Fresh Water Tank cracked bt axle

[johntclan]

I bought a used 2011 Dutchmen Coleman lantern series CTS192RD travel trailer. The previous owners never used the fresh water holding tank because of the cracked tank where the drain fitting is. Its a design flaw. The factory put the drain right above the axle and the axle hit the fitting and broke the valve and cracked the tank.
Anyone experience this? or know anyone that has? What to do?
:'(

 

[Gary RV_Wizard]

The tank is probably ABS plastic, or similar, and probably can be repaired with an ABS cement, e.g. Plasti-Mend.  Or with fiberglass resin (epoxy). 

The rest of the solution requires some creativity. Is there room to re-route the drain, maybe with an elbow, to get it away from the axle? Or maybe use some sort of flexible coupling? Many types of flex hoses are available in hardware and plumbing supply stores.

 

[johntclan]

Thanks Gary, im going to delete the drain from its existing location because it split and destroyed the fitting where the valve screws in.im ok with no drain there, i will just pull the lower supply line when i need to drain it. Im going to need the best product possible for bonding because there will be a hole where the drain is now.
im open to info on the best patch product because im hoping the leak problem will be gone after the repair.

 

[Gary RV_Wizard]

The best product depends on the type of material the tank is formed from. May be polyethylene, ABS, or some other plastic  Fiberglass cloth (roving) and resin makes a mechanically strong repair IF it will adhere to the tank. Plastic "welding" is also used, though mostly in commercial repair shops.

Might be something on this site that will help:
http://www.rvpartscountry.com/RVWaterTanksRepair

Or here: http://www.amazon.com/Permatex%C2%AE-Plastic-Tank-Repair-Kit/dp/B0007TQWM4/ref=cm_cr_pr_product_top

 

[Kevin Means]

I bought a used 2011 Dutchmen Coleman lantern series CTS192RD travel trailer. The previous owners never used the fresh water holding tank because of the cracked tank where the drain fitting is. Its a design flaw. The factory put the drain right above the axle and the axle hit the fitting and broke the valve and cracked the tank.
Anyone experience this? or know anyone that has? What to do?
:'(

About a year ago, someone here posted some pictures of the same problem they had with the axle on their new trailer hitting the water tank. It was definitely a design flaw, and I remember wondering how the manufacturer could have not forseen the inevitable problems. Sorry, I don't remember who posted it, what kind of trailer it was or in what category it was posted, but I'll bet a word-search (and some patience) would turn it up. I seem to remember that their solution was to lower the axle a couple of inches to provide more clearance, but not sure about that.

Gary's right about making repairs to your tank - you first have to determine what the tank is made of before you buy a repair kit. Our holding tanks are made of Polyethylene and that stuff is very difficult to work with without the right tools. Virtually nothing adheres to it with any real strength - other than more melted Polyethylene.

Kev

 

[johntclan]

thanks Kevin, I appreciate any info I can get.

 

[Prior member]

Can you get the tank off ?

If yes, use Wests Systems G-Flex two part epoxy with fiberglass.
It will adhere to any plastic there is.


Call up West Systems and they will walk you through the process.

I use it on my boats, and I use it on PVC as well as plastic pipe fittings

I would wet out a piece of fiberglass and install it. After it hardens, (the next day), I would add another coat of the Epoxy, and then possibly a third

jack L

 

[johntclan]

Yes I could probably get the tank down but would need to raise the trailer/remove tires/drop the axle by disconnecting spring hangers.
the cracked area is easily accessible where it is, the only negative is that I will be working on an overhead situation. if the product has great adhesion, i would think it might stay in place and bond anyway. But I have never made this repair. I am familiar and have used 2 part products.

 

[Kevin Means]

You should go to the Westsystems.com website and read what they say about using G-Flex to glue Polyethylene and molecularly similar Poly-substances. They say... "Other plastics required additional surface prep involving a flame treatment to form dependable bonds. We discovered that a few plastics, like polypropylene and acrylic and their molecular cousins, are difficult to glue reliably no matter how we prepared the surfaces."

Polyethylene is one of those cousins - they are inert substances. I have never used G-Flex but I have tried several other two-part epoxies on Polyethylene, with the same results that West Systems got with G-Flex. There are a handful of two-part epoxies that will adhere to Polyethylene, but they will not withstand any real loads or twisting. For example, Winnebago used an epoxy to glue the tank level sensors onto the side of our Polyethylene fresh-water tank, but they are very small sensors with no tension on them at all, so the epoxy holds.

3M has a product called, Scotch-Weld Structural Plastic Adhesive DP-8005, and some say that it will structurally bond Polyethylene and Polyprophylene materials, but I have never tested it. The only thing I've found that will hold up under stress is melting (welding) more of the same substance together - and that only works if you do it right. 

Perhaps you could post a picture of the area on your tank that needs repairing so we could offer a more informed opinion on how best to repair it. Just trying to save you some trouble.

Kev

 

[johntclan]

this is a pict of the problem

 

[johntclan]

side view

 

[johntclan]

another

 

[johntclan]

another look

 

[driftless shifter]

Is that the crack near the bottom of the?shall we call it a sump or a nipple? Where it goes from a vertical cylinder to a horizontal surface to mount the drain? Since it's a drain you could maybe cut it shorter and put a rubber freeze plug in what remains. like one of these.

https://www.google.com/search?q=rubber+freeze+plug&biw=1240&bih=631&tbm=isch&imgil=Xzj1NZFyd9dNqM%253A%253Byz0dEGFqbIfawM%253Bhttp%25253A%25252F%25252Fwww.hotrodders.com%25252Fforum%25252Ffreeze-plug-188783.html&source=iu&pf=m&fir=Xzj1NZFyd9dNqM%253A%252Cyz0dEGFqbIfawM%252C_&usg=__qYZiM2IYjqGRt5v7YYKkxfjQ08w%3D

I wouldn't use a tapered one as it might try to work its way out. with a freeze plug you could still use it as a drain , just not as convenient as a petcock. I once used one to repair a blown out radiator drain petcock, with plastic tanks, on a Ford. It was an Easter weekend road trip with a car load of wide eyed kids. I was the Dear Ex wife's hero that weekend We were rolling again in about 2 hours for  a couple dollar part and a couple gallons antifreeze. That hack repair lasted for as long as we owned that car, a few years. So if it can hold the pressure of a hot radiator it would probably hold the pressure of a full tank.

Bill

 

[Kevin Means]

It does look like a Polyethylene tank with spun-in fittings to melt the connections together - a good way of doing it, but it looks like the tank itself is not damaged. It looks like the opposite side of that petcock handle has broken off - is that correct? Was it a Pex hose or some other type of hose that broke off? (I see little shards of plastic sticking out) If that's correct, the fitting with the petcock probably just screws into the spun-in fitting on the tank and it may be replacable. (You can see the plastic nut in some of your pictures)

You may be able to unscrew it and install another one, and then turn it 90 degrees so the part that broke off runs parallel to the axle, not perpendicular to it. That should allow the axle to move up and down without hitting the fitting. If I'm not interpreting the damage correctly, let me know.

Kev

 

[Rene T]

It does look like a Polyethylene tank with spun-in fittings to melt the connections together - a good way of doing it, but it looks like the tank itself is not damaged. It looks like the opposite side of that petcock handle has broken off - is that correct? Was it a Pex hose or some other type of hose that broke off? (I see little shards of plastic sticking out) If that's correct, the fitting with the petcock probably just screws into the spun-in fitting on the tank and it may be replacable. (You can see the plastic nut in some of your pictures)

You may be able to unscrew it and install another one, and then turn it 90 degrees so the part that broke off runs parallel to the axle, not perpendicular to it. That should allow the axle to move up and down without hitting the fitting. If I'm not interpreting the damage correctly, let me know.

Kev

Good idea Kev. You could also maybe install a 90 degree elbow off the bottom and run a piece of pex tubing towards the side of the rig and install a valve on the end of that.

 

[Kevin Means]

Good idea Kev. You could also maybe install a 90 degree elbow off the bottom and run a piece of pex tubing towards the side of the rig and install a valve on the end of that.

Agreed. And that would give the OP the benefit of not having to crawl under the RV to get to the low-point drain.

Kev

 

[johntclan]

There is a crack in the tank beside the fitting. It's very small 1.5" bit it was leaking when I put water in.

 

[Chet18013]

You're lucky. The tank looks to be HDPE. It can be welded. I used to sell these industrial HDPE tanks and have welded them. It is a special skill, so don't let anyone learn while trying it. Here's what you need to do it,http://www.harborfreight.com/plastic-welding-kit-with-air-motor-and-temperature-adjustment-96712.html but try to find someone who knows how to do it or do a lot of practice on a couple of HDPE, food grade, 55 gal drums.

 

[Kevin Means]

There is a crack in the tank beside the fitting. It's very small 1.5" bit it was leaking when I put water in.

Okay, I didn't see the crack on the pictures but if it's next to that fitting, that's not the worst place to have a crack. The tank flexes less near a fitting than in the center area of the tank, so repairs hold better. Chet's right, and it's what I said in my first post... Polyethylene tanks are difficult, but not impossible, to work on.

If you've never worked on PE before, and you're concerned about welding it yourself, you could try some of that epoxy mentioned earlier, but that wouldn't be my first choice. Surface prep of PE to get epoxy to hold involves flame treating it with a torch, and even then, there's no guarantee that it will hold.

The crack is obviously pretty small and, based on where you said it is, and its size, it's seems like a good candidate for a soldering iron repair. I have made several such repairs to small PE cracks, and as long as you're careful, they're not hard to do. If you do it right, it'll likely hold forever - as long as the axle doesn't hit it again. If you do it wrong, well, you can make the problem worse.

Go to youtube and type in "Polyethylene soldering iron repairs" and there are some videos that will help you decide if you want to DIY.

Kev