Georgie Boy Holding Tank - Mystery Solved.

[chasfm11]

It has always seemed difficult to dump our black tank since we bought this MH. It worked well at the CG near our home because the road on either side of the dump inlet is highly slanted toward it. At other campgrounds, we couldn't get the black tank to dump or it only dumped a little. Recently, I've begun dropping the passenger side jacks and running them up fairly far - that seemed to help a lot.

Today, I was trying to tighten one of the basement compartment doors and I took off some of the inner panels to give me access for my drill. Much to my surprise, the passenger side of the black tank wasn't attached hangers which appear to have been intended to hold it to the floor like the gray tank next to it. It looks like during the manufacturing process, either a decision was made not to suspend the black tank or the work to do that was halted and forgotten.

It took me less than a two minutes to use the scraps of wood that were obviously lying there on top of the tank to push under it and lift the black tank, placing the hangers under it. With the black tank on its hangers, there is not a reverse slope away from the dump valves (I put a level on the top of the tank before I started). The lift on the passenger side is about 8", measured from the bottom of the tank in both positions.

A couple of questions:
1. How sound is the engineering to hang the tank in the first place? It is about 6 inches deep, about 3 feet across and the width of the coach (49 gallons). The gray tank is exactly the same size, it is hung (and it dumps great) and we haven't had any problems with it - so far in 6 years (4 previous owner, 2 with us)
2. The gray tank has some rudimentary supports fashioned out of wood under it at about 1/3 and 2/3 of the width of the MH. It looks like their purpose is to support the weight of the tank when it's full. It wouldn't be difficult for me to build similar ones for the black tank. I'm assuming that there shouldn't be any appreciable weight difference between the two tanks when they are full. Is there any reason to make those supports different for the black tank?
3. Is there any compelling reason NOT to hang the black tank at this point?

This isn't the first manufacturing problem that I've discovered. I just don't want to do the wrong thing in dealing with it.

Thanks for input and opinions.

[chasfm11]

It has always seemed difficult to dump our black tank since we bought this MH. It worked well at the CG near our home because the road on either side of the dump inlet is highly slanted toward it. At other campgrounds, we couldn't get the black tank to dump or it only dumped a little. Recently, I've begun dropping the passenger side jacks and running them up fairly far - that seemed to help a lot.

Today, I was trying to tighten one of the basement compartment doors and I took off some of the inner panels to give me access for my drill. Much to my surprise, the passenger side of the black tank wasn't attached hangers which appear to have been intended to hold it to the floor like the gray tank next to it. It looks like during the manufacturing process, either a decision was made not to suspend the black tank or the work to do that was halted and forgotten.

It took me less than a two minutes to use the scraps of wood that were obviously lying there on top of the tank to push under it and lift the black tank, placing the hangers under it. With the black tank on its hangers, there is not a reverse slope away from the dump valves (I put a level on the top of the tank before I started). The lift on the passenger side is about 8", measured from the bottom of the tank in both positions.

A couple of questions:
1. How sound is the engineering to hang the tank in the first place? It is about 6 inches deep, about 3 feet across and the width of the coach (49 gallons). The gray tank is exactly the same size, it is hung (and it dumps great) and we haven't had any problems with it - so far in 6 years (4 previous owner, 2 with us)
2. The gray tank has some rudimentary supports fashioned out of wood under it at about 1/3 and 2/3 of the width of the MH. It looks like their purpose is to support the weight of the tank when it's full. It wouldn't be difficult for me to build similar ones for the black tank. I'm assuming that there shouldn't be any appreciable weight difference between the two tanks when they are full. Is there any reason to make those supports different for the black tank?
3. Is there any compelling reason NOT to hang the black tank at this point?

This isn't the first manufacturing problem that I've discovered. I just don't want to do the wrong thing in dealing with it.

Thanks for input and opinions.

[RV Wizard]

I would deffinetly support the tank with more than the two straps newr the ends. I would recmmend you do strap it up to the floor. I am supprise that it did not leak either at the toilet flange or at the vent connection. GLad to hear that you found and fixed the problem.

[chasfm11]

Thanks, Mike. The tank is 7'(runs the width of the MH), 30" wide and 3" deep. It has specifications for 49 gallons. The "straps" are really heavy steel brackets that fit into slots under the ends of the tank. even removing the tank, I doubt that I could get in the 3.5' to attach anything in the center so I'll have to work with supports from below.

I'm going to build 2 - 14"x30" pieces of plywood and support them under the tank at the 1/3 and 2/3 point with 2x4s (fastened to the plywood). I hope this will spread the load sufficiently. I'm going to spray foam on top of the tank at 5 points (3 along the passenger side edge and one on either side as far in as I can reach) to create "pillars" between the tank and the bottom of the floor above it. That should stop it from bouncing off the the hangers again without putting pressure on the tank. The gray tank has similar buffers between it and the floor above and I suspect that this was why the black tank came loose in the first place - it had nothing to prevent it from bouncing. I have a picture in the photo gallery pending approval of how the straps mount onto the tank.

While the passenger side moves 6" up and down(I miss-spoke yesterday), there is almost no movement on the driver's side where the toilet flange and vent stack connections are made which was probably why I haven't had problems there. When all of my work is complete on the passenger side, I'm going to remove the driver's side panels and very carefully examine all of the joints. Hopefully, I won't find any problems there.

Lastly, I can see a lot more holes than I would prefer in the panels which are supposed to prevent the tanks from freezing in the winter. I'm going to work on sealing some of those as a part of this effort, too.

[chasfm11]

After some thought and contact from a fellow XCS chassis own who has th exact same tank arrangement, I'm going a different direction.

I'm no longer concerned about the structural integrity of the tank being fastened on both ends. The other fellow's coach doesn't even have floors below the tanks - his tanks are totally suspended.

My concern now is how to keep the tank from flipping off of the hanger again. As I look at the hanger arrangement, there should probably be some sort of metal restrain to keep the tank from lifting and I plan to engineer a piece of steel for each of the passenger side hangers on both tanks. In addition, it makes sense to me to add the foam "pilliars" on top of the end of both tanks, too. It looks like the additional gravity and weight will keep the driver's side of the tanks on the hangers so I don't plan to mess wtih those. Whatever I do, I still plan to carefully inspect the black tank connections before I'm done. I'm still concerned about Mike's point on the toilet flange and vent stack connections.

[chasfm11]

It took a few days to get my picture loaded and approved but here it is.

[RV Wizard]

When sealing area be sure not to seal off any vent from above as this could be coming from the furnace to prevent freezing. Good luck and keep us posted as to the progress.

[chasfm11]

Thanks for the caution, Mike. I plan to figure out exactly where the heater vent is, just for my own knowledge. The parts that I'm planning to seal are around the cable entrances and joints of the compartment. The accuracy in some of the cuts for those leaves something to be desired.

I hope to have this problem solved this weekend. Then, I can get back to fixing the compartment doors, the job that started this caper.

[chasfm11]

Update: with some input from my GBM dealer, here's what I ended up doing:
1. Putting black silicon around all of the hooks where they go into the slot in the tank.
2. Putting a board across the passenger (high) side of the black tank and using it to create pressure against the tank as I lifted it. It's snug now, not tight.
3. Raised all of the nuts on the bolts and added a stop nut below each of them on both tanks. The adjustments that I set should hold now.

I filled the black tank about a 1/3 with water and left it sit for 4 days. We had dumped it in our last campground but I didn't trust it. I though the 1/3 tank would give me some sloshing action when we drove to our local dump station. It was a good thing because, when we dumped, it wasn't clear. The dump station has a high volume hose and I used that to flush the tank and then fill it completely full twice and left it sit for a couple of minutes - no leaks anywhere. After the flush, I never saw anything but clear water come out so I hope that my problems are solved.

The black tank now dumps just like the gray tank when I pull the handle with a good, strong flow. I use the Geo method and credit that with the fallen tank situation not leaving me with more of a problem than I had. It could have been much worse.

We have a camping trip coming up about 50 miles away. While our ride to the local dump station is one that I consider "worse case" in terms of rough roads, I'll feel better when I have a few miles under our belt and everything is continuing to work as now.

Thanks for your continuing support.

Charlie