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Rwake901's avatar
Rwake901
Explorer
Apr 25, 2019

Water tank size.... What would you do?

Purchased a new 2019 Avalanche 321RS last month. Finally got to take it out for the weekend this past weekend. The website,brochure RV Dealers and everything states it has a 66 gallon fresh water tank. When we ran out of water in two days I questioned that. So with two different water meters I checked the size of the tank. It's ONLY 40 gallon... Needless to say I'm not happy about this. I have contacted my dealer who contacted Keystone and was told that if you add the size of the water tank and hot water heater you have 54 gallon. I said I only have 40 gallon of usable water. I wouldn't have bought it if I had know that it would only hold 40 gallon. I said something needs to be done because I'm not happy! Just found all this out today so I'm waiting to hear back.. What would you do??? Thanks
  • time2roll wrote:
    I would verify the pickup tube extends to the bottom. I would also slightly tilt the trailer toward the pickup tube to get all you can. I can go a week with three of us on 50 gallons if we mostly skip the shower. Otherwise I would figure out how to carry more water.


    There shouldn't be a "pickup tube" as a =proper= fresh water tank should have a bottom low-point pickup molded into it, just as your waste tanks should have a low-point drain molded into the bottom.

    Lyle
  • Rwake901 wrote:
    Bionic Man wrote:
    I'd be pretty upset as well. It won't hurt to contact both the selling dealer as well as the manufacture, but I think it will be hard to get them to do much.

    I feel like I am in the same situation as you are. My trailer is supposed to have 90 gallons of capacity. I don't know how much it really has, but it sure isn't 90. Wife and I can go for a weekend without filling, maybe stretch it to 3 days if I am careful, but longer than that doesn't work.

    I ended up buying one of these. Bed Water Caddy. 63 gallons. When we go for more than 2 days, I always bring it with me. I modified a RV water pump so that I can pump water from the tank into my trailer.

    It isn't as good as having the 90 gallon capacity my trailer is supposed to have, but it will get me through longer trips without having to move my trailer to refill.


    I figure that I’m pretty much screwed too. They haven’t stood behind anything yet. The radio in the camper wouldn’t receive any stations so I checked it and they never installed an antenna. So I called them up thinking they would send me one. Nope, take it to your dealer I was told. I said my dealer is 90 miles away I’m not driving that far for a ten dollar antenna. So I bought one on eBay. Works great now. Thanks for the tank and pump idea. Although I won’t need that big of a tank 10 to 15 gallons would work great for me and I will need the pump to put it in because there is no gravity fill. Great idea thanks


    Option is to get 2 of the "blue cubes" at Wallyworld. About $15 each. Swap out the included spigot for a hose bib, put your white hose on it and use the trailer's own pump in the winterize setting to suck the water into the fresh tank. Might have to open up the vent hole, though, as I'm sure the pump is likely to suck faster than the jug will vent.

    I know that I want to meter my fresh system as it's supposed 61 gal capacity either is flat out wrong or it's siphoning as I drive. Our first boondocker last year left us short of water after 4 days, though we didn't go completely dry. I bring 2 of the blue cubes and put them on my tailgate for hand washing, tooth brushing and "camp fire water heating".

    Lyle
  • I would verify the pickup tube extends to the bottom. I would also slightly tilt the trailer toward the pickup tube to get all you can. I can go a week with three of us on 50 gallons if we mostly skip the shower. Otherwise I would figure out how to carry more water.
  • Bionic Man wrote:
    I'd be pretty upset as well. It won't hurt to contact both the selling dealer as well as the manufacture, but I think it will be hard to get them to do much.

    I feel like I am in the same situation as you are. My trailer is supposed to have 90 gallons of capacity. I don't know how much it really has, but it sure isn't 90. Wife and I can go for a weekend without filling, maybe stretch it to 3 days if I am careful, but longer than that doesn't work.

    I ended up buying one of these. Bed Water Caddy. 63 gallons. When we go for more than 2 days, I always bring it with me. I modified a RV water pump so that I can pump water from the tank into my trailer.

    It isn't as good as having the 90 gallon capacity my trailer is supposed to have, but it will get me through longer trips without having to move my trailer to refill.


    I figure that I’m pretty much screwed too. They haven’t stood behind anything yet. The radio in the camper wouldn’t receive any stations so I checked it and they never installed an antenna. So I called them up thinking they would send me one. Nope, take it to your dealer I was told. I said my dealer is 90 miles away I’m not driving that far for a ten dollar antenna. So I bought one on eBay. Works great now. Thanks for the tank and pump idea. Although I won’t need that big of a tank 10 to 15 gallons would work great for me and I will need the pump to put it in because there is no gravity fill. Great idea thanks
  • I'd be pretty upset as well. It won't hurt to contact both the selling dealer as well as the manufacture, but I think it will be hard to get them to do much.

    I feel like I am in the same situation as you are. My trailer is supposed to have 90 gallons of capacity. I don't know how much it really has, but it sure isn't 90. Wife and I can go for a weekend without filling, maybe stretch it to 3 days if I am careful, but longer than that doesn't work.

    I ended up buying one of these. Bed Water Caddy. 63 gallons. When we go for more than 2 days, I always bring it with me. I modified a RV water pump so that I can pump water from the tank into my trailer.

    It isn't as good as having the 90 gallon capacity my trailer is supposed to have, but it will get me through longer trips without having to move my trailer to refill.
  • Yep. Weasel print always says "specs are changeable at any time without notice". Now, even adding the water heater in, you're still 12 gallons, almost 20%, different from the brochure and, I'd argue, that's WAY out of line. You could try raising a stink about it, even to your AG's Consumer Fraud department, but I doubt you'd get anywhere. I think I'd pull the belly cover and put eyes on the tank and see if there's room to add a bigger tank. If your dealer is a stand-up outfit, you could see if they'd work with you on this =and= convince Keystone not to void the warranty if any drilling or welding on the frame needs to be done to support a larger tank.

    On re-reading: Keystone is claiming you have a FOURTEEN GALLON water heater?! Really?! I call total b.s. on this! IMO, they simply put in the wrong tank. I think I'd find an identical model and measure the tank.

    Even later: OK, so I checked the specs and spec is 12 gal for the water heater, so even the 14 gal heater they claim is bogus, IMO.

    Lyle
  • If it did not have a minimum of 80 gal FW we did not even consider the model. Bought one with 100 gal FW. DON'T EXPECT ANY COMPENSATION from dealer or builder now.