Water Tank issues

[William Ervin]

Cindy and I went to Navarre Beach Florida for the 4th.  When we got there I noticed some rather obvious issues with the main water tank.  Prior to this trip I had noticed the OSB support board had started to sag on each end, but didn't see the angle cross beams had also bent

We got back yesterday and preceded to remove the Tank.  More on that in another post

[Steven Hoffman]

Bill

I think they came bent like that from the factory.  Not sure why they did that.  Doesn't make sense to me.  I had to pull my tank last winter due to a leak.  When I get a chance I will change to a flat piece of angle iron unless someone can convince me otherwise.

[Gerald Farris]

Bill & Steve,
On the later model coaches, SMC used a length of 3 inch heavy web channel iron (that will not bend under the weight of 800 pounds of water) for the water tank support cross members.

Gerald

[Steven Hoffman]

Gerald

Thanks for the information. 

[William Ervin]

The original angle was only 1x1 11 gauge (1/8in) not nearly enough to support that much weight, I doubt they would go to the trouble to bend them considering the water tank was designed with a flat bottom.   I would guess it was starting to bend like that after the first water fill though!   I put the tank out in the sun and it went back to it original shape in about an hour without any help.

I talked with Ken at BCS and he said it generally happens when the overflow vent gets plugged and the tank overfills.  He also said he's seen the tiles pop off the galley floor from overfilling due to a plugged vent.  I blamed it on the roads in Louisiana...

We finished the reinstall last night I'll post some pics in the morning.  I used 3/16 thick 1 1/2" angle and 1/2" by-directional plywood with trimmed 2x4s on each end to support the shape of the tank in the middle and added 1/2" 10"x 26" sheet on each end support instead just a simple 1/2 OSB in the middle.  I think my big worry now will be blowing the tiles off the floor

[William Ervin]

Here are the Pictures I promised on my water tank support rebuild 

I replaced the 1/8"x 1" angle and 1/2 OSB with 1/4"x 1 1/2" angle 1/2 bi-directional plywood.  Instead of 4 simple supports two on the lower part of the tank and two on each end of the tank.  I built a rectangle frame with support arms out to each end of the lower part of the tank to support the wooden shelf and I added a 27x 12 plywood sheet above the supports on each end

The first two pics are before and after the tank sat out in the sun

[Edward Buker]

Bill,

Really nice rebuild that will last with the quality materials that you used. Thanks for taking the time to share so that others have a path to solve a similar issue....nice job. It is summer so go have some fun with it now :-)

Later Ed

[William Ervin]

We'll be on our way on Friday... first major stop Oshkosh for EAA Airventure http://www.eaa.org/en/airventure for a week of airplane overdose.  Then across the northern tier ultimately ending up in Bend to hang out with Ty at his new ranch and harass Ken and the BCS crew and then Canyonville before heading home in late September.