Fresh Water Tank Strapping Broken

[canuckowner]

We took our maiden voyage this past weekend... cold and windy but still better than stayin' home ;-)

Anyway, before leaving I happened to take a quick look under the trailer and lo and behold, one of the metal straps that holds the fresh water tank under the trailer was just hagin there! There are three metal straps that are used to hold up each of the two tanks; and each strap has two screws on each end fastened to the trailer frame. So one of those straps (the centre one) had popped two screws and the strap was just hangin there. I was actually filling the fresh water tanks for the trip, as this was a boondocking weekend. Its a good thing I looked (always trust your instincts) which I rarely ever do. Could have been a disaster of that tank dropped out at highway speed.

So I must say that I am a little shocked at the under-engineering of that set-up. If welding the strapping in place is not an option, surely some more heavy duty type clamps could be used to in place of those screws (which have not surprisingly begun to rust).

Have any Jayflight owners had similar problems? I will be reinforcing all the strapping for my tanks and repainting the underside of the trailer this year... trailer is brand new as of last August.

[7mgcmn]

I had a similar problem on a Forest River Product. The tank had support underneath, but was not anchored in place. So it was free to slide about 8" from side to side. Luckily I had not ever filled it. It would have taken out all the wiring and would have made the trailer sway a lot more. Just chalked it up to poor Quality Control and design. Fixed it myself. I did however send pictures and a description back to the manufacturer, but never heard back. That is why I am now on a a Jayco forum.

[clubhouse]

I expect others to reply, this has come up before and my understanding is the straps you refer to to aren't the primary bracket to support the tanks. There is a lip on the tanks, at least mine, that have several brackets running down the sides that are secured the TT underbelly. The straps, some have suspected, are just a temp brace to hold the tanks in place during manufacturing while the primary supports are secured.

If you learn otherwise there are a lot of us who would be interested. You are right though, the straps are a very poor design if they are truly integral to hold the tanks in place.

[Murphie]

I haven't looked at our tanks in the Jayco but like clubhouse mentioned they are normally made with a wide lip on them which is held in place by a piece of angle iron that goes the length of the tank. Water, at 8lbs. to the gallon can become a bear inside your trailer going down the road unless is is contained somehow.

[canuckowner]

Thanks for the responses... I will climb underneath again later today and see if there is indeed more support than those metal straps... and maybe even snap a photo.

[zjcvbm]

I know this is an old thread, but I just experienced the same problem on my 23Mb's maiden voyage. Arrived at campground to discover strapping bracket dangling. One of the tanks is drooping. We didn't have any water in the tanks. I was able to remove some of the other screws securing the brackets by hand! None of the six are secured with nuts or washers. Hopefully it has not done any permanent damage.

[ALJO]

The very light and thin straps you see on the black and grey tank, they are just for assembly. Also the black and grey have a long galvanized metal strip going over the lip of the tank length wise and fasten to the underbelly in a wood floor joist. In the metal strip it should have all the woodscrews installed in each of the holes.
That's why the recommend not to travel with full grey and black tanks.
The FW Tank has 3 pieces flat iron under the tank with 2 self tapping bolts in stalled on each end.
It seems the wear the plastic tank so I installed a piece plywood on top of the flat iron 34" x 48" x 7/16'. Which support the tank much better. If you don't trust the self tapping bolts you can install nuts on them for more security.

[zjcvbm]

Thanks for your response. The self tapping bolts are the issue. Several are loose. I'm replacing them as suggested.

[Pcdc]

We are on the road going from Alabama to Alaska. Have already had both straps around black water tank break. Easy to replace, but irritating as heck. Not that we expect to hear back, but we are contacting Jayco about this issue.

[namusmc65]

Those of us with enclosed underbellies can't see them anyway. Out of sight, out of mind! Do I really want to pull that underbelly down to check? Been running for almost two years now with no problems from there. But of course, I always travel with all tanks empty.

[Camping Couple]

As Clubhouse stated, those straps are there to hold the tank in place during construction. I had a similar situation with our previous TT and contacted Jayco. They did stated they were there strictly for manufacturing. Removing them was an extra step they decided to skip on the assembly line. I was told I could remove them or leave them in place.

[Curious by Nature]

I had a similar problem with the freshwater tanks on my 2012 28BHS. I believe my unit was towed up in winter on salted roads, just about every one of the self tapping bolts rusted and broke. They probably were over torqued at the factory. I replaced them all with bolts and nylock nuts. There's a lot of them!

We had the unit at a seasonal site, the corners of the freshwater tank started sagging under the trailer in hot weather, nearly 4", broke seal on the large joiner hose between the two tanks. I added extra angles to both tanks to support the corners more adequately.

I spent a lot of time under my unit the first year, very few screws holding the gray and black in place, propane line hanging by the copper lines, once again, broken bolts. Cleaned up the electrical, added hanger loops to hold the wiring up, repainted the frame as it was covered in rust. This was a new unit.