fresh water tank venting

bob hyder

Member
On my 3795 I have 4 fresh water tank vents. One in each corner of the tank. It's not a very deep tank and the problem I'm having is that when I'm going dry camping and fill the tank up full, going down the road at least 2/3 of the water will slosh out of these vents. I've had people that have followed me and told me that I'm loosing alot of water going down the road. I'm wondering if anybody else has had this problem and what has been done to fix it.

Thanks for the help.

Bob
 
K

Ken Washington

Guest
Bob,
Do a search on this fourm and you will find the info. you want. There has been alot of discussion on this issue.
Ken
 

timk

Well-known member
Guys
The simple fix is to put a valve on the overflow vents to keep water from sloshing out. Keep them open when filling, and closed when driving.
TimK
 
T

tgboyd

Guest
Do you have to crawl under there every time you fill the tank? Is there any other way?
 

davebennington

Senior Member
We had the same problem with our Golden Gate. I fixed it by buying plastic hose and running it to the street side of the trailer then I put a valve in the line, when filling turn the valve to the open position and when the tank is full turn it to the closed position. Problem solved. However then you have the situation that the tank will be really full and if your unit dosn't have the fix for the sagging tank it WILL sag and push the underbelly down. Ours is at the dealer getting fixed now, when it is back home I will take pictures and post.

Dave:)
 

timk

Well-known member
tgboyd said:
Do you have to crawl under there every time you fill the tank? Is there any other way?

Yes there is, just put the valve on, close it and forget it.
But I wouldnt tell anybody else to do that, unless they understand what the vents are for, and understand how much water the tank could then hold.
TimK
 

Dirt1st

Member
In my opinion, the fresh water tank installations in the Heartland trailers are problematic. I have a Cyclone 3210 that I purchased in March of this year. I more often than not dry camp for a week or more at a time. I was looking forward to being able to have 110 gallons of fresh water, per the weight calculation sticker placed in my trailer. Much to my dismay, while preparing for our first trip, I could get only 50 gallons of water in the tank (I meter the amount of water I was putting in the trailer). After our the trip, the trailer was returned to the dealer. I was told by Heartland that the 3210 carries only 75 gallons of water, and the weight calculation sticker was wrong. When the dealer pulled the undercovering, part of the problem was obvious. The tank was installed at an angle, the front of the tank, where the pump intake is located was about 2 to 2 1/2 inches higher than the back of the tank. In the tank there was about 20 gallons of water that could never be drained from tank. In addition, the tank vents are located on the sides of the tank, about 1 inch below the top of the tank, so unless the vent hoses go up rather than exiting down, you will never be able to fill the tank to its rated capacity. My calculations show that for the size of tank I had, I had lost about 10 gallons of storage capacity for each inch of tank height not available. In addition, the pump intake is also located on the side of the tank, about 1 inch above the bottom of the tank - another 10 gallons or so that you could not get out, assuming the tank was installed level with the trailer, which was not the case in my trailer. I haven't pulled the undercover since I got my trailer back from the dealer, but the service person said they moved the pump intake to the bottom of the tank so I can completely drain it in the winter. After I pumped the tank "empty", the next water fill took about 55 gallons before I closed the back tank vents because they were flowing water ( I installed valves on all four to the tank vent lines). After closing the back vents, I was able to get a total of 68 gallons in the tank. I am assuming that the dealer did level the tank, sort of. My next step is to follow Loco's directions and move the vent hoses up to the back of the fill neck, where they should have been in the first place. I believe Heartland needs to rethink how they engineer and install the fresh water tanks in their trailers, or be up front about how much water the trailer will carry and how much will be lost when the trailer is being towed.
 
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