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Old 10-08-2010, 05:55 AM   #1
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Traveling with water in tank

Penny and I are headed to W.Va. this week. They have elec. but no water at sites. To be on the safe side, we plan to fill our onboard tank before departure just in case we can't fill up once we get to the park.

The tank is situated uinder the back bed, behind the axles. There appears to be a line drawn by a PO on the tank. The guy I bought the trailer from said, the guy he bought the trailer from said, that line was water level for towing. It is about half-way up the tank.

So ... how much water should I put in the tank? Fill 'er up with an additional 240 lbs. of agua? Go half way? Fuggedaboudit?

Teach
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Old 10-08-2010, 06:11 AM   #2
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its weight. and its weight that takes away from tongue weight slightly....they are designed to be hauled wet for cross country trips. its just weight...
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Old 10-08-2010, 06:25 AM   #3
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Well Teach, the way I look at it is if the additional weight does not negatively impact your towing capability then fill it up. As Quaddriver noted, they are made to carry this water for the convenience of the traveler, and it is only a concern if your stressing on one or more of the usual towing factors. I can't image not being able to access water to top it off though, but then again why take the chance if you don't have to.

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Old 10-08-2010, 06:27 AM   #4
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Most no-hookup campgrounds have a spigot where you can fill your tank before you go to your site. In NY parks, it's usually near the dump station although our favorite park also has one in the middle of the rec area.

If you are going to a state park, their web site usually lists amenities like water availability.

Many parks that don't have water hookups have water spigots throughout the park where you can get water. I carry a 6 gallon plastic jerry can just for fresh water. Yeah, it's a few trips to fill the 25 gallon tank, but it's usually just a hundred feet or so to a spigot. I also have a water thief and 150" of hose, but that is a tale for another post...

We always travel with 1/3 to 1/2 a tank of water and then fill up when we arrive. Gotta have some for that emergency flush!
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Old 10-08-2010, 06:30 AM   #5
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With PA state parks not having water hookups we almost always travel with a full fresh water thank. Ours is more mid camper though.
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Old 10-08-2010, 12:32 PM   #6
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Hi Teach

There are some things in your not that made me thing and run some numbers. Tell me if I have the right or wrong.

If your fresh water tank is under the bed behind the rear axles, and the PO did something to figure out how much water was in there for towing, A caution. This may or may not be an issue but here goes. I myself do not like rear mounted fresh tanks due to the tongue weight reduction when filled. The heads up is, be on the look out for instability when towing when you start getting much over 45mph. Unless you have scaled weights I can use, I can’t get this any closer. But here is a guesstimate.

I am leaving for the weekend very soon so I may not be able to reply until Sunday night. Looking up your TT, http://www.sunlineclub.com/forums/documents//ec_tmp/95.pdf.


If I have the numbers right a 1995, T2653 is 26’ 11” long. Rear bed room. The dry weight is listed as 4,265# GVW and the dry tongue is 670#. That is 15.7 % dry tongue weight. This is no gear loaded and no options and from a catalog not an actual scaled weight. That is very high dry tongue weight but I do not know if it is correct from the catalog. Need actual scaled numbers.

Your fresh tank is listed as 34 gallons system. 34 – 6 gallons HW water heater, - 2 gallons in pipes leaves about a 26 gallon fresh tank. 26 gallon x 8.2# per gallon is 213# of weight.

Doing some quick figuring where your axles would be on 15% tongue weight this comes down to that your tongue weight will drop by 99# for a full 213# of water weight if the tank is under the bed in the back

A 99# shift in tongue weight could take you from 15.7% down to about 13.3%. While 13.3% is still good tongue weight, it will/may need a reset of the WD hitch to get the truck back correct again. A 100# move on a small truck is a lot sometimes.

So if you fill it up, the front of the truck may feel differnet and your stability most likely will not be as good as normal. The front of the truck would be heavier as the WD bars are still set for the no water TW. But the TT would be not as stable as before. If someone put some kind of indicator in the tank on how high to fill the tank for towing, well they found out something the hard way. Ideally fresh tanks should be over the axles so it does not shift the tongue weight and WD setup. I know my prior T2499 gained about 190# of tongue weight filling the fresh tank as it was about 1/2 between axles and tow ball. In that T2499 floor plan there was no issue with loosing weight, just making sure you have enough truck to hold it up….

As an option, call the campground. Ask if they have a potable water fill up station for your camper. Most all do that I have seen.

Hope this helps

John
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Old 10-08-2010, 01:28 PM   #7
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How much do you put in the front kitchen cabinets and under the front dinette that will balance out the 213# of water weight? If it were me loading that model I'm sure there'd be at least that much weight in food, water bottles, and other stuff. I have heard that Sunline was pretty thorough about balancing their trailers, so that they may have taken into account traveling with a full tank and loaded cabinets. When I looked under the Tweety our fresh tank is actually forward of the axles, which makes sense with our big pass through storage in the rear, along with the 2 wardrobes. There isn't much in the front of our trailer as far as fixed furniture that weighs much. This leads me to believe that someone was thinking about traveling with a full load during the design process. I guess we'll never know unless we all head to a scale. (Unless Sunline Fan has any insight)
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Old 10-08-2010, 10:03 PM   #8
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John,

Another thing to factor in is he has a custom larger rear corner bed and upgraded (and I think heavier) mattress from the standard, so tongue weight should be a little less as a result.

I'm not sure about the tank, but there's a chance it's larger than spec because of this bed arrangement.

Jon
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Old 10-09-2010, 07:20 AM   #9
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Jon, you are right about the bed and John is right about the high tongue weight in the specs. The water tank is what is spec'd for the trailer.
However, I weighed this trailer at a metal recycling plant. With no water, food or housewares on board but with two full propane tanks and two batteries on the tongue, it weighed in at 5500#. It has a front galley so housewares and food have increased the tongue weight, I'm guessing.
I haven't been able to locate a shop with a scale to weigh the tongue (and, yes, I'm aware of the trick using a 2X4 and bathroom scale), but hitching up really makes my half-ton pickup squat without the WD bars on.

I've towed with the water tank half full before with no ill effects. Since potable water is available at the park, I think I'll stick to this routine and top up the tank in West-by-gawd-Virginia. I was just curious as to what others did and why. hauling an extra 240# makes no sense unless it is absolutely necessary, IMHO, but it's nice to know I could.

Thanks guys,
Teach
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Old 10-09-2010, 12:10 PM   #10
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Teach.....


Sharon and I have become private campground cruisers (while taking full advantage of Passport America, Good Sam, and AARP and any other discounts available). We're not taking part in the frequent frenzy for reservations-necessary or first-come-first served public sites.


But we also resist carrying anything along that's not really necessary. For us....that includes water in our tank and the weight that would come with it. We've become "city" water cruisers....and admit to enjoying full hookups. There's always a gallon jug stowed in the TT for an on-the-road event when the bathroom is direly needed -- though such an eventuality hasn't occurred in the last 5 years.

This is clearly a matter of chosen rving style and just means those who choose to drycamp will never be in competition with us for a site. (LOL)


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Old 10-16-2010, 08:47 AM   #11
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I'm back from a 500-mi. round trip to W.Va. I filled the tank half way and it towed just fine. I have to say hauling a 3-ton trailer up a 10% grade was an experience I've never had before. I'll tell ya, coming down the western side of the Eastern Continental Divide, I was thankful for 4-wheel disc brakes!

Pics will be up shortly.

Teach
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Old 10-20-2010, 08:44 AM   #12
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OK, where did you go in West Virginia ?

Glad you had a good trip
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Old 10-20-2010, 10:37 AM   #13
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[QUOTE=kanyonkitty;91223]OK, where did you go in West Virginia ?[/QUOTE]

We went to Blackwater Falls SP. I'd post pics if I could figger out how to.

Pics of the trip are here: Blackwater Falls SP, W.Va. pictures from west photos on webshots

Thanks for axin',
Teach
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Old 10-20-2010, 11:45 AM   #14
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Thanks for the link to the pics. I had forgotten how much I love WVA. We used to go to Pipestem all the time when we lived in southern VA.
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Old 10-20-2010, 02:15 PM   #15
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Here is your 6 pointer


Falls & Foilage

And refreshment time at "Camp Sunline"
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Old 10-21-2010, 05:49 AM   #16
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Tweety, Did you see the pics from Pipestem? We camped in our pop up there.

Kitty, how'd you do that?
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Old 10-21-2010, 08:35 AM   #17
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Morning Wright,

I can do Webshots pretty good, but I struggle with Photobucket, and luckily you used Webshots, so I can help ya.

Once you have opened up your photo in webshots, scroll down a little bit and to the right you will see a light gray/blue area with several choices, lthe top line contains a choice of "tag it, and "Link to it" LEFT click on "link to it", the choose your size by LEFT clicking on it, I used 500 for your pics, then in that same box highlight "direct link to image", then RIGHT click and copy, then come to your Sunline post and left click on the little yellow square with the mountains (above just under the "back arrow). This will open a box that you right click to paste the link in it. (You to have to delete the "HTTP//" that automatically comes up in that box) click OK and your pic should post like my test photos did.
If you still have issues, let me know and we'll work on it.

Kitty

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