Huntindog wrote:
I find it interesting that several have said that their tanks were attached to the wood subfloor... That sounds like a accident waiting to happen in my eyes.
All of my TTs have used metal brackets that attached to the frame..( until now, I thought that was standard practice) A much more durable design, though I have had to reinforce them somewhat... Probably due to my off road excursions with full tanks.
As I previously said in this thread I have read more than just a couple of instances of things "DROPPING" when least expected and my read over the years is that not only are some of the attachment schemes vary in their robustness, but sometimes a good system can be poorly executed. Below are the pics of my FW tank and black/grey holding tanks.
The fresh water tank has two angle iron supports on each side that the "LIP" on the tank rest on and that is what holds the tank in place. The angle iron supports are secured to the frame rails by a single sheet metal screw at each end. There were also two middle supports it a screw rod type adjustment that go under the tank to provide support and prevent sagging. When I inspected these the two screw support brackets were very loose and one screw on one angle iron bracket was not screws tight. Sometimes the ends of the angle iron is welded to the frame and I have read of these "welds" breaking along with if screws were used having a screw broken by overtightening during installation or rusting out over time. The only way to solve these issues is to get up in there and do a good inspection and fix any potential issues you find and even provide some extra attachement support to what is already there. I know the weak point in my FW tank support is how narrow that angle iron is that is supporting my FW tank and just adding a wider section of angle iron in the tank area and securing it to the existing angle iron outside the ends of the tank would really help, but I didn't choose to do that when I inspected mine.
Below is a pic of my black and grey tanks and here the supports are much more robust and sturdy and are welded to the frame rails and the lips on each tank are much wider than the ones on my FW tank. Thus the basic support system is good, but there was nothing in the middle like on the FW tank to prevent sagging. To solve this I added a support (the silver metal support on each tank in the below picture) that is in the middle of the tank and is attached to the existing side to side support brackets.
Again I guess my warning is take what others have said along with me and what you see in the actual pics I have provided and do the OLE DIRTY HARRY thing and say "DO YOU FEEL LUCKY" .... :E :B
Larry
