Fresh Water Tank Fell Out

[RedLionCookie]

I have a 2016 Cedar Creek 33IK. I have season tickets for Penn State Football. To save money on fuel I store the camper just outside of State College during football season. I have water and electric at the storage spot. On a normal weekend, I pick the camper up Friday night, fill it with water and take off. I'm in and out in 15 minutes. On Sunday when I return I dump, return the camper to its site, plug it back in and away I go. This has been working great all season.

Friday night I arrived and started my usual process, move stuff from the bed of the truck to the camper, fill the fresh tank with water, pull the slides in, hook up and go.

The slides were completely in, the truck was hooked up and 5 of the 6 jacks were raised. The 6th jack (rear jack on the drivers side) had raised approximately 6 inches when I heard a loud bang.

Upon inspection I found my fresh water tank had dropped 6 to 7 inches and it appeared that the only thing holding it up was the plastic panels used to seal off the belly of the camper, and of course it was raining.

At that point the jacks wouldn't go up or down, slides wouldn't go in or out and the water tank was hanging. Talk about a helpless feeling.

I couldn't unhook the truck because I couldn't get the jacks down. I couldn't move the camper because the jack was hanging to low to travel. The slides wouldn't move so I really couldn't get back inside, and did I mention it was raining?

Fortunately I had a buddy of mine with me and between the two of us we came up the a plan. We pulled the 6 bolts holding the jack in place and turned the jack 90 degrees and bolted it back onto the bracket. We tied it up the a piece of rope for extra security. We emptied the water tank and ran a strap from side to side under the tank to keep it from falling any further and the ability to move the camper was addressed.

Reluctantly I went on to the stadium to meet our friends and try to make the most of a bad situation. Once I got to the stadium parking area I did some more searching and discovered the "Short Stop" breakers for each of the systems (Slides and Jacks) had tripped. (Those little suckers are hard to find.) Once I reset those we were able to bolt the jack back on properly, push the slides out and level up. We used the camper the rest of the weekend without water.

Yesterday we moved into a parking lot where I could get under it without getting completely dirty. I put a jack under the tank and raised it back fairly close to where it belongs and put two heavy duty ratchet straps under it to hold in in place. I've got one game left and then I'll take the camper home and address the tank issue.

I don't want to completely fill the tank but I do think I can get away with putting 15-20 gallons in the tank to get us through the last game.

Has anyone else had experience with a tank dropping like this? It looks to me like it is designed to sit on two pieces of L bracket, one in the front and one in the back. I also think there might be a strap or two like they use on a fuel tank for a car but I'm not sure. This camper is new to me in April but it is a 2016. I talked with the previous owner and he never had a problem like this. It's well out of warranty so I'm sure the manufacturer will be of no help. I'm surprised and wondering why this would have happened on such a new camper.


Any thoughts or advice are welcomed.

[mobeewan]

SoundGuy wrote:

mobeewan wrote:
You might want to check the black and grey tanks while you're at it and see how they're supported. Probably not much better than the fresh water tank.

It's unclear who you mean by "You" but the black & grey tanks on a Coachmen Freedom Express 192RBS hang between the main frame members of the trailer and can't fall out - it's only the fresh water tank support that is lacking.

Well, since I am addressing "You" directly, the OP was the one that had the problem with his fresh water tank falling out, I must have been addressing him since I didn't address anybody else in particular by name or using the quote function. After all it was his thread.

Being unfamiliar with his particular TT it was just a suggestion to make sure that they were not sloppily installed as well. Of course I am not an expert like "You" appear to be on the Coachman TTs.

Anything else "You" think I was addressing "You" about???? Eh?

[RedLionCookie]

a

[SoundGuy]

mobeewan wrote:
You might want to check the black and grey tanks while you're at it and see how they're supported. Probably not much better than the fresh water tank.

It's unclear who you mean by "You" but the black & grey tanks on a Coachmen Freedom Express 192RBS hang between the main frame members of the trailer and can't fall out - it's only the fresh water tank support that is lacking.

[Ralph_Cramden]

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[Ralph_Cramden]

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[mobeewan]

You might want to check the black and grey tanks while you're at it and see how they're supported. Probably not much better than the fresh water tank.

[SoundGuy]

MrWizard wrote:
OMG .. soundguy

that kind of construction is ridiculous , thats terrible

And AFAIK newer model year versions of this Coachmen trailer aren't any better when it comes to tank support. 😞

[MrWizard]

OMG .. soundguy

that kind of construction is ridiculous , thats terrible

[maillemaker]

Yup. Others have posted similar problems before - poor tank support. Looks like a lot of previous replies in this thread have been deleted. All the stuff about "over inflating" the tank were spurious. The problem is a defective tank suspension design.

[SoundGuy]

RedLionCookie wrote:
To fix the problem I removed the 6 self tapping screws from the brace and removed it. The three failed straps were also removed. (I threw all of this away). I took the bent up brace to a welder and for $80 he made me a new brace form 3/8" angle iron. (This one isn't bending!) I put the new brace in place, drilled out the self tapping holes and replaces the screws with 6 nuts and bolts. I didn't bother to replace the safety straps.

Essentially the same solution I employed. Our trailer had an open underbelly so I spotted the potential for failure right from the get go and installed the bracing so I never did have the tank fall off the trailer, as others have experienced.

[RedLionCookie]

Update....

Last weekend I finally got around to pulling the coroplast down and investigating what caused the failure. The tank sits on two pieces of angle iron that run from side to side. The angle iron is bolted into the frame with self taping screws, three on each side. The angle iron is 1/8" steel and extremely flexible.

The the tank appears to have come off the lip of the back brace and dropped. I came out on the left side, but not the right. (if that makes sense) Essentially 3 of the four corners were still in somewhat in place. Because the metal was so light it twisted and bent. There were 3 safety straps also attached to the rails similar to what you would find on a gas tank. The straps are made from very low gauge tin and simply ripped and pulled loose when the tank fell. (Not much of a safety measure.

To fix the problem I removed the 6 self tapping screws from the brace and removed it. The three failed straps were also removed. (I threw all of this away). I took the bent up brace to a welder and for $80 he made me a new brace form 3/8" angle iron. (This one isn't bending!) I put the new brace in place, drilled out the self tapping holes and replaces the screws with 6 nuts and bolts. I didn't bother to replace the safety straps.

I filled the tank up with water and so far so good. This weekend we will hit the road and hopefully the tank doesn't "hit the road"!

Thanks for all the words of advice and encouragement. This site is awesome!

[Lynnmor]

If the tank is properly vented you should be able to completely fill it and let the water run out for and indefinite amount of time. If it is not properly vented, fix the problem. You should have vents that have at least twice the capacity of the supply line, for example; a 1/2" hose in and two 1/2" hoses for vents.

[MFL]

I agree with filling the tank full prior to heading out. No sense to have a tank, if you can't use it! I also agree you may have caused the problem by overfilling, creating a lot of pressure on the structure. I know that some RVs water tanks are more secure than others. I have added support to a previous FWs support system. My current FW seems to have good water tank support, just me viewing through a cut window in the coroplast. I fill mine until a little water spurts out my gravity fill. I would not trust mine, if left to overfill for 5 minutes. I know, things happen! Sounds like you got it figured out. Good luck, on your Spring time repair!

Jerry

[RedLionCookie]

Thanks for all the replies and information. It’s somehow comforting to know I’m not the only one this has happened too. I don’t know what type of hanger system they used to hold the tank in place as my visibility was somewhat limited and I was reluctant to dig to deep into it in a Walmart parking lot. I plan to use it one more time in two weeks then I’ll bring it home. If the weather cooperates I may tear it apart then but more than likely I’ll wait until spring.

I will say in the past with this camper and every other camper I’ve owned I’ve always filled the tank to maximum capacity when I get ready to travel. Why put a 60 gallon tank in the camper if you should only put 20 gallons in it? And if you don’t fill it until it runs out of the overflow how would you know when it’s full? Unlike my other campers this system to fill the tank is what I’ll call a closed system. You attach the hose in the same location as you would for “city water” There is a switch to change between “city” and “gravity”. With this system I can see how it would be easy for pressure to build up while filling. Admittedly the previous time I used the camper when I was filling it I got distracted and let it overflow for a while once the tank was full. Maybe 5 minutes. I’m now speculating this may have expanded the tank and set the table for the eventual fail. Lesson learned. In the future I’ll be more diligent when filling the tank. It will also be reinforced better to prevent this from happening again.