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  1. #1
    Seasoned Camper Lizardqing's Avatar
    Join Date
    Dec 2017
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    Great Smoky Mountians - Homebase
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    Reinforcing for Fresh Water Tank

    This was a combination repair/mod I suppose. For whatever reasons known only to Murphy our water tank supports gave way while we were parked and had about half a tank of water. Ironically enough I was on the phone with GD regarding having some warranty work done before we headed across the country again. He said to have the service tech check it when they did the other work. The tech felt up in the belly and said the brackets had gave way and the tank was just sitting on the edge. Also said it was a major repair and that it would take a couple of days of welding and what not and not to put any water in it.
    That was not what I needed to hear. We had a set date to be across the country in Tucson and had to leave in a couple of days, not to mention we had planned on boondocking the entire trip, so water in the tank would be essential.
    While visiting family a couple days into the trip I decided to drop the belly cover and take a look myself. Found that the angle supports running between the frame were bent and that caused the rib supports to bend as well. Looked a bit like this:



    (Bonus view there for those wondering how the heated belly works, was also a T in the duct along the street side of the tank blowing on the end of it.)

    Got to head scratching with my oldest son and figured we could handle this with some redneck engineering. (We are Ga boys, so that is anything but offensive to us)

    Some parts gathering around town and we got to work fabricating the fix. No fancy workbenches or even a nice concrete or asphalt surface to lay on, we were in a gravel lot at a vineyard. So it was getting creative with a rake and vise grips for working with the metal.



    Basically we cut some aluminum 1” square tubing
    to around 68” long and screwed on some cross members to essentially make a truss.



    After removing the drain valve and getting the rat nest of wires out of the way, the truss was knocked in under the ribs and the ends onto the frame with a dead blow and the appropriate amount of colorful words. They were then secured with some self tappers through the frame.



    Even with a full tank of water it doesn’t sag now. And have traveled across the country on some not so smooth roads with no further issue.
    If I had seen what the tank was sitting on before hand, I would have probably done something like this just for peace of mind!
    Chris and Karen - currently on the coast of the Olympic Peninsula

    Roaming the country full time with our 2018 312BHTS Reflection behind a 2016 Ram 3500 6.7 Cummins and two preschoolers who are highly addicted to camping.

    Follow our adventures @brownsignjunkies

  2. #2
    Long Hauler
    Join Date
    Jun 2018
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    Awesome on the road engineering, redneck or not that's a good fix.

    Brian

  3. #3
    Fireside Member
    Join Date
    Feb 2018
    Location
    Reno, NV
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    And that's exactly why I'm considering it preventatively... Thanks for the tutorial!

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