KZ Connect fresh water tank woes

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Richard R

Member
Joined
Sep 17, 2019
Posts
20
Location
Evans City Pa
Two year old 21ft Connect.  I've had problems with the front axle hitting the fresh water tank drain.  The factory had installed the drain hose straight down where the axle kept hitting it and the tank broke.  My dealer replaced the tank and put a 90deg elbow on the drain, but the same thing happened.  I've owned it two years and never had a fresh water supply.  Now the dealer seems to think it needs new springs because there is only less than 4 inches of travel on the suspension.  He has put in a request to KZ for new springs and another fresh water tank.  They claim that they haven't had any similar problems with any other model of the same type.  Any other of you had a similar problem?
 
Are you sure that the tank hasn't dropped, they are not supported well?
 
Is the axle under the springs or on top of them?  If they're on top of the springs, can you live with flipping the axles so they're on below the springs which will give you a few more inches of clearance. 
Are they going to add leaf springs to what's already there? If they are, that's going to give the rig a much stiffer ride.  Just a couple of things to think about.
 
They claim that they haven't had any similar problems with any other model of the same type.  Any other of you had a similar problem?
A fairly typical factory response. Might even be superficially true, since they seldom make much effort to track problems or root causes. Only defects that reach epic numbers of complaints get remembered, and a problem like yours would probably occur only on rigs loaded near max (GVWR) and driven on fairly rough roads.  That leaves you open to a counter-claim that you are overloading or abusing the trailer by driving fast on bad roads.

A heavier duty (greater weight capacity) axle might be a solution.  Or how about moving the drain line? Or "flipping" the axle as Rene suggest to increase clearance.

You are kind of stuck with the dealer's shop as long as its a warranty claim, but you might get a more innovation solution form a shop that works on frames all the time.
 
I doubt the overload situation, however we do carry a good supply of camping equipment.  When our trailer was delivered it already had a dent in the frame above the axle.  I didn't notice it immediately, but until that I hadn't overloaded it or taken it very far and don't recall any hard shocks to the suspension.  I had thought of trading it in for another model, but I'v made so many interior modifications that I hate to start over again.  I'll be going to the RV show next week and who knows?  I may fall in love with another unit as I did with this one two years ago.
 
I doubt the overload situation,
Sure, but it's an easy out if the manufacturer's rep wants to avoid taking action.  Sometimes they get defensive about design defects.  He can't prove you were overloaded except to claim that "nobody else has this problem", but you have no way to prove you are not overloaded.  You might want to run the rig across a scale just to have some documented evidence on your side, even though that doesn't prove anything about previous trips. 
 
None of the load I could have put on would have exceeded the weight of the 30gal full fresh water tank.  Since I hadn't even carried water since the tank was damaged and a new tank installed I couldn't have exceeded the gross weight.  All of our camping has been with full hookup without having to fill the fresh water tank.
 

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