Hi all. I’ve got a 2018 Autotrail Tribute 670 on a Ducato. While down in Devon heard a bang and a load of scraping under van.On inspection found the front of the freshwater tank was on the road.The two bolts that hold the front bracket had pulled thru the floor. We didn’t hit an obstruction and the tank was almost empty.Just wondering if anybody else has had this problem.Had to call the AA out to remove the tank completely.
Roy
Surely isn't this covered by the vehicle warranty?
Even if it isn't covered by the warranty, then I would have thought that Autotrail would listen to your problem with a sympathetic ear.
However and whatever, the manufacturer of the tank is likely to be either CAK tanks or Barratt tanks and my gut feeling is that it is more likely to be the former and their products from my experience whereas the tanks themselves are good, I am afraid the metal fitment straps etc. are quite literally diabollical and their customer service is even worse!!
I will get on to Autotrail as soon as I get home and see what they say.If no joy I’ve got some plan to make a stronger strap system.Just can’t believe it happened to such a new van tho.
If you are in the habit of shoving the hose way down the fill pipe and turning the tap on full bore, that can over pressurise the water tank more than enough to blow up the tank enough to break support members and even to cause structural damage.
Just a couple of psi results in a couple of tonnes expansion force
All of the many tanks I have seen over the years have overflow/overfill holes/valves along their top edge, so what you are suggesting shouldn't be the case.
Yes my tank has two overflows at the top. I never shove the hose to far down and very rarely fill it right up.It looks to me that some nice big flat washers should have been used not just use bolts straight to floor As that’s why they pulled thru.Trouble is with covid I wasn’t able to keep up with annual hab checks etc so guess warranty has gone out the window.
My gut feeling if the tanks been over pressurised, perhaps multiple times causing an eventual fixture failure would be that the holes in the floor might appear obviously distorted, the surrounding paint cracked and the metal might have surface rust etc that would support that theory. However if the holes were becoming distorted over time you would probably also be able to see signs of water ingress on the vans inner ribbed floor.
my Van used to have several runs of unwins track some of the holes had not been sealed properly and the watermarks under the original ply floor were tell tale signs
My Cak waste tank has a few tiny little white plastic vents I would be surprised if they could easily get blocked up but it’s a possibility I suppose.
Another possibly reason though especially as it’s the front fixing that failed:
when’s the last time you hit deep standing water or even a decent puddle at any sort of speed?
I have heard of tanks being dislodged especially when held on by that weak perforated strapping stuff popular with self builds.
iirc wasn’t it Gadget John who tore off his LPG tank when going through a puddle?
Just checked our van and the straps holding both tanks are secure, however there was a big bundle of wiring that had originally been held up out of sight between the two tanks on sticky pads that had come unstuck and we’re dangling down. Were these to have been caught they would have caused a lot of damage because as rightly pointed out in previous posts the tank straps are definitely not robust in their construction
In a court of law and with a suitably capable legal beagle I doubt very much if the manufacturer would do anything other than honour the warranty as your inability to have the hab checks was totally out of your hands. I suggest you speak to the supplying dealer and address the matter to them ASAP.
Surely it’s caught something on the floor/road to rip bolts out? Can’t see filling a tank with water could create enough pressure to damage anything using normal taps. If it can then all the people who used bolts for their solar panels best get some Sika on them
Thank you for your post Hustler. You don't say what volume the tank holds. 1 litre is 1Kg so a 100 ltr tank is a 100Kg. So this would be a tenth of a tonne. For the original fittings the point load in bolts with no large penny washers would be a very significant for a mild pressed steel van floor. A couple of speed bumps or potholes and associated bouncing could easily have doubled the point loading and pulled through the floor .....especially if the fittings were loose.
I would be very surprised if hydraulic pressure during filling would cause this unless you had a very tight seal- worth ruling out though.
I would suggest large penny washers or even better a plate / bar between the pair of bolts. Check trailing edge bolts too. Let us know.
I don't think any UK/European Factory Motorhomes have any water tanks - Fresh or Waste - that are pressurised. My Autotrail certainly is not.
I would put the most likely culprit as something on the road that caught the tank. I managed to rip off half my pull-out door step this way on my previous campervan when having to take evasive action when a car was coming the other way in the middle of the road and I just clipped something on the side of the road. That made a hell of a bang but I saw nothing sticking out on the side of the road, but something obvioussly had!
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