Fresh water pick up?

[Bram]

I just brought home a 2010 Sundance 2900MK. The water pump will start sucking air with 1/3 still showing on the guage and upon inspection of the tank itself, shows the water level right at the 1/3 sensor. Is there a pick up tube inside the tank that will pick up to the bottom of the "sag"? Or do I have to park nose down and left wing down to get the rest of the water?

P.s. It sure is nice to be able to talk to the people that know!

 

[Pulltab]

Most tanks have a pickup in the corner, Actually it really isn't a pickup but a connection. I would guess that the tank is either not slanted to make best use of it or perhaps your rv is off level to the wrong side.

 

[Bram]

Thanks Pulltab. I did a little more investigating and found that the tank is in fact tilted to the rear with the pick up in the front. The angle iron mount on the front is welded to the frame about an inch above the bottom rail of the frame. The aft angle iron is screwed to the frame flush with the bottom of the frame. Heatland, is this normal or is the aft mount supposed to be 2 inches above the bottom of the frame to tilt the tank forward towards the pick up?

 

[thomasinnv]

this seems to be a common issue. from what i understand, there is a pickup tube in the tank and it is probably not far enough into the tank to allow it to droop to the bottom of the tank. that's what a service guy at heartland told me anyway. i am getting ready to remove the underbody cover and fix mine in the next few days.

 

[Johnm]

I just went through this on my '08 Sundance 2997BHS. I have a rectangle shapped tank that is mounted level with the frame (no slope what-so-ever). It has a port (or bung) that is glued/welded to the narrow side of the tank at the lower edge (as far down as it can). It has no pick-up tube and I was left with about 1.5" of water in the tank ... plus the water that was in the "sagging" area. I estimate that it left around 7-9 gallons in the tank at ALL TIMES (winter and summer). I added a pick-up tube to my tank by drilling out a 1/2" tube (compression) x 1/2" NPT to except a 1/2" thin wall S.S. tube (plus a few other fittings). Give the S.S. tube a little bit of a downward bend (radius) and install in the tank. Sad to say that I ran out of time to really see how well it works since I had to button everything up for a camping trip this weekend. I do know that the tank drained lower but I don't know how much lower. Keep in mind that mine is a 2008 and your's is a 2010.

 

[Bram]

I was thinking of something similar but make more of a flop tube that will go out into the middle of the tank and sit at the bottom of the sag. My concern is that with low water levels the water would be sloshing around quite a bit while traveling and could bend or kink the flop tube to a position that would be worse than stock. Wa da ya think?

 

[Netem]

I was at the rally in Goshen and took the factory tour and the fresh water tank looked like it was mounted flat so I asked why it couldn't be tilted a little to the drain, the Heartland rep said they would look into it so I guess we'll see if they follow up.

 

[Dave Willis]

I am getting with our engineer dept. to see if we can come up with a different design.

thanks,

 

[Dave Willis]

We are looking into this with our engineers to see what we can come up with.

Thanks,

 

[Bram]

Dave, Thanks for your interest. It seems to me that a water tank should be designed with the pick up at one low corner and the vent at the opposite high corner. It is counter productive to have the pick up and the vent in the same corner of the tank. My last trailer had a tank that was double tapered at one end to come to a low point at the mid point of one end of the tank. That tank I could get every drop out of.

 

[Dave Willis]

What you are saying makes sense, however, I'm in sales and I will have to wait until the engineer dept. tells me what they came up with.

Thanks,

 

[Johnm]

Bram,

The thin wall S.S. tubing that I used almost goes to the middle of the tank and the slight bend (radius) that I put in the tube dips down toward the sag/bow in the tank so it should work as your describing ... though I don't think I'll ever get all of the water out (not even when I need to winterize the RV). The reason I used thin wall S.S. tubing was that I couldn't find 1/2" outside diameter plastic, rubber, etc. that had a large enough inside diameter. It seemed that all of them has smaller I.D. than the factory installed tubing and I didn't want to restrict the water flow more than it all ready was.

It would be nice if I had a tank as your describing on your last RV. Trying to muck around on stuff like this is just darn silly. I've got much better things to waste my time and money on.

If Heartland can come up with a fix for the 2008's ... I'd LOVE to hear it.

 

[Netem]

Thanks Dave, we like to see you guys are listening to us. Thats why we buy Heartland.

 

[Dave Willis]

Your welcome!