Traveling with a full water tank

[flintshooter]

My wife has been researching TT in anticipation of buying a new one and came across an interesting comment. A fellow camper was traveling with a full water tank and at some point on the journey, the tank fell off while driving. When they contacted the manufacturer they were told it is not covered under warranty. Further, they were told that the warranty specifically warns against this practice. I know we travel with a full tank (30 gallons)if we know there is no hookup where we are going and after reading the forums for some time it appears to be a common practice. Any of you folks heard about this or had any experience with a self ejecting tank?

[flintshooter]

Thank you all for your replies. I sorta figured it was rather uncommon as I had never heard of it happening prior to this. I suppose it's one of those things that when it happens it gets a lot of attention. Thanks again.

[Turtle_n_Peeps]

nevadanick wrote:
I could not own an rv that could not be hauled with full tanks. I do know a few people that have had tanks fall out and to me that is poor design/workmanship.

X2. Exactly. How would you trust the rest of the trailer if they can't even design one that can hold a full water tank?

As far as this being a wives tail. Nope

My boss bought a new toy hauler and guess what? Yep, the FWT almost fell out of it. Did it? Nope, but it was trying it's best to get out and almost did.

She had an RV shop install a new one in it and reinforce the structure and the first time she took it out it leaked like a sieve. Why? The installer drilled right through the tank when they were reinforcing it. :R

Why anybody would buy a self contained RV when it's not that is beyond me. :S

[skipnchar]

I have never heard of anything so ridiculous. I have logged well over 80,000 towing miles on my Rockwood and all of them included water in the tank and often a full tank. Have him show you the warranty exclusion or advice against water in the tank while traveling

[69_Avion]

There are some trailers with either weak tanks or weak tank mounts. I always travel with full water, but I live in AZ so that is how many of us travel. Since I do a lot of boondocking, full tanks are a requirement.

[Sundance07]

hilandfrog wrote:
Absolutely ridiculous that one can not take what they would like with them.

For those saying fill up when you get there,why?

I pack as I leave for a trip, I would like to be ready not have a list of******to do when I get there. Many times the water in the areas I'm going to is foul, tastes like plastic pipes/ water cisterns, rusted/ discolored,or from a system that smells of one thing or another, the Blackfoot tribe up here in MT has some really bad water (east Glacier national park) .... not every water system is as clean as our well water, why should I drink icky water when I have a 300 foot well producing as much as I can pull out.
IF a manufacture is unable to secure 800pounds of square container... how much faith do you have in any of their construction methods?

"We would love to build you a house that holds up to snow load but we need to have snow first"
I can not in my little brain justify buying ANYTHING from a manufacture who is unable to build something that would last while in use..... just plain stupid designs.

Repo

I agree 100%

Any manufacturer that cannot build a product that will carry full water when needed is not one I would purchase from.

[hilandfrog]

Absolutely ridiculous that one can not take what they would like with them.

For those saying fill up when you get there, why?

I pack as I leave for a trip, I would like to be ready not have a list of******to do when I get there. Many times the water in the areas I'm going to is foul, tastes like plastic pipes/ water cisterns, rusted/ discolored,or from a system that smells of one thing or another, the Blackfoot tribe up here in MT has some really bad water (east Glacier national park) .... not every water system is as clean as our well water, why should I drink icky water when I have a 300 foot well producing as much as I can pull out.
IF a manufacture is unable to secure 800pounds of square container... how much faith do you have in any of their construction methods?

"We would love to build you a house that holds up to snow load but we need to have snow first"
I can not in my little brain justify buying ANYTHING from a manufacture who is unable to build something that would last while in use..... just plain stupid designs.

Repo

[nevadanick]

I could not own an rv that could not be hauled with full tanks. I do know a few people that have had tanks fall out and to me that is poor design/workmanship.

[bradnailer]

When they did the PDI on our new trailer, they said not to travel with a full tank of fresh water because it wasn't designed to be hauled full. Not a big deal to me as I've never traveled with a full tank of fresh water and most of the times, our tank is empty.

Don't shoot the messenger, just passing on what we were told.

[Drippin]

I normally travel with the FW tank full as we do a lot of camping without hook ups. So far about 15K miles without issue.

[dadmomh]

We rarely have more than just a very few gallons in our tank for just a couple of reasons...we always camp with water to the site and the other reason is that water weighs 8.3# per gallon, which is a lot of weight to haul around and decrease already poor mpg.

That story sounds a bit "old wives tale" or vivid imagination, but also sounds like it COULD be possible under the right conditions. If you know you're going to need FW, suggest you wait until you're actually at the CG and use their potable water supply on the way in.

[jmtandem]

I think the bigger problem is if the tank is half full and it starts sloshing around and that weight (8.3 pounds per gallon) is sufficient to damage the tank and supports. A full tank should not be that much of an issue unless perhaps on a very bumpy road. Shame on any manufacturer that cannot make a tank support that supports the tank when full.

[Bumpyroad]

hermy wrote:
Water weighs about 8 lbs/gal so the tanks do get heavy- and when you hit a hump or a bump that weight can multiply. But still, what good is a tank if you can't haul anything in it? I did have trouble with my tank (poor design) but I put extra support under it so I can haul a full tank now. How can you go camping if you can't take water with you?

I take a little in the tank for enroute uses and then fill up at or near my destination.
bumpy

[hermy]

Water weighs about 8 lbs/gal so the tanks do get heavy- and when you hit a hump or a bump that weight can multiply. But still, what good is a tank if you can't haul anything in it? I did have trouble with my tank (poor design) but I put extra support under it so I can haul a full tank now. How can you go camping if you can't take water with you?

[steelpony5555]

Hmmmmmm, a lot depends on the manufactur. My old Alpenlite had a 100 gallon fresh tank. We usually traveled cross country with it at least 1/2 to 3/4 full. We traveled for a couple hours local with it totally full and never ever had a problem with any of our tanks. Now with our Montana the tanks appear to be fairly weak. We have read where they will burst and drop too. In fact I over filled my galley tank it it burst to where they had to replace it. The fresh tank is only 60 gal I think and we still travel with it 1/4-1/2 filled and so far so good on it.....Oh and my extended warranty did replace my galley tank..

[midnightsadie]

I,ve heard of tanks falling out ,just plain poor quality workmanship. they could do a hole lot of damage .my guess thats why no warrenty .