Dropped black water tank

[Gerry R]

When traveling the girlfriend and I have different duties upon arrival: she helps spot our toy hauler then she hooks up everything while I deal with unhooking and leveling the rig. Two weeks ago we pulled into a RV park in Walker Ca. each did our thing, got out of the 80*+ heat and were feeling how good life was when kaboom and the whole trailer shock. Upon going out to see what happened the right or door side of the black water tank was resting on the ground. It seems that my lady had mistakenly hooked the fresh water hose to the swisher for the black instead of the fresh water fill just inches above and over filled the black tank. I could have made the same mistake. It was Saturday afternoon, the closest town was Carson City 1:15 hour north. I tried using my AAA RV+ only to find them useless as the lady said they'd only tow. I explained under no circumstances could it be towed and would have to be dealt with there. AAA worthless. We are just basic Good Sam members without roadside or insurance but I called anyway. A gentleman answered and explained that without roadside he would have to charge me $263 to get help but I said whatever. In 15 minutes a guy from a Carson City mobile RV repair called and said he'd be down about 10 in the morning. At 10:15 he arrived, looked at it and said that it's pretty common to see this and it's caused by very light gauge steel angle (1/16th) used to hold the tanks in. He jacked up the full tank with a floor jack, removed the bent angle and hammered it straight, reinstalled it and ran two pieces of strapping under both black and grey tanks for a great fix. He worked slightly less than two hours and charged $160 and said Good Sam would give him money for the commute. I guess my $263 paid most of it but for us it seemed very reasonable for a 2 1/2 hour road trip and got us out of a real pickle. While you probably won't have trouble near Carson City in case you do the guy to call is Pete Pope, Action Mobile RV Service, 775 671 0110. I suggest you look under your rig to make sure there is some kind of bar or band under all tanks. Our Komfort didn't have any.

[Mopar1973Man]

Hmmm... Something worth inspecting on my own RV. I tend to load my holding tanks full of water and soak after a trip to clear the tanks of any solid material that might of dirt to the walls or bottom. I need to open the belly pan and do some work for the insulated tank areas. So it would be a good time to check mine out too.

[flagmanruss]

The tanks are exposed on my old 01 Tahoe. The cross tank bars under he fresh water tanks have been reinforced & the reinforcing angle stock is bent down also. To winterize, I jack the center of the plastic tank until it's pretty flat... a thick board on the top of the jack to spread the force... then insert scrap boards between the support braces & the tank to keep it up. Then open the drains.When we bought the trailer, the seller complained about how much Camco, non-toxic, it took to winterize... He didn't realize the amount of trapped water below the drain ____ in the fresh water tanks. I have a shop who's supposed to install stronger braces but it keeps getting put off...