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Old 06-30-2018, 09:38 PM   #1
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Join Date: Aug 2016
Posts: 420
Beefed up my water tank and started adding heat to the plumbing.

I have a 2018 Catalina 283rks. Have been slowly make everything right in it.

I travel with full water everywhere I go for a couple of reasons. After 6
Months I noticed a bulkhead in the underbelly cover turned out the straps for the water tank started to stretch. I continued on monitoring it. And now over a year after purchase they have stretched to the point that the tank is sagging 4-5”.

Friday I got around to it and took the camper to my parents to fix it(flat ground with access to a welder). I chose to not have it fixed under warranty because I knew I wouldn’t be happy with a dealers repair. I also chose a day with a heat index north of 110 degrees.

I’ll post pics if I can. He straps are made out the the softest sheet metal we have seen. It’s soft like it’s part lead and just bends in your finger tips.

So we ran 1x3 metal tube, notched the corners so they would lay inside the channel then welded them in place.

Another thing is this is supposed to be a “heated underbelly” which I have always understood that there are heat ducts down there and the radiant heat from the ducts warms the area up. In reality there Is insulation under the ducts. So it’s:

Flooring
Plywood
Ducts
Insulation
Plumbing void
Coroplastic

The only thing I saw resembling a heat path was the hole in the layers for the plumbing to go up through. Which actually pisses me off. I had a freeze up in my suction line for my water pump with Lows in the mid 20s and after having it apart I understand why.

So why i was there I put 2 heat pads on the fresh tank but did not wire them. This fall when everything cools down I am going to wire those pads, add a single pad to each of the other 3 tanks, run heat tape and insulate the pipes to the bathroom, and add heat pads to the gate valves and the pipes and elbows for the gate valves. All this will be on a control panel inside with resettable circuit breakers so everything can be turned on as needed. Did not re insulate the edges of the coroplastic for now.
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Old 06-30-2018, 10:04 PM   #2
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Location: Montrose, Colorado
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Nice work!
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