Fresh Water Tank Fell Out
I have a 2016 Cedar Creek 33IK. I have season tickets for Penn State Football. To save money on fuel I store the camper just outside of State College during football season. I have water and electric at the storage spot. On a normal weekend, I pick the camper up Friday night, fill it with water and take off. I'm in and out in 15 minutes. On Sunday when I return I dump, return the camper to its site, plug it back in and away I go. This has been working great all season.
Friday night I arrived and started my usual process, move stuff from the bed of the truck to the camper, fill the fresh tank with water, pull the slides in, hook up and go.
The slides were completely in, the truck was hooked up and 5 of the 6 jacks were raised. The 6th jack (rear jack on the drivers side) had raised approximately 6 inches when I heard a loud bang.
Upon inspection I found my fresh water tank had dropped 6 to 7 inches and it appeared that the only thing holding it up was the plastic panels used to seal off the belly of the camper, and of course it was raining.
At that point the jacks wouldn't go up or down, slides wouldn't go in or out and the water tank was hanging. Talk about a helpless feeling.
I couldn't unhook the truck because I couldn't get the jacks down. I couldn't move the camper because the jack was hanging to low to travel. The slides wouldn't move so I really couldn't get back inside, and did I mention it was raining?
Fortunately I had a buddy of mine with me and between the two of us we came up the a plan. We pulled the 6 bolts holding the jack in place and turned the jack 90 degrees and bolted it back onto the bracket. We tied it up the a piece of rope for extra security. We emptied the water tank and ran a strap from side to side under the tank to keep it from falling any further and the ability to move the camper was addressed.
Reluctantly I went on to the stadium to meet our friends and try to make the most of a bad situation. Once I got to the stadium parking area I did some more searching and discovered the "Short Stop" breakers for each of the systems (Slides and Jacks) had tripped. (Those little suckers are hard to find.) Once I reset those we were able to bolt the jack back on properly, push the slides out and level up. We used the camper the rest of the weekend without water.
Yesterday we moved into a parking lot where I could get under it without getting completely dirty. I put a jack under the tank and raised it back fairly close to where it belongs and put two heavy duty ratchet straps under it to hold in in place. I've got one game left and then I'll take the camper home and address the tank issue.
I don't want to completely fill the tank but I do think I can get away with putting 15-20 gallons in the tank to get us through the last game.
Has anyone else had experience with a tank dropping like this? It looks to me like it is designed to sit on two pieces of L bracket, one in the front and one in the back. I also think there might be a strap or two like they use on a fuel tank for a car but I'm not sure. This camper is new to me in April but it is a 2016. I talked with the previous owner and he never had a problem like this. It's well out of warranty so I'm sure the manufacturer will be of no help. I'm surprised and wondering why this would have happened on such a new camper.
Any thoughts or advice are welcomed.
Friday night I arrived and started my usual process, move stuff from the bed of the truck to the camper, fill the fresh tank with water, pull the slides in, hook up and go.
The slides were completely in, the truck was hooked up and 5 of the 6 jacks were raised. The 6th jack (rear jack on the drivers side) had raised approximately 6 inches when I heard a loud bang.
Upon inspection I found my fresh water tank had dropped 6 to 7 inches and it appeared that the only thing holding it up was the plastic panels used to seal off the belly of the camper, and of course it was raining.
At that point the jacks wouldn't go up or down, slides wouldn't go in or out and the water tank was hanging. Talk about a helpless feeling.
I couldn't unhook the truck because I couldn't get the jacks down. I couldn't move the camper because the jack was hanging to low to travel. The slides wouldn't move so I really couldn't get back inside, and did I mention it was raining?
Fortunately I had a buddy of mine with me and between the two of us we came up the a plan. We pulled the 6 bolts holding the jack in place and turned the jack 90 degrees and bolted it back onto the bracket. We tied it up the a piece of rope for extra security. We emptied the water tank and ran a strap from side to side under the tank to keep it from falling any further and the ability to move the camper was addressed.
Reluctantly I went on to the stadium to meet our friends and try to make the most of a bad situation. Once I got to the stadium parking area I did some more searching and discovered the "Short Stop" breakers for each of the systems (Slides and Jacks) had tripped. (Those little suckers are hard to find.) Once I reset those we were able to bolt the jack back on properly, push the slides out and level up. We used the camper the rest of the weekend without water.
Yesterday we moved into a parking lot where I could get under it without getting completely dirty. I put a jack under the tank and raised it back fairly close to where it belongs and put two heavy duty ratchet straps under it to hold in in place. I've got one game left and then I'll take the camper home and address the tank issue.
I don't want to completely fill the tank but I do think I can get away with putting 15-20 gallons in the tank to get us through the last game.
Has anyone else had experience with a tank dropping like this? It looks to me like it is designed to sit on two pieces of L bracket, one in the front and one in the back. I also think there might be a strap or two like they use on a fuel tank for a car but I'm not sure. This camper is new to me in April but it is a 2016. I talked with the previous owner and he never had a problem like this. It's well out of warranty so I'm sure the manufacturer will be of no help. I'm surprised and wondering why this would have happened on such a new camper.
Any thoughts or advice are welcomed.
