Unusable freshwater - once again, sloppy/lazy workmanship

[tbrady]

Did more investigation and once again, this appears to be nothing more than lazy/sloppy workmanship.     The freshwater tank has a low water "trough" where you could easily get almost every drop out of the tank.  However, the folks at Livin Lite opted to weld the outlet on the side of the tank far away from the trough.  I have no idea why except that maybe it took them 30 seconds less time and about 1ft less of hose.  Stuff like this is really frustrating.  I'll be calling Livin Lite to try and get this addressed under warranty.  I seriously doubt they will do anything though and I'll be left taking the whole tank out myself and trying to fix this properly.

Does anyone have experience "welding" fittings on these types of tanks?  I want to move add a freshwater inlet to the side of the trough and possibly move the drain petcock as well.

[charliem]

Interesting. That's a different tank design than on my 2104 model. The milky white plastic is polyethylene. Polyethylene is a wonderful compound in that nothing will bond to it. I use poly sheeting where I don't want glues or adhesives to stick. Notice that glues from the hardware store generally come in polyethylene containers. During manufacture the fittings are "spin welded" to the tanks. Basically it's friction melting process. There may be some sort of mechanical compression fitting available but I don't know where to start looking. I guess if you took the tank out and took it to some professional equipped for the job you could get it done right but that's a PITA.

[DavidM]

This fitting should let you put a new water pickup point on your tank- https://www.lowes.com/pd/B-K-3-4-in-x-3-4-in-Threaded-Adapter-Union-Fitting/1000157855

Thay also come in 1/2". It will stick up an inch or so from the bottom so you won't be able to get all of the water out, but it beats trying to weld a new fitting in place.

Welding is what was done on your existing pick up. Polyethylene is fairly easy to weld, but it does take some skill. I would either live with what you have or put one of these fittings in a low spot.

David

[charliem]

This fitting should let you put a new water pickup point on your tank- https://www.lowes.com/pd/B-K-3-4-in-x-3-4-in-Threaded-Adapter-Union-Fitting/1000157855

Thay also come in 1/2". It will stick up an inch or so from the bottom so you won't be able to get all of the water out, but it beats trying to weld a new fitting in place.

Welding is what was done on your existing pick up. Polyethylene is fairly easy to weld, but it does take some skill. I would either live with what you have or put one of these fittings in a low spot.

David

David,

How do you put this fitting in if you don't have access to the inside of the tank??

[Merlin]

Ahh, yes, the wacky world of LL QC. That tank support bracket seems iffy too, with all the weight hitting that one spot on the tank next to the drain trough. The drain trough is so obvious, it's almost comical (it's not my trailer, remember) the installer didn't put the drain at the low point. I wonder where your pump pickup is?

Because the location of the outlet will make it impossible to get the water out for tank cleaning or winterization, I think it's worth the effort to drop the tank and install the outlet that DavidM found. That way you can locate/relocate the pump pickup too and get your full capacity back.

[tbrady]

I wonder if something like this would work?  http://www.usi-rv.com/product.sc?productId=9&categoryId=4

It supposedly allows you to add a fitting without having access to the inside of the tank.

[tbrady]

 One other thought...  I wonder if I could run some sort of hose from the existing fitting into the lower part of the tank?  Not sure how I would do this but it would keep me from having to add another fitting.

[pjcd]

All I can say is, get use to it, sloppy workmanship / poor QC is a common thread with These trailers. Stay with it, its still a good TT. I'm getting the welds repaired in a couple of weeks, I'll post pic's. Hopefully that issue will be resolved.

[DavidM]

That blind fitting looks like a perfect solution. No need to cut an access hole on top.

David

[billmoore]

That blind fitting looks really cool. What isn't clear to me is how to hook into it. I would love to add something like that to the bottom of my tank so it will drain completely. There is no way to drain my tank lower than about 1" of water in there, which is probably several gallons...

My guess is the reason they don't do this from the factory is fear of snapping off the fitting if you were in a situation with really low clearance (like a really high speed bump).

[Merlin]

That blind fitting looks really cool. What isn't clear to me is how to hook into it. I would love to add something like that to the bottom of my tank so it will drain completely. There is no way to drain my tank lower than about 1" of water in there, which is probably several gallons...

My guess is the reason they don't do this from the factory is fear of snapping off the fitting if you were in a situation with really low clearance (like a really high speed bump).

I agree; I'd really like to completely drain my fresh water tank after every trip to keep stuff (algae, etc.) from growing in there without resorting to chlorine. From the photo, it looks like it comes with both straight and angle barb fittings. I wonder how far the right angle one would stick out.

And, I see a caveat about not being for potable water? What's that all about?

[tbrady]

I think I will give it a try... my guess on the potable water thing is more of a general disclaimer that their lawyers said to add.  I plan to put it on the bottom of the trough and put a barbed Tee with one side going to the freshwater and one side going to a drain valve.

I assume they are using 3/8s sized fittings?

[Fatdog2]

West System makes a glue for plastic,and lots of great info on epoxy work. http://westsystem.com/ss/gluing-plastic-with-g-flex-epoxy

[ADR]

Well well- stumbled across this thread after finding an issue with MY water system.    The drain for the fresh water tank is pretty handy- been using it to get small amounts of water when I'm outside near the camper.
Went to get some to dampen a rag and nothing.   Odd.   Went inside gauge says 2/3 full.
Poked a tie rap up through the valve and fitting and it is clear all the way into the tank.
Decided to see if water pump would pump water- it did - 2.5 gallons of it into a bucket.
Gauge now shows 1/3 full with NO water available via drain or pump. 
Next step is to measure how much water I can add to the tank-
I can't actually see my tank because of the plastic underbelly.
stay tuned....

[Merlin]

So here's one scenario.......

The factory level gauges are notoriously inaccurate. They have only 3 locations on each tank and it's possible LL crossed the wires on your fresh tank to give a false reading. I suspect your tank was empty as far as the drain is concerned. The drain is not at the low point and the tank can easily have several gallons of water remaining when nothing comes out of the drain. The water pump intake may be at a lower point than the drain in your tank, hence being able to pump 2.5 gallons, yet nothing came out of the drain. So, try your measured fill idea to see what's up, but I'll bet it's a bad level sensor (which at best is only low-medium-high) and you'll need to fix that. (Or install the good SeeLevel monitors and get the level accurate all the time.)