally Posted by bikendan

that the majority end up choosing pubic water over expensive bottled water.
.

I won't chime in on drinking public water or not...but I'm out on pubic water [emoji13]

[gfarmcafe]

We too travel with some water in the fresh water tank for flushing toilets and hand washing, but have bottled water in the fridge. We also added a water filter for use in campgrounds to reduce bad taste. We're not so concerned about getting sick from bad water. I retired from managing campgrounds, and we had to test our water sources to meet health codes and I feel most public campgrounds do too. Most complaints were from campers not familiar with the taste of good well water.

[High Country]

Now you guys have me worried, my fresh water tank is full when I take it boondocking over some very rough forest roads, and I have had more than a few things come loose or fall off.

The brackets are a great idea, I will have to check my trailer this weekend and start working on a set. But with my luck the floor will fall out with the tank on the very next trip.

[drc343]

We travel with 100 gallons water. Ours has 6 1"x2" metal tubing across the bottom and sitting on the frame I-beam, no wood to rot. Three are stitch welded and the other three are bolted in so you can remove tank. Have not had problems, 15,000 miles towing in four years always full tanks. I think the tubing is the way to go over wood and angle iron.

[Mr Havercamp]

Originally Posted by High Country

Now you guys have me worried, my fresh water tank is full when I take it boondocking over some very rough forest roads, and I have had more than a few things come loose or fall off.

The brackets are a great idea, I will have to check my trailer this weekend and start working on a set. But with my luck the floor will fall out with the tank on the very next trip.

The conclusion I came to was my tank issue was a combination of two things. First off the Lippert (LCI) supplied tank support frame is not strong enough to support the tank. On our 2017 by dimensions we have a 39 gallon tank. When the supports bent it was only 3/4 full or 250 lbs or so. I do not think it would of came all the way out, but you never know. LCI made that support frame out of 1/8" thick plate bent into an angle and I don't know where they buy their steel, but it's some soft stuff. I left it at my sons thinking he might have been able to use it for something on his race cars, but he tossed it in the scrap pile when he noticed how soft it was. Secondly Rockwood used a cheap water tank with some unusually thin walls. The thing really balloons out. They had it jammed up tight to the underside of the floor and that along with only two light cross supports added to the issue. The tank I added made by Alpha systems is much more substantial, does not balloon out anywhere near as much as the stock one Rockwood used, and appears to have walls twice as thick.

Originally Posted by drc343

We travel with 100 gallons water. Ours has 6 1"x2" metal tubing across the bottom and sitting on the frame I-beam, no wood to rot. Three are stitch welded and the other three are bolted in so you can remove tank. Have not had problems, 15,000 miles towing in four years always full tanks. I think the tubing is the way to go over wood and angle iron.

Tube is not an option on the Roo, we do not have the frame height and using tube the tank would be too low to the ground. Nothing wrong with angles it just needs to be the right type. They used thin plate bent into an angle. Rolled angles are inherently stronger.

[spock123]

We don't drink the water in campgrounds, we use bottle water for drinking and bottle water for coffee. It's amazing who would have thought twenty years ago that we would all be drinking bottle water.


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[rockfordroo]

Originally Posted by spock123

We don't drink the water in campgrounds, we use bottle water for drinking and bottle water for coffee. It's amazing who would have thought twenty years ago that we would all be drinking bottle water.


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You've been bamboozled by the great American marketing system!

[spock123]

I guess so. But I'll continue to buy bottle water


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[CaptnJohn]

Originally Posted by spock123

I guess so. But I'll continue to buy bottle water


Sent from my iPhone using Forest River Forums

X2 and filter the CG water anyway.

[Too Tall]

I used to drink the local water until I filled up in Flint, Michigan. Now I've grown a 3rd eye so I'm switching to bottled water.

[bikendan]

Originally Posted by rockfordroo

You've been bamboozled by the great American marketing system!

x2!

[CaptnJohn]

Even the dogs get bottled water now when camping. Flint is not alone. Feces in well water...