Jimbee wrote:
We're considering purchasing a Rockwood or Flagstaff travel trailer and do a lot of dry camping, so traveling with water is important to us but many of the NYS parks we go to do not have threaded hose bibs that you can hook a hose to for filling up. From what I've read some trailers cannot travel with water on board because of flimsy construction.
My Coachmen which is a Forest River product just as are Rockwood / Flagstaff trailers had woefully inadequate fresh water tank support. When brand new on the lot the tank didn't appear to sag much but after the first fill at home it sagged noticeably, which I only saw because my particular model has an open underbelly.
Not only was I concerned about the tank actually falling off the trailer but because of the sag and because the pump's intake hose was connected to the tank side wall I was also only able to draw about 1/3 of the tank contents before the pump would start sucking air. :M
My dealer agreed this was inadequate and had one of his techs install steel beam supports below the tank, after which I moved the pump intake hose to the tank drain port on the bottom of the tank ...
I later added a 2' x 4' x 1/4" piece of plywood to help spread out the weight ...
That was in 2013, I always tow with at least some tank content and sometimes full, and it's been fine ever since. Tank support on current models has been improved but they're just thin metal straps running along the underside of the tank which is now enclosed by an underbelly and IMO still isn't nearly as good as it should be. Whether Rockwood / Flagstaff trailers are the same I can't say but I'd highly recommend any prospective purchaser of
any brand of trailer make absolutely sure for themselves that the tank(s) are properly supported.
FWIW, I never travel with grey tank content but because I service the tanks here at home using a FloJet waste macerator that means I always travel on the way home with content in the black tank, sometimes quite full, but have never had an issue with either as they're a different style of tank supported between the trailer's frame members.
