Attach the Water Tank Support Bars!

[sterlingdjones]

On our first road trip we dropped a bar. Fortunately it dropped onto the axle, I'd hate to see what would have happened if the front had fallen first! It's scary to think about a person behind one of these trailers when a bar flies off - we could have killed someone...
I was able to get it to hold using slightly larger screws from Home Depot, but these things should not just be an afterthought, and am open to ideas on how to get them done right.

This is on a 287 with the 98 gallon fresh tank.

Pictures attached.

 

[esscobra]

you think they could at least put all for bolts in - in my bighorn there is a cross bar that runs between the frame sides that hold up tank and support straps underneath it- had 4 holes each side and they only installed 2 in each side and both on same side so when 1 broke - it rolled down/ over and then snapped other self tapper screw so tank fell -4 self tappers to hold up water tank - pretty sad and careless how they throw these together-

 

[LBR]

My Gosh.... there sure is a lot of fresh looking mud thrown up on a majority of coroplast for the very first time out!

If you happened to haul.the.mail on a muddy, badly potholed road with a full fresh water tank, this may have been part of the issue? Just an observation.

 

[Dmetcalf]

Wow that’s awful ..! I’ll be looking under mine tonight..!
Thanks for the post ..!

 

[TravelTiger]

I’ve never seen bars attached like that on a Heartland trailer. Did you buy it new? Looks like a poor dealer fix to a sagging underbelly or something.


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[CarterKraft]

I’ve never seen bars attached like that on a Heartland trailer. Did you buy it new? Looks like a poor dealer fix to a sagging underbelly or something.


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Me either, something new for sure or added. Not a bad idea I just wonder the methodology as they seem like they would be really hard to install blind?

 

[sterlingdjones]

This was purchased new, and the CW team didn't claim any credit to the work that was done under there. I did see another 287 in our storage lot, I'll take a gander next time I go exercise the generator to see if they have the same setup. This was on our first roadtrip, not our first outing, we had 8 weekends into the unit before the trip. The bar fell somewhere between Salt Lake City and Reno on i-80, on day 3 of a a 5 day "dry" boondocking neck of our trip.
It has held up nicely since then, another 3000+ miles, but you can bet I look under the camper at every stop now!

 

[Bobby A]

On our first road trip we dropped a bar. Fortunately it dropped onto the axle, I'd hate to see what would have happened if the front had fallen first! It's scary to think about a person behind one of these trailers when a bar flies off - we could have killed someone...
I was able to get it to hold using slightly larger screws from Home Depot, but these things should not just be an afterthought, and am open to ideas on how to get them done right.
View attachment 63328View attachment 63327View attachment 63326View attachment 63329View attachment 63330
This is on a 287 with the 98 gallon fresh tank.

Pictures attached.

I had one of the welds break on my spare tire under the trailer, can you imagine !! I was on a 1200 mile trip. If I would not have noticed it its possible the other bracket would of broke and my spare tire bouncing/rolling down the freeway at 70 miles an hour. I posted on this a few year ago for everyone to check there spare tire welds under your unit.

Bobby A

 

[Dmetcalf]

I had one of the welds break on my spare tire under the trailer, can you imagine !! I was on a 1200 mile trip. If I would not have noticed it its possible the other bracket would of broke and my spare tire bouncing/rolling down the freeway at 70 miles an hour. I posted on this a few year ago for everyone to check there spare tire welds under your unit.

Bobby A

Good advise, I will do so.

Thanks

 

[sterlingdjones]

I checked around the storage lot while exercising my generator yesterday and confirmed that the other 2019 287 also had the bars installed. The guys next to us got a new Torque T31 (Still has the dealer stickers on it), and it also has the same support bars as ours. Lesson is that this is likely something being done at the factory (at least for the 98 gallon fresh tanks) and is DEFINITELY worth keeping an eye on!

 

[jbeletti]

My Sundance travel trailer has external tank support bars like that. Note that the factory used self-drilling Tek screws for mine. I know only because I have removed the bars a couple of times to pull some wiring above the underbelly.

We don't travel with much water and my tank is much smaller than yours. Bolts would be better than Tek screws but for you to change over to bolts would take some doing - but might be worth the effort.

This all said, I'm hopeful that primary tank support is above the underbelly and the bars you are seeing are "backup". Guessing the heads of the Tek screws sheared off after the tank was filled??

 

[Renegade1LI]

On our first road trip we dropped a bar. Fortunately it dropped onto the axle, I'd hate to see what would have happened if the front had fallen first! It's scary to think about a person behind one of these trailers when a bar flies off - we could have killed someone...
I was able to get it to hold using slightly larger screws from Home Depot, but these things should not just be an afterthought, and am open to ideas on how to get them done right.
View attachment 63328View attachment 63327View attachment 63326View attachment 63329View attachment 63330
This is on a 287 with the 98 gallon fresh tank.

Pictures attached.

We had the exact same problem, I posted about it in the general forum, only we lost one support. I fabed a new one & replaced all the screws & added some. I also added a piece of c channel across all the supports & bolted it to brackets I welded to the frame. A good safety & additional support.

 

[Shelby38]

We had the exact same problem, I posted about it in the general forum, only we lost one support. I fabed a new one & replaced all the screws & added some. I also added a piece of c channel across all the supports & bolted it to brackets I welded to the frame. A good safety & additional support.

We lost a tank support bar on our third trip. Like you luckily it was the rear that dropped so we could put bigger screws in to get home. I added a new bar to support the support bars also attached to the frame rail..

 

[centerline]

if it were my problem, to make the bars hold better, I would weld a piece of angle iron between them at each end, to make it all one piece ..... and the angle iron should be positioned correctly so it can be drilled for more screws to be installed to the crossmember.... and use blue locktite on the screws so they dont vibrate loose.

 

[Hollandt]

We lost a tank support bar on our third trip. Like you luckily it was the rear that dropped so we could put bigger screws in to get home. I added a new bar to support the support bars also attached to the frame rail..

I also, recently had a bar come loose on one end on my Fuel 305. I replaced the Tek screws with 1/4"-20 rivet nuts and 1/4" hex screws. i assumed a larger Tek screw would eventually fail also? By using the rivet nuts, I did not have to drop the chloroplast or get access above the crossmember to add nuts. So far this has worked well. You can buy the special installer pretty cheap on amazon, or just use a good bolt, couple of washers and nut to install the rivet nut. link to rivet nut assortment below.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07BSZ46NC/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1