Some poor fellas waste tank broke!

FlatBroke wrote:
Guess I just gotta say, they should be built to hold a full tank whether you travel with them full or empty.

Sometimes that doesn't matter.

years ago we were following a travel trailer that ran over a piece of road gator, managed to come up and knock the drain valve off the fresh water tank. What can you do,? If Murphy wants you he gets you.

I have personally lost the fresh water tank, seen a blown tire take out the sewer gate valves, and every trip to the desert you see trailers draining fresh and grey water as they go down the highway (I don't like this and am hoping it is just water).

I travel with full tanks. This includes fresh, grey, black and fuel. Of course if possible I will drain the grey and black rather than travel with them full.

Hopefully it was at the end of their trip and I must say they are much more observant than me. I not sure I would even notice a tank leaking while I was driving down the road. Heck I didn't even realize my fresh water tank fell out of our FW until we got to camp and had no water to the faucet.

I always empty my Black/Gray tanks whenever possible - I don't want the weight and over the years I have had to repair broken tank straps. I recommend everyone check the straps annually - they can break and sometimes the break is hard to notice.

Sometimes there is not much choice but to travel with full tanks. We do it frequently with the fresh tank and occasionally with black/gray tanks when there is no sewer or sani dump where we are camping. Our trailer is 4 season so the tank enclosures are well built and we have never had an issue. Isn’t that the point of having holding tanks? :B

Years ago I was driving on route 84 through Columbia River Gorge and came across a fresh water tank laying in the middle of the passing lane. Assuming it was full. Hope no one hit it! They probably didn't even know they lost it until they got to their destination.

Guess I just gotta say, they should be built to hold a full tank whether you travel with them full or empty.

Why carry all of that weight around anyway. I get water near where I am going and leave the waste at the closest available dump station. While traveling, I keep about 10 gallons of fresh water to be able to use the toilet on the road. I am more than happy to leave black and grey water at the dump station.

I am with the Dutchman, never travel with full tanks. No way. :E

DutchmenSport wrote:
I've been a forum member here for many years now. I remember one of the first threads I read was a horror story about someone loosing their black tank on the road full of "contents." Shortly after that, another horror story about someone loosing their fresh water tank. In both situations the tanks were full. It was right then and there I decided to never travel with full tanks again. And I haven't.

Sounds like an almost surefire way to avoid problems, but it's a shame you have to resort to that course of action due to the substandard design, construction, and lack of QC and QA in the RV Industry. These things are absolute garbage and that goes for just about all of them. It certainly applies to anything associated with Thor, Forest River, or Winnebago. When I sell the current POS it will be the last of about half a dozen we have owned. Too many nice cabins and such that can be rented for a lot less cost than keeping one of these RV Industry pieces of sheet operating.

Having holding tanks and fresh water supply tanks seems to imply you could actually move the rig with fluids in said tanks. It's sort of the purpose of having them to begin with isn't it? It's super easy to find examples of tank failures yet it's business as usual in Elkhart and Goshen IN, and has been for many years. No shortage of suckers to get in line and handover the cash for junk.

I've been a forum member here for many years now. I remember one of the first threads I read was a horror story about someone loosing their black tank on the road full of "contents." Shortly after that, another horror story about someone loosing their fresh water tank. In both situations the tanks were full. It was right then and there I decided to never travel with full tanks again. And I haven't.