Sundance 241BH - Black water tank fell out
Hey Folks, Got a new 2018 Sundance 241BH. We picked it up a few weeks ago and just finished up our first trip. We drove from the Toronto area down to Cape Canaveral Fl. In total 5050km including so...
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For clarity sake, I do not know if the tank was full or not. I don't think so, but I did not measure the water on the ground. I can say I had no water coming of the roof that would indicate that water was flowing out of the vent.
The fresh water tank has 3 support brackets that run underneath of the tank. The Grey and black have not brackets that support underneath and have only the mounting brackets under the sides of the tank.
As mentioned I have 3 things to do.
Have a discussion with the dealer to get there opinion on things. This will include informing them about what happened and how it happened.
Run water down the vent to check for obstructions in the vent pipe. I will do this while checking the 45 degree bend and the fitting into the tank for any leaks.
Fill the tank to capacity and see what happens...
I should also mention. It has been suggested that the black water pipe could have slid into the tank and sat on the bottom preventing the venting from occurring. Because of the supports around the 45 degree bend I don't believe this occurred. While installing the tank I could not pull the vent piped down or push it up more then about 1 inch. It is fastened at some point in the while or the cap at the roof.
This again leaves me with the vent is clogged, or the tank fell out under its own weight... I cannot see any other options. I will gladly take suggestions though...
Cheers,
Mike
The fresh water tank has 3 support brackets that run underneath of the tank. The Grey and black have not brackets that support underneath and have only the mounting brackets under the sides of the tank.
As mentioned I have 3 things to do.
Have a discussion with the dealer to get there opinion on things. This will include informing them about what happened and how it happened.
Run water down the vent to check for obstructions in the vent pipe. I will do this while checking the 45 degree bend and the fitting into the tank for any leaks.
Fill the tank to capacity and see what happens...
I should also mention. It has been suggested that the black water pipe could have slid into the tank and sat on the bottom preventing the venting from occurring. Because of the supports around the 45 degree bend I don't believe this occurred. While installing the tank I could not pull the vent piped down or push it up more then about 1 inch. It is fastened at some point in the while or the cap at the roof.
This again leaves me with the vent is clogged, or the tank fell out under its own weight... I cannot see any other options. I will gladly take suggestions though...
Cheers,
Mike
4x4van wrote:
IF the tank is overfilled and the vent pipe is completely filled all the way to the roof, it will only exert about 3 psi, not 45 psi. (Water weighs 0.036127 lbs/cu. in., and there is less than 148 cu. in. of volume in a 7' x 1.5" pipe; that equals just 5.36 lbs, or 3 psi) But since there was no water coming off the roof, that means that the vent pipe was NOT filled with water. The OP also says that the tank never filled completely.
In any case, the tank fell out, which should never have happened. If the tank "expanded" because of pressure, then there was an obstruction in the vent pipe. If the tank dropped out simply because of the weight of a nearly full tank (which changed the shape), then there is a major problem with the tank supports.
Since every RV I've owned over the past 30 years has had the tank(s) supported with much more than just L brackets along the sides, my gut says that the manufacturer left out some additional supports that should've spanned the bottom of the tank. Filling a long/wide, but short tank without supporting the bottom will obviously result in the bottom of the tank sagging, and that sagging pulled the sides in enough to slip past the L-brackets supporting the edges of the tank.
At least that's how I'm seeing it, YMMV.
