Got lucky with my water tank this weekend
Camping without water hook-ups this weekend. When we do this we fill the 85 gallon tank at home before we leave the house. We've been doing this since we got the trailer in 2010. We get to the campground and after about 3 gallons of use we are out of water. Pump is pulling air. Now when I travel with the tank full we do lose some out of the over flow tubes but I've never lost a whole tank full. I thought just maybe something strange happened and it managed to get a siphon going and drained it all.
I got some new 5 gallon buckets and used the winterizing tube to pump water back into the tank. When I got to 40 gallons the water started coming out of the over flow tubes. Something's not right. So I start troubleshooting in my head. Overflow tubes in to deep? Cracked pick-up line if it is mounted in from the top of the tank?
So we get home and I decided to fill the tank and measure how much the pump would empty out of it. 40 gallons and it started pulling air again. So now my plan was to drain and measure from the tanks drain. I crawl under the trailer and see the problem. The side of the tank away from the pickup for the pump is laying on the axles. Out of 4 flat steel "straps" that were holding the tank the only one with both screws holding it was the one nearest the pumps pickup.
From the factory they used 8 self drilling/self taping screws to hold up 680 lbs of water. Luckily nothing got broken or went sliding down the highway. The funny thing is right next to where they ran the screws through the supports, they had used a torch to blow holes big enough to put bolts through. I'm guessing bolts are what was specked for the installation but the installer had the same screws they used to hold up the coroplast handy so that is what he used.
It is now held up with 8 bolts with washers and lock nuts. Cost of repair is right around $25. Might go up another $10 if I go buy new self drilling screws to put the coroplast back up because the locations where the old screws were got torn out from the tank dropping.
I got some new 5 gallon buckets and used the winterizing tube to pump water back into the tank. When I got to 40 gallons the water started coming out of the over flow tubes. Something's not right. So I start troubleshooting in my head. Overflow tubes in to deep? Cracked pick-up line if it is mounted in from the top of the tank?
So we get home and I decided to fill the tank and measure how much the pump would empty out of it. 40 gallons and it started pulling air again. So now my plan was to drain and measure from the tanks drain. I crawl under the trailer and see the problem. The side of the tank away from the pickup for the pump is laying on the axles. Out of 4 flat steel "straps" that were holding the tank the only one with both screws holding it was the one nearest the pumps pickup.
From the factory they used 8 self drilling/self taping screws to hold up 680 lbs of water. Luckily nothing got broken or went sliding down the highway. The funny thing is right next to where they ran the screws through the supports, they had used a torch to blow holes big enough to put bolts through. I'm guessing bolts are what was specked for the installation but the installer had the same screws they used to hold up the coroplast handy so that is what he used.
It is now held up with 8 bolts with washers and lock nuts. Cost of repair is right around $25. Might go up another $10 if I go buy new self drilling screws to put the coroplast back up because the locations where the old screws were got torn out from the tank dropping.
