Having read here about the somewhat questionable support that some of the tanks have in the Kodiak line, I have avoided carrying freshwater in my rig when towing it. I take some water in five gallon jugs in my truck to add when on site and add the rest later.
Gray water gets drained into a wheeled cart and dumped in the campground wastewater disposal before we travel again. We try not to use the toilet too much when not on a hookup to avoid having too much in the black water tank when towing.
Wondering if I am being overly cautious, or if my precautions are wise ones?
Along those same lines, have any of you removed the under panel and added additional supports to improve the structural soundness of the various tanks in order to be more comfortable traveling with the extra weight? And if so, how did it work out?
Thanks,
RH
We have an almost 2 year old 243 Ultra Light.
I removed the undercover from the very back. Exposing the gray and black water tank on another project.
It looked fairly well done. I could not see the fresh water tank. It is the biggest tank.
I refrain from carrying anything in my tanks unless necessary. But that is to keep the towing weight down to a minimum. A full fresh water tank would weigh 325 lbs.
Good Luck
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I have a Kodiak Cub 175bh, and travel with some water (try not to have too much because of weight) but it’s necessary sometimes. We’ve also had grey and black tanks near full, tho we try to dump before traveling too far. I really don’t think you need to transport the water in a separate tank to dump if you’re gonna drive out anyway. You’d be going slow on a camp road...
Cub is a year old and we’re on a 3-4 week trip currently without issues
I have a 2018 Kodiak Cub. I think you are being overly cautious. Towing from camp site a short distance to dump at 20 mph will not cause problems with your gray and black tank. It will also not have any towing weight issues. You may end up with plugged waste tanks if you do not get good flushing when you dump. Dump sites usually have plenty of water for flushing out solids.
Towing hundreds of mile with 40 gal fresh tank full may or may not be an issue. I do it, but that does not mean I will not have problems later. It is your call.
I have rebalanced to reduce tongue load by moving some weight to rear. Tongue weight was over 900#. Now it is about 750# with a loaded weight including water and gear of 4100#.
My dealer had occasion to remove the bottom cover. I looked at tank mounting at that time and did not see any obvious mounting issues on my unit.
Hauling from my site to the park’s dump site isn’t a concern - hopefully any rig can handle that. My concern is when we are in one of the many National Forest CGs we have here which may be a hundred or more miles from the nearest dump site. Again, emptying the gray water is easy enough, but I don’t want to mess with the black for obvious reasons. The freshwater was more of my concern because of it’s size. Not an issue when going home of course but heading up to a CG where all they have are hand pumps and you have to haul any water to your rig to fill it can be a pain.
Glad to hear those of you who have had a chance to check out your tanks were satisfied with their supports.
On a side note, the brochures that I got when shopping for our trailer said the 2017 Kodiak 201QB had a 52 gallon freshwater tank. Mine fills to 30 and then starts to spill out of the fill port. Hmmm...
Trustworthy specifications published by TT manufactures are rare. One issue is, some Mfg include the water in the water heater as part of the fresh capacity. That could account for 6 gallons. Of course you can not access the heater water using normal taps. You would have to drain the tank into a container to have access to it.
You could measure the "full" capacity by running the fresh tank low point drain into a 5 gallon bucket. Repeat until empty.
Next empty the full tank using the 12 volt pump. The difference is how close the siphon tube is to the bottom of the tank.
Also, investigate the fresh tank vent. A kinked or blocked vent tube may leave an air bubble in the top of the tank.
Trustworthy specifications published by TT manufactures are rare. One issue is, some Mfg include the water in the water heater as part of the fresh capacity. That could account for 6 gallons. Of course you can not access the heater water using normal taps. You would have to drain the tank into a container to have access to it.
You could measure the "full" capacity by running the fresh tank low point drain into a 5 gallon bucket. Repeat until empty.
Next empty the full tank using the 12 volt pump. The difference is how close the siphon tube is to the bottom of the tank.
Also, investigate the fresh tank vent. A kinked or blocked vent tube may leave an air bubble in the top of the tank.
Interesting about the vent tube. Will have to check that out as a possible issue. It it accessible at all, and if so, where would I check for it?
I checked to see that I had water draining out of the hot water line under the trailer so I assumed the tank was also full. The actual volume of the tank really isn’t a huge deal - I was just curious about the discrepancy between the specs and my experience.
Interesting about the vent tube. Will have to check that out as a possible issue. It it accessible at all, and if so, where would I check for it?
... .
The fresh tank fill and vent are next to one another. The vent is a small tube usually with a screen over it in the same plastic piece as the fill.
You may be able to see the tube from inside the TT behind a panel where other plumbing comes through the floor. Mine is under the shower pan.
Hello I just wrote you a lengthy reply to fresh water tanks but it went missing. I have a 2017 Kodiak 201QB and the F/W tank fell out onto the axel, Poor Poor design and work. If you would like to know more let me know and I will see how I can get you the information. PS you are not being too cautious until you see just how they supported the tanks in your own trailer
Hello I just wrote you a lengthy reply to fresh water tanks but it went missing. I have a 2017 Kodiak 201QB and the F/W tank fell out onto the axel, Poor Poor design and work. If you would like to know more let me know and I will see how I can get you the information. PS you are not being too cautious until you see just how they supported the tanks in your own trailer
I would like to hear a bit more but don’t want to put you through writing something all over again which you already did once. Just to summarize, what was the main issue with it coming out (not enough supports, supports poorly secured, etc)?
It was just completely bad supporting of the tanks. I will try to insert some pics, the material Kodiak used was 7/16" bent to an angle and the tank manufacture states a minimum if 1/4"x 2" flat bar. Kodiak did not even have the supports contacting each side so they were relying on the self drilling screws only
Hello I just wrote you a lengthy reply to fresh water tanks but it went missing. I have a 2017 Kodiak 201QB and the F/W tank fell out onto the axel, Poor Poor design and work. If you would like to know more let me know and I will see how I can get you the information. PS you are not being too cautious until you see just how they supported the tanks in your own trailer
So, I have to ask (although I likely know the answer) what did Dutchmen do about this, if anything?
Seems like if extremely poor supports were installed - which are grossly out of line with manufacturer’s recommendations which leads to a failure, they would take responsibility for having it fixed properly. Now, once everyone is done rolling around on the floor laughing and the noise subsides a bit, maybe you can share what the repair consisted of and who did it.
I have a 2018 255BHSL. 46 gallon FW tank (+6 gallons in the hot water heater = 52 gallons)....so that is more than likely your same setup.
When going dry camping to a semi-near spot (1-2 hour drive or less), I just fill up the FW tank at home. Such a hassle to find another spot. 46 gallons of water is 384 lbs. This is less than the weight of two additional people in the vehicle. Although I am sure it affects fuel efficiency and a little additiona tongue weight (38 lbs?), I don't see it as a big deal.
THAT SAID, I would also be very interested with how my FW tank is mounted and supported. I wish I could easily pull down the belly cover to see. When filling my tanks, I usually hear little minor creeks and cranks, but last time, a large "pop" sound occurred that made me nervous. I towed it just fine and don't see any signs of problems, but again...it is possible that something occurred. To think they are supported by screws makes me nautious. I would think they would use some welded angle iron or something. Hmm....
They said they were allowing 5 hours to repair but after delivering to the dealer they said it was my fault by over filling the F/W tank and only allowed 2 for some reason leaving me to pay the rest. After 6 months and much fighting and me delivering them proof they had not secured the tanks per manufactures recommendations and along with their poor work they said in the interest of good PR they were going to reimburse me back 80% which I received. The fix on the grey and black, between the tanks I used a piece of aluminum channel 4" x 1,1/2" which went from side to side and held up the lip of the tanks, I used industrial quality angle brackets secured to the side frame and it was also bolted to the aluminum. On the front side of the grey and the back of the black I used the same brackets secured to the existing cross members and this then held the existing "brackets" in place. There was a lot of cutting and fitting to be done. Driven about 8000 miles without any issues so far. If you have a heated belly you may want to take the heater hose off the floor fitting and see if it goes thru, mine did not, I discovered this while working under the belly as I could not see it, see attached. I had to relocate it as it was on top of the grey tank and went no where.
They said they were allowing 5 hours to repair but after delivering to the dealer they said it was my fault by over filling the F/W tank and only allowed 2 for some reason leaving me to pay the rest. After 6 months and much fighting and me delivering them proof they had not secured the tanks per manufactures recommendations and along with their poor work they said in the interest of good PR they were going to reimburse me back 80% which I received. The fix on the grey and black, between the tanks I used a piece of aluminum channel 4" x 1,1/2" which went from side to side and held up the lip of the tanks, I used industrial quality angle brackets secured to the side frame and it was also bolted to the aluminum. On the front side of the grey and the back of the black I used the same brackets secured to the existing cross members and this then held the existing "brackets" in place. There was a lot of cutting and fitting to be done. Driven about 8000 miles without any issues so far. If you have a heated belly you may want to take the heater hose off the floor fitting and see if it goes thru, mine did not, I discovered this while working under the belly as I could not see it, see attached. I had to relocate it as it was on top of the grey tank and went no where.
Wow. Maybe yours was put together at the end of a Friday or beginning of a Monday. Hate to think that is SOP for the construction of the tanks/plumbing.
Haven't taken off the belly of mine yet to examine how things look but may do that next year in order to check things out. Pisses me off to see such a lack of quality control with regards to their construction.
As much as I despise government controls and interference, it would be nice to see something done to protect consumers from such shoddy workmanship.
Just got back from a week at a National Forest Campground. Coleman 249RB. Towed from south of Tucson to northern Arizona...about 300 miles....from 1300 feet elevation to 8K feet. Towed with full fresh water tank (56 gallons). No issues. Since the fresh water tank is located directly over the axles, it's nice having the weight on the curvy mountain roads.
Leaving the campground, we had 2/3rds full gray(39 gallons) and full black (29 gallons). Fresh water was still at 2/3rds....maybe 30 gallons left? Drank fresh water from bottles that we pre-cooled and froze to help the fridge. We dumped about 25 miles away at 55 mph. Black and Gray tanks got sloshed up nicely by the time we dumped.
No issues.
I understand about quality control lacking in the RV industry...but...I have to think that most of the time...the construction is better than we believe or see. At least mechanically! Considering the abuse the RV's get, the stuff keeps on working. We take care of it...it takes care of us....
In other words, I'm going to use the trailer as it was intended. If a problem turns up and turns out to be a manufacture issue, I'll deal with it then.
(crossing fingers, LOL)
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