Sagging fresh water tank too...

[NDCamper]

I noted on my ST26RB how the material enclosing the underbelly was sagging with nothing supporting it from the front-mounted fresh water tank all the way back. I installed some 2" wide x 1" deep aluminum C channel in several areas which was a great improvement. (Pic attached) Support truss.jpg

However the last trip out I noted that my full fresh water tank was sagging greatly. There are two steel straps across the frame, side-to-side. The black pipe gas line is attached to the front strap. All of that was sagging terribly to the point I'm concern about flex failure on the gas line.

When I attempted to push up on the belly cover material, it's tight against the tank bottom, and I can feel a wire or something that's laying between the tank and material. Unfortunately I didn't snap any pics of all this.

Guess I'll have to open up the bottom covering too and see how that fresh water tank is supported. I'm wondering if it's supposed to hang below the cross-frame supports as it's now doing?

Anyone ever look at that?

NDCamper

[Lloyd]

Shortly after I got my trailer there was a lot of problems with tanks sagging and actually falling out. I travel with full tank most of the time because we do a lot of dry camping.
Mine has a couple light weight C irons going across under the tank. I bought two 1 in. square tubes and ran then across in the c iron. Drove a hard wood block into the end of them first. That eliminated the problem of crushing the end when I bolted them to the frame.

[NDCamper]

I fixed the sagging fresh water tank on our ST26RB using the same C-truss I showed previously. I had three more fabricated using the same aluminum 2"w x 1"h x 1/8" thick material. The bridge end is simple to make; short piece is 1.5" long; bridge piece is 10" long. Trusses are 71" long. Having a friend who can weld aluminum helps, but material costs were ~ $8/truss.

The three supports added under the water tank are 5" apart and replaced a very light-weight aluminum tube and flat steel piece from the factory. The cross-frame gas line had been attached to the aluminum piece. I failed to take pics of the factory work, but one can see how far the tank sagged by the bend it put on the gas line; conservatively 3 - 4"; unacceptable.

The finished project is shown with a full tank; minimal sag. I did not reattached the gas line to the truss, but have secured it on either side. Where the aluminum truss contacts the 90 degree elbow on one side, I insulated the gas line from the truss using a piece of tire innertube as the 90 degree fitting is slightly larger than the bare pipe and did contact the truss at that point, but not problematically.

The tank does sit on two cross-rails of the frame, above the frame, except for the tank sump; this protrudes slightly below the frame. I simply cut out the coroplast around this sump (use a lot of care here) so it could protrude below the supported coroplast. Next took a piece of scrap coroplast ~ 12" wide x 16" long, shaped it to fit around the sump. Applied liberal amounts of silicone on the end 'flaps' and put those under the aluminum truss on either side; good seal. Sealed up the ends of the patch using pond foam; again, good seal. I believe this could be removed with minimal effort if need be.

If anyone wishes more detailed, photos, will gladly share. For now, very pleased with the modification. So far have installed 7 trusses to support the coroplast front-back, using self-tapping screws to hold them up.

[mnsunset]

Had the same issue with my unit this spring, but mine did break the gas line. We were lucky to smell the gas, then find the broken pipe. A very bad design flaw to say the least. I removed the entire tank, then re-installed in a very similar way as the above fix. 1 inch square tubing is what I used as it was fairly inexpensive at Menards.
I had all the tools so it wasn't too bad, just took a few hours. Now, on to the next issue.

[Rancherman]

My 2014 Crossroads Elevation Toy hauler had the same issue. Not enough cross supports and several broken self drilling/self tapping screws that broke in the first 500 miles. I added more supports and attached the critical ones with bolts and nylon insert lock nuts.

[ridgerunner69]

On mine the front cover sags about 3 to 4 inches i crawled under and pushed up and i can't feel any tanks falling theirs no resistances but i can hear installation, also the covers are about 5/16 inches thick plastic and are bolted up with 3/8s bolts no self taping screws, I'll check the front cover next time i fill the fresh water tank and see if its heavy in a few weeks from now.