fresh water tank bracing bending down

[prairiequad]

hello; I'm a newbie just purchased a 2017 forest river pull behind trailer and found the fresh water tank brackets bending. is this a common problem or recalls with any makes ?
thankyou

[ktmrfs]

I'd say this is a common problem with most makes. How serious varies. My solution was pretty easy and worked well for me.

I cut several pieces of 3/4" plywood that I could slide underneath the empty tank and above the angle support to brace the bottom of the tank.

The I screwed through the rail into the plywood to capture the plywood. Just use screws that don't go through the plywood.

then in several spots I screwed 1" wide 3/16" flat stock into the rails so the flat stock replaced the thin bands.

This supports the water tank well.

If you don't have clearance to install 3/4" plywood, use thinner if possible and if no room at all, use 1 1/2 or 2" 3/16 angle iron in multiple places screwed into th the rails. In fact you could sandwich plywood between the rails and the angle iron. The plywood distributes the weight so the tanks doesn't deform.

[goducks10]

Get a piece of 2" x 2" x 3/16" angle and mount it under the tank spanning from the frame sides. Drill two 3/8" holes in the frame flange and bolt it up.
Peace of mind fix.

[myredracer]

Do you have an enclosed & heated underbelly? If yes, what looks like a sagging tank could be caused by the layer of batt insulation that they sandwich between the tank bottom and underbelly coroplast which causes the coroplast to look like it's bulging downward.

I saw on the FR river forum the other day that someone mentioned FR is recommending NOT to travel with full tanks. Sad that the RV manufacturers build RVs and you can't travel with at least a full FW tank. All they have to do is spend another $1 or two on stronger brackets. Tank support issues are not isolated to FR products.

[SoundGuy]

prairiequad wrote:
I'm a newbie just purchased a 2017 forest river pull behind trailer and found the fresh water tank brackets bending. is this a common problem or recalls with any makes ?

Of course it's common, manufacturers will do as little as possible to get a trailer off the production line, any extra attention goes into making it look pretty rather than more functional. The fresh water tank on my own 2014 Coachmen Freedom Express originally looked like this ...



Fortunately my model year had an open underbelly so it was easy to spot. I had my dealer rectify this by adding steel supports ...



By 2016 Coachmen (a Forest River company) had added an enclosed underbelly to the 192RBS and mockingly added "support braces" to the FW tank, a minimal effort considering this tank full of water would weigh in excess of 250 lbs. It's only a matter of time before these braces bend and the screws strip out, allowing the tank to sag severely from the weight of water sloshing around inside it and eventually fall off the trailer entirely.



Recalls? That's funny - unfortunately the joke's on you.

[westend]

Replace or amend the original, lackluster supports with steel of sufficient size. You may wish to add cross braces to better support the weight. Others have done this with good success.
Good luck!

[MFL]

All tanks should be capable of travel when full, but many are not. Being able to carry a full fresh tank is often necessary. If yours is sagging, it needs to be restructured/better braced. In some cases, with trailers having low CCC, the full tanks would put them over the GVWR, with almost nothing else added for gear/supplies.

Jerry

[1492]

Moved from Forum Posting Help and Support

[BillyBob_Jim]

Welcome to the Forest River water tank bouncing down the road club! What brand? Rockwood / Flagstaff? Cedar Creek? Salem? Fill in the blank?

Its an ongoing issue and has been for a few years. Cheap thin support brackets supplied by LCI. Certain Forest River divisions have been known to actually send emails to people telling them the trailers are not designed to be moved with fluid in the tanks. They contend a section of their manual quoted below actually means not to travel with water in the tank.

"When traveling, you may want to drain the tank or keep the quantity of water to a minimum. This will reduce the total weight of the RV for travel. The location of the fresh water and the waste water tank drain valve will vary from RV to RV but is generally located beneath the RV near the respective tank."


Go to Forest River Forums and search for "water tank" or "tank fell out" and you'll get plenty of reading material and info on repairs.

[Lwiddis]

With Forest River? Ask Charlie and Warren.