Do you travel with full fresh tanks?

[COBoondocker]

Just bought our first travel trailer / RV.

Our fresh tank on our minnie is 31 gallons. We pretty much exclusively do boondocking/dispersed camping. There often aren't water sources nearby.

What are your opinions on filling up water at home and traveling?

Is there a distance that you wouldn't travel with full tanks?

Any guidelines I find are vague - like, traveling with full fresh tanks is okay if only traveling a short distance. But what does short distance mean?

I have heard horror stories of people's water tanks falling out. My feeling is that these are all much larger tanks than ours, but we don't want to take risks that are silly and obvious bad choices.

Thanks in advance!

[Blue Sky]

Originally Posted by COBoondocker

Just bought our first travel trailer / RV.

Our fresh tank on our minnie is 31 gallons. We pretty much exclusively do boondocking/dispersed camping. There often aren't water sources nearby.

What are your opinions on filling up water at home and traveling?

Is there a distance that you wouldn't travel with full tanks?

Any guidelines I find are vague - like, traveling with full fresh tanks is okay if only traveling a short distance. But what does short distance mean?

I have heard horror stories of people's water tanks falling out. My feeling is that these are all much larger tanks than ours, but we don't want to take risks that are silly and obvious bad choices.

Thanks in advance!

... tough question to answer. If the water tanks aren't secured properly (like they once were), then yes, it could create problems. Since you don't have a water source where you're going, you will have to bring it with you.

For many years the weight of the water was considered as a towing issue (excess weight and/or sloshing). Some folks considered mileage. But the tank securement was not an issue.

I think making sure your tanks are secure is your solution. And it's easier to deal with now then if there's a problem later.

I'm going to have to deal with mine as well. If problems are found it should be reported as a safety issue to NHTSA. Anything becoming dislodged on the highway could cause a wreck.

[creativepart]

Yes, and no.

First water weighs 8.3 lb per gallon so, 30 gallon weighs ~250lbs. That's a lot to lug around if you don't have to.

If going somewhere that water is easily available I would travel with 1/3rd of a tank usually. Enough to use the bathroom and sinks while traveling for a day or two.

I don't own travel trailers any longer - and on my motorhome the motorhome actually rides better with full water so now I do tend to leave home with a full tank.

When I owned Arctic Fox travel trailers a full tank of water would make my water tank bulge down in the middle. I don't know if it was really a problem, but I didn't like seeing it bulging.

[COBoondocker]

Originally Posted by Myakka

... tough question to answer. If the water tanks aren't secured properly (like they once were), then yes, it could create problems. Since you don't have a water source where you're going, you will have to bring it with you.

For many years the weight of the water was considered as a towing issue (excess weight and/or sloshing). Some folks considered mileage. But the tank securement was not an issue.

I think making sure your tanks are secure is your solution. And it's easier to deal with now then if there's a problem later.

I'm going to have to deal with mine as well. If problems are found it should be reported as a safety issue to NHTSA. Anything becoming dislodged on the highway could cause a wreck.

With an enclosed underbelly, it is hard to even see the water tanks. It's a 1-year-old trailer that were told was only used for one trip. So hopefully the tanks are secured properly.

The alternative would be getting a large water bladder in the truck bed and then pumping it into the freshwater RV tank when we arrive. But if it were safe to drive around with that extra 250 lb in the tanks, It would say that extra effort in time and space.

[Marine359]

I think I’m the horror story you’re referring to.. On a trip to Key West, when we got there, I noticed that the tapping bolts securing the brace bar for the fresh tank had fallen out, and the tank was sagging, being held only by the bolts on one side. It was a fairly easy field fix with baling wire and larger gauge tapping bolts. A more permanent fix would be to use u-bolts over the frame, secured to unistrut going under the tank and across the frame rails. Others have done this.

Traveling with little or no water causes the trailer to be squirrely when towing. You’ve got to have enough weight on the tongue. We’ve found that 600# works really well. To get to 600#, we fill the fw tank to 3/4. Traveling with a full tank would be more convenient because we boondock often, but it can also put us over the limit on tow vehicle RAWR and payload. Our solution is to take along 2 empty 7gal reliance jugs. After setting up camp, we keep them in our truck bed to be filled at our convenience. Typically we wait until our gray tank is full, then transfer gray water into our tote, and haul it away to dump; refilling reliance jugs at the same time. We’ve never run out of fresh water this way.

However, if you have enough payload, there’s no reason to travel with less than a full fresh tank. Just check that the brace bar bolts on both sides are properly seated. I don’t want to give the impression that the tank brace failure we had is virulent across the product line, as we’ve heard of just a couple of other owners who experienced it. I made the post to make people aware that it could be a potential problem, and should be checked.

[Morich]

I congratulate you one thinking ahead but also warn against being too paranoid!
In almost any game there will be hazards that spoil the fun but we want to look at what we Can do to avoid those.
There will be equipment desings that fail but I feel there are so many really good Winnebago designs that I feel good with thinking they know how to put most RV together.

Nothing is perfect but they have tons of trailers still on the road after 25 years and very few have tanks that fall out! If it were common, Winnebago would not have the solid rep they have!

We now live in an age where one situation may be talked about in twenty different forums, articles, etc until it seems to be common but if we look, it may have only happened once!

I go for using the RV as designed and not worry the issue of full or empty tanks but with the full idea of not overloading the weight limits or tow vehicle specs.
Know the specs for the trailer and the tow vehicle, consider if the wieght is worth paying a little extra to haul it and enjoy the rest.
Keep how to distribute the weight in the trailer in mind. Keep positive tough weight in mind and I will say the tank will be fine!

More likely to be hit by a flash flood in Arizona than the tank dropping out? Can happen but not a big issue!

[SactoSteve]

There will be equipment desings that fail but I feel there are so many really good Winnebago designs that I feel good with thinking they know how to put most RV together.

It’s not the design, its the assembly.

Some of our issues- Cabinet bottom fell out because the staples missed the framing, screws that split framing because screwed into knot (poor material choice as well). Ceiling trim fell out because pins blasted right through the thin trim piece. Cracked shower pan because bottom shower door track screwed through pan in corner (no predrilling?). Rubber roof torn under the vent because attachment screw missed framing but grabbed roofing, wound it up on screw tearing the material. Discovered when replacing fan. These are all minor, I think most of us expect “fit and finish” issues.

Design issues, I suspect, are more rare, or get fixed and design changes made once found. Like the schwintec/Lippert slide issue, the tire carrier, the propane valve, and now the solar panel hold downs.

So yea, serious issues should be rare.
-steve

[SactoSteve]

noticed that the tapping bolts securing the brace bar for the fresh tank had fallen out, and the tank was sagging, being held only by the bolts on one side. It was a fairly easy field fix

Hello, Jim-
Nice on-the-road recovery!

I believe your 2108 is only a year or 2 older than the FLX models so am I correct in thinking you do not have the coroplast underneath the frame? I’m not sure how one could even evaluate the tank retention design, let alone assembly quality, on the FLX models with the sheathing hiding everything and being “challenging” to remove/reinstall.

The pro/con weight issue you mention is, of course, valid but I am also interested in folks experience traveling partially filled with a sloshing tank. Static vs dynamic loading.

-steve

[Marine359]

Thanks Steve,
Our unit was built in September 2021 as a 2021b model. We took delivery in October 2021. I believe the FLX started shipping in Apr//May 2022. If we knew about the FLX and if it were available, we would have bought one for sure. As it is, we upgraded everything so it’s almost like a FLX, except no Truma components. We do have the coroplast underbody with heat mats on the tanks.

Not sure how anybody would know dynamic load of a partially full tank. That movement/shift in mass is impossible to feel in your tow vehicle. Since we’re only talking about a difference of 60# between 3/4 full and full versus a trailer weight of 4,500#, the potential mass shift is like a fly on an elephants back. I think it would take some sophisticated measuring equipment like an accelerometer to discern how much of a difference would be made. I feel no difference in braking or acceleration behavior when I have full tank or 3/4 tank.

[SactoSteve]

That movement/shift in mass is impossible to feel in your tow vehicle.

I was more pondering the effect on a stripped, or not fully seated, self tapping screw. Or such.

-steve

[Morich]

when I heart about the problems with new RV, I find it is pretty much the same in most areas where we have lost so many of the experienced workers.
Just getting fruit from the store is my current bug as what we are getting now is just substandard.
Part of it is local as the produce manager at the local HEB store is not old enough to know a ripe melon from a baseball and doesn't really seem to care!
As long as an area is growing faster than a store is losing customers, things are not prone to change!
RV builders are likely the same way! As long as there are more folks everyday to buy the RV, the quality is not likely to get better. Especially when they can't hire anybody that will work!
The "produce manager" had to take off his headset to talk to me!~

[RVJimD]

Richard, I think with all the advice you offer here on the forum it would be useful for everyone if they did indeed know what your past rv collection included. Go ahead and change your signature to something that would help us understand your background.

[chewie37]

A slightly different spin for us outside of what's been covered in the thread already. Over the years we've settled out on traveling with 10-ish gallons of FW onboard, mostly for when we're in transit. Provides the extra option of being able to pop in the rig and have working plumbing if needed.

[RocknRoll]

Originally Posted by SactoSteve

It’s not the design, its the assembly.

Or if it's not the assembly, it's the road conditions. Suspension matters. It's sometimes a fine line between potholes, "off the beaten path" and overlanding. These trailers, even with the fancy "off-road" tires are not meant to endure sustained shock/vibration.

Quick Guide(s) to Suspensions
https://www.tripsavvy.com/rving-guid...ystems-4106980
https://blog.campingworld.com/learn-...0torsion%20bar.

Just as we sometimes increase tire pressure for higher speeds and level roads, IMO, the opposite should be applied when going over uneven terrain. If you are near your ultimate destination and you find yourself on a corrugated, uneven road, remove the WDH, reduce tire pressure and GO SLOW. It should reduce the vibration to the trailer components, including full water tanks considerably. Safe travels!

[Morich]

Originally Posted by RVJimD

Richard, I think with all the advice you offer here on the forum it would be useful for everyone if they did indeed know what your past rv collection included. Go ahead and change your signature to something that would help us understand your background.

Oh my! That is almost a full article if I listed all the different Rv we have had!

Our first was a 1956 Aljo trailer that was a real fixer upper as we got it in about 1967! At about 14"??, it needed pretty much everything but worked okay for a couple with one child. In those days the rv were simply painted, so we stripped the paint and my brother repainted. Money was tight, so fixing things was just what we did!
Several years later and needing more room for more kid space, we got our first popup Starcraft tent camper. New, it did not need much but also was not what we wanted when it was cold and the wind blew! It worked for a few years but we learned we wanted hard sides.

I had a truck, so a pickup camper was the next try. New but with several things that never suited us well. Lack of inside space and the truck was a bummer, so when I came across a semi-junk motorhome, we jumped on it! $2600 would buy a lot then!

Long lost on what it was other than short Winnebago Brave, it needed major work peeling the aluminum roof back far enough to get rotten wooden structure torn out and rebuilt over the cab, frozen plumbing replaced, basic things like propane lines replaced, stove and furnace cleaned and repaired.
It was a good experience builder as there was so little to be lost! But when we went around curves, I could see the shower tended to press the driver's side wall out! Major structure work needed and it tended to make the plumbing leak, so we sold it. I think it wound up as a chicken coop!

At the time, I did service type work that got me into all kinds of places to spot "bargains" so I began to collect junk RV to restore and sell after we used them a few years as I rebuilt/restored things. The combo of restoring RV and also buying "bargain" rental properties gave me lots of varied experience repairing whatever was needed!

I quickly learned that there were some that had such major problems that I simply passed on them as my rental properties were paying off much better and also did not require a piece of junk setting in the yard! With the rental property, it was in some other neighborhood and folks were happy to see any progress cleaning them up, unlike me bringing home yet another RV to my neighborhood! I did something like 5-8 RV but also collected 19 rental units, so got lots of experience on fixing things. From digging up the sewer line to restacking the chimney there is not a single portion of a house which I have not had my hands in! I have hired plumbers and electricians on several occasions and regretted it every time as I had to rework a number of things they did!
I now tend to buy what we want at the time as finances are much differetn and the kids are grown, so the last few years have been a new class A Thor which was one of the bigger mistakes we made as it was not built well and had too many design/build issues to keep. We find buying new is not what we want as we like to let the new build issues get fixed before we buy. The last was a 2015 Winnbago Vista and it was great but we are just not very motivated to drag that much around any more.
We've seen about all the good spots we would care to drive to, so no RV is fine for right now! Tilling the compost heap where the RV used to set is about as much fun as working on one!

You don't really want that as my signature do you?

[Marine359]

Less than 1% of RVs are built for the kinds of conditions you can expect if you do a lot of boondocking (some say overlanding). Rutted and washboarded forest service roads, fire roads, and off road are going to deliver more shaking and shocks to an RV than it can handle. Things ARE going to break no matter how good the build. You won’t hear about it from Airstream owners because their trailers low clearance prevents them from accessing many of these areas.

The first thing to break will be your range. Easy fix if you find the screws. The next will be the sliding door. Another easy fix. Then there will be cabinet failures, which may be easy to fix by installing added backer stock.

Then if you’re lucky like me, your fridge falls out, or your fresh tank almost falls out. Fixed the tank in the field. The fridge was a tough fix and took a long time to fix and required DIY mods to prevent future failure.

Bottom line is that if you’re not going to take your RV to the kind of rugged places we bought our RV for, you’re highly unlikely to experience the kind of fails we have had. So I don’t blame Winnebago for building a product that will reliably suit most campers. They didn’t sell me a tank.

Of course a long drive on I-26 through South Carolina can produce some failures too.

[SactoSteve]

Morich-

You don't really want that as my signature do you?

Perhaps not, but it would be great for a profile page! Alas, there doesn’t appear to be enough room.

Thank you for sharing!

- steve

[Morich]

Originally Posted by SactoSteve

Morich-

Perhaps not, but it would be great for a profile page! Alas, there doesn’t appear to be enough room.

Thank you for sharing!

- steve

Forums are just not th ebest place to get to know each other. We can't pass a tub full of info in a teaspoon of time!
And I am certainly not going to say I know the whole story as there are tons of things I have not done.
I gave up the forest service roads when the old converted beer wagon gave up!

And as mentioned, we don't buy tanks for camping, so we do need to accept things breaking when we drive on roads built for tanks!
When camping with scouts, we had to carry the "RV" on our back to get it there!

[No1Hunter]

When camping with scouts, we had to carry the "RV" on our back to get it there!

Having two boys that are Eagle Scouts, I can relate to that!!!

We pretty much boondock 100% of the time, and we fill our fresh water tank based upon the amount we think we will need. Our last trip for 4 days w/ a possibility of one extra night, we took 40 gallons (our fresh water tank hold 60). In addition, we took 5 gallons in two separate 2.5 gallon water jugs for drinking. We did not run out.

[Morich]

Part of "roughing it" is learning not to bring everything! But water is pretty critical for lots of things we like.
When it was just me and the guys a creek nearby was good enough to purify but now I really think my wife would fuss a bit after a few days of me without a shower!