Ralph Cramden wrote:
colliehauler wrote:
Ralph Cramden wrote:
bartlettj wrote:
I'd make the argument that 2/3 full is worse than full. If the tank is full, it doesn't slosh so it's dead weight. A sloshing tank will act like a slide hammer on the tank hangers.
I found this out the hard way when I was a kid driving a farm truck with a water tank on the bed. It was half full I stopped at a stop sign, and the sloshing water bounced me out into traffic.
I'd make the argument that since I replaced the Lippert garbage with supports made from rolled angles that are not much heavier, I have not had a problem in going on 3 full seasons no matter how much water was in the tanks.
I have towed with varying amounts of water in tanks with no issues when it comes to stability, sway, feel, or anything else in this and 3 prior trailers. I suppose if you have a setup that the tail is wagging the dog or borderline to it, you might feel something. A prior Keystone trailer had a 30 gallon tank in a dinette bench sitting on the floor, higher location, between running gear and hitch, and on one side, and no issues with tank half or 2/3 full either.
There is a heck of a lot of force in a large stock tank with several hundred gallons of water even with the truck is properly sized. That's why some large tanks have baffling to prevent this. Same with semi tank trailers. In a smaller tank the effect is not as pronounced , kind of like your vehicles fuel tank.
If you take a gallon milk jug full of water and swing it side to side in your hand then dump half the water out and do the same thing the difference will be apparent.
I love these forums. The are 9 million registered RV's in the US and most have fresh water tanks. Out of those 9 million owners maybe 1/4 of 1% belong or post to RV forums. I do not think any of those 8,977,500 owners, who don't frequent forums, have ever given a second thought to how many gallons of water they have in their tank when they are driving down the road. They could care less if its empty, full, or somewhere in between.
The RV forum.......complicating the uncomplicated since 1862 LOL.
Personally if my 43 gallon tanks hold 43 gallons each, and the supports do not deflect or worse, I am just about as happy as I can be. I certainly am not going to get into some halfassed forum discussion about fluid dynamics with a bunch of other geezers. The only fluid dynamics I care about is pouring liquids from brown bottles. By the same token having had a few trailers that would be classified as an RV, and quite a few more of the equipment and material hauling flavor, I have never been on a cat scale either. I use EZ lube on trailers that have it, and probably have or have had Chinese made ST tires on all of them........But I'm weird.
You know what they say, ( Ignorance is bliss).
