Holy sagging water tanks, Batman!
Since I was already having a venting problem with my FW tank, I decided this weekend to look and see why there seemed to be a bulge in my enclosed underbelly. The venting problem was a pretty simp...
Forum Discussion
mobeewan wrote:
My black & grey tanks have flanges molded at the top on 2 sides that are about 2 inches thick and 2 inches wide. The tanks are supported on the flanges with angle. On each tank one angle is welded between the I beams and the other angle is bolted to tabs welded to the I beams. The framing is adequate to support the tanks, but the center of the tanks sag some. So in order to completely drain them I have to raise the tongue to finish draining the grey tank and lower the tongue to finish the black tank. I plan on having an angle added at the middle from front to back for the center of the tanks to rest on so they will not sag.
The fresh water tank is framed to rest on one I beam flange and angle on the other 3 sides. It is covered with black coroplast screwed to the I beam flange and angle to keep light away from the tank to inhibit mold and algae and for insulating the tank. There is a hole in the bottom of the under floor heating vent where it passes over the fresh water tank to supply hot air to the tank to help keep it from freezing. Then there is an angle bolted to the framing from front to back at the middle to keep the tank from sagging and slipping off the framing.
That sounds very familar to what I have and below is what I did to shore up the middle of both the grey and black tanks.
I took a couple of lengths of some scrap aluminum garage door opener track stock I had laying around (it was thick aluminum and was a basic "U" channel and extremely sturdy and the price was right ... FREE). At each end I attached an adjustable support bracket that would hook onto the exising tank angle supports and allow me to secure the new support against the bottom of each tank ... see pic below ....
I then installed this additional support and brackets in the middle of each tank and tightened the support brackets so the support was fairly tight against the tanks. I put a piece of cork between the new support bracket and the tank at each edge of the tank so the tank edges would not be resting directly on the aluminum and cause excessive wear problems. This cork is the light brown material in the picture below ...
Larry
