Moving Fresh Water Tank to Outside of 16' Scamp - Fiberglass RV
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Old 09-24-2015, 09:39 AM   #1
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Name: Steve
Trailer: Scamp 16
Colorado
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Moving Fresh Water Tank to Outside of 16' Scamp

Hi,
I've seen some discussions on it but nothing definitive. I'm thinking about moving the FW tank outside in the back. I found a site: RV Water Tanks | Camper Fresh Water Tanks

that has tanks of all sizes. The one I was thinking about is the 10 gal that's 32"L x 19.5W x 4.75"W. I'm wondering if being so shallow (4.75") if unless it was perfectly level, would I have problems using the full 10 gallons? Also, I doubt I'll be using it when it drops much below freezing but I can imagine going up into Rocky Mtn Natl Park in October when the temp does drop at night.

Just looking for peoples thoughts and if it's worth it. It would certainly free up a lot of space under the bench seat. Plus the tank is already behind the axle, I'm just centering it right under the benches on the underside.
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Old 09-24-2015, 09:43 AM   #2
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First you would always have to travel with it empty because of the lever effect of the greater distance from the axle, effecting sway and tongue weight.


Next it would be more prone to damage.



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Old 09-24-2015, 09:51 AM   #3
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I think it would be about the same as far as distance. The current 12 gal is behind the axle under the bench on the passenger side. This would be about the same in relation to axle to rear end, just centered under the trailer.


Good point on the damage potential though the grey water tank would be sitting right in front of it, in between the axle and a cross frame piece and it sits at about 5 1/2 ".
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Old 09-24-2015, 10:07 AM   #4
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Well its the same weight behind the axle it may be OK, BUT what about the weight you will be adding into the now empty compartment. This will now change your balance point.

Its harder to freeze one big square chunk. But flatten it out, makes more exposed surface area, making it easier to freeze.
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Old 09-24-2015, 10:09 AM   #5
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Great idea. My front bath Scamp is tongue heavy anyway so if I went to 15 gallons it might be better. Fun to think about. And I would love the interior space in my 13 footer. Perhaps a backpacking blue foam cushion wrapped around it would give some freeze protection and some road hazard protection. Plus water tanks seem thicker than the grey water tank that is similarly exposed. Might tilt the tank an inch to facilitate draining. Fun to consider.
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Old 09-24-2015, 10:18 AM   #6
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Thanks stevebaz.... That's why I put this out there. Things to consider before tackling this.
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Old 09-24-2015, 10:22 AM   #7
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Originally Posted by stevebaz View Post
Well its the same weight behind the axle it may be OK, BUT what about the weight you will be adding into the now empty compartment. This will now change your balance point..
So I guess that nixes my plan to fill the now empty space with more tools.
Maybe just put some bedding in the space.

Darnation!
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Old 09-24-2015, 10:28 AM   #8
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So I guess that nixes my plan to fill the now empty space with more tools.
Maybe just put some bedding in the space.

Darnation!
That's what I was thinking too! Or some light paper products...
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Old 09-24-2015, 11:06 AM   #9
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Don't let me nix your dreams. I am just pointing out pit falls that may happen. I worry about the guy who doesn't look for pitfalls and he's already added a rear receiver and hanging a 100 lbs of beach cruisers out the back. He needs more room too and thinks this is OK because you did it.
We grew up with teeter totters. Early physic class. These days allot of people don't know what they are.

I once got a close encounter with trailer physics. A person driving a full size pick-up truck had a rental trailer. In the rental trailer he had about 50 sacks of cement. He came up the on ramp of the freeway in front of me. I was in the #3 lane and he came in the #4 lane. As soon as he hit 45 mph or so the trailer started to dance and immediately spun that trailer and truck around 3 times heading across the freeway into the fast lane and crashing into the K rail keeping it from going onto the other side. The truck and passengers looked like rag dolls spinning so violently. The concrete bags never moved from the trailer until it crashed into the K rail. It was an awesome but terrifying sight. All caused by laziness by not properly balancing the load in the trailer or out of poor ignorance since it was a rental trailer.
luckily they didn't hit anyone on a busy freeway especially me with a 20 foot window seat. The trailer maybe 4000 lbs and the truck and 2 people maybe 6000 lbs or more. The trailer kick their ass and spit them out. At least no one was hurt.
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Old 09-24-2015, 01:11 PM   #10
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Load balance would be concern to me but I also like the water tank inside the trailer as it does provide some protection from cold weather when late fall early spring camping. Actually wish the grey tank was more protected in that regard.... next trailer may be ;-)
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Old 09-24-2015, 01:48 PM   #11
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Originally Posted by SteveZimmerman View Post
Hi,
I've seen some discussions on it but nothing definitive. I'm thinking about moving the FW tank outside in the back.

Just looking for peoples thoughts and if it's worth it. It would certainly free up a lot of space under the bench seat. Plus the tank is already behind the axle, I'm just centering it right under the benches on the underside.
There are easier ways to improve and add to the available space in a Scamp 16 other than moving the tank to the rear bumper.

You might want to see what we've done. There are a lot of storage options.

We added 5 drawers, 5 over head storage compartments, 5 under trailer storage compartments, 3 rear bumper storage compartments (for light outside items like hose, cords,...) 3 small over window/over door shelves, 3 wall containers and numerous other small baskets for small bathroom items. As well there are many ways to more effectively use the closet.

Making your Scamp yours is part of the fun.


http://www.fiberglassrv.com/forums/f...6-a-46387.html
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Old 09-24-2015, 02:10 PM   #12
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Steve,

My suggestion is not to move the water tank, certainly not to add tools.

Ginny uses the center storage compartment under the couch for two bins of her clothing. Behind those bins I have built a shelf that carries most of my tools.

I do also keep a drill and sockets near the water tank. There are lots of little places to store stuff.

Beside the couch's center compartment. towards the front door, I cut the fiberglass and installed a large drawer for more of Ginny's clothes, probably 18" wide and 18" deep. The front area of the Scamp, behind the drawer is curved. I built a little storage area behind that drawer. I keep electrical items there, a meter soldering iron, wire....

Here's one I put two drawers under the non-tank dinette. The drawer are on slides, under one drawer is my supply of sand paper, a little space normally unused. Behind the one drawer I have a wine rack (stand-up). Under that same dinette, I have a bean pot, a crock pot, a cube heater and a lantern.

In 15 years probably my best tool is a bottle jack I carry in the tow vehicle so I have it when out exploring.

As to moving the water tank, we had a trailer with a rather thin gray tank mounted under the trailer attached to the floor, about half the thickness of the Scamp's grey tank. maybe the same thickness as the bottom of the axle to the floor. A water tank could probably be mounted under the trailer (though I haven't looked). The tank had a low point so it drained well but slowly. The pump would fix the slowly. We protected our grey tank with an inch of blue foam glued on. The purpose was to protect it from stone hits on the Labrador highway but it would also insulate.

You'll see I have two plastic container attached to the floor in front of our bumper box. Each of these plastic boxes is not much smaller than the Scamp's Water tank.

Like most people I'm not a fan of mounting weight on the bumper. The only time I fill our tank to full is when entering a boondocking site. Typically we drive with a half tank.

Hope this helps.
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Old 09-25-2015, 05:49 AM   #13
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My first thought was….well, my second thought was “why in heaven would he want to do that?”

Thinking more about it I thought it might make refilling the tank mid-week easier, having to take only the tank to the faucet, not the whole trailer or refilling with 1 or 5 gallon jugs at a time. But then I figured that while it might be easy to carry an empty tank to the tow vehicle but then when it was full again it would weigh 70-100 pounds and who’d want to wrestle that around the campsite.

Then I thought about the increased trailer storage. My opinion on that was “stuff” takes the same amount of space regardless of where it’s stored. You could move stuff out of the tow into the trailer, but then you’d (I’d) have to store the water tank in the tow. Net gain of zero. I’m not hanging it off the back. But then, I don’t like bikes, etc. hanging back there either.

Is it going to travel hanging off the back, inviting mischief and is it another thing to have to set up and take down for travel? I’m not interested in a detached power cord because it’s just another (admittedly minor) aggravation to set up. I’ve camped while it snowed and had no particular problem stuffing the cord into the cubby. Heck, if I had water on-site more often I’d look for ways to store the water hose in a cubby too.

Then I thought he might want a bigger tank, but unless he’s draining the grey water on the ground, where’s he going to put it (the increased grey water)?

I sort of gave up after that. Everybody camps differently and no one holds ownership of the one true universal camping theory (if there were one, we’d probably owe them royalties), but this idea is non-starter for me.
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Old 09-25-2015, 07:02 AM   #14
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Water tanks that contain non treated water (Well water) and are exposed to direct sunlight will soon sprout a nice batch of algea. We had plastic tanks of press water at work that sat in front of a large window .We had to constantly drain the tank and clean it out with bleach.
Plus many plastic tanks are not UV resistant. Just something to consider.
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Old 09-25-2015, 08:02 AM   #15
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I understood we were talking, as in the original post, of installing the tank under the trailer, not on the back. As pointed out above it is silly to consider hanging it on the bumper.

OTOH a location just behind the grey water tank would not change the front to back center of gravity much. And the side to side center of gravity balance would improve. My 13 footer has a large open space just behind the grey water tank. Twenty gallons or more would fit and would be nice, but that much extra weight might really affect balance. The OP has a 16 footer. Not sure how my comments would apply to a longer rig.

Still it looks like a lot of work and will be pretty far down my list of future mods. There is plenty of storage capacity in my Outback TV.



John
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Old 09-25-2015, 08:35 AM   #16
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Quote:
Originally Posted by honda03842 View Post
There are easier ways to improve and add to the available space in a Scamp 16 other than moving the tank to the rear bumper.

You might want to see what we've done. There are a lot of storage options.

We added 5 drawers, 5 over head storage compartments, 5 under trailer storage compartments, 3 rear bumper storage compartments (for light outside items like hose, cords,...) 3 small over window/over door shelves, 3 wall containers and numerous other small baskets for small bathroom items. As well there are many ways to more effectively use the closet.

Making your Scamp yours is part of the fun.


http://www.fiberglassrv.com/forums/f...6-a-46387.html
Do you have any pictures of your mod's. I'd love to see them.
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Old 09-25-2015, 08:35 AM   #17
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Good point John. The under the trailer comment in his original post didn't sink in and the thread somehow seemed to migrate to on the bumper.
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Old 09-25-2015, 09:53 AM   #18
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Steve,
I know it's a long thread but I believe every mod is in the post, mostly with pictures. If there's a specific mod(s) you're interested in I can take pictures for you.
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Old 09-25-2015, 10:32 AM   #19
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Pictures- Bumper Box

Steve. We are moving in a week or so. As a result the trailer's loaded. The only significant things I did not take pictures of were the two under dinette drawers because we've set the bed up as a permanent bed and loaded stuff under the bed. We never keep a permanent bed.

The following Picture is our Bumper Box and two 'fence posts below the box. One post contains a long sewer hose. The second contains plastic poles, three of the poles make a clothes line that hangs off the rear bumper.

The bumper box contains our leveling blocks, a water hose, a 25 foot 30 amp power cord, a small container of common tools and a jack wrench for our front auxiliary jack.
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20150925_120146.jpg  
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Old 09-25-2015, 10:38 AM   #20
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Kitchen Drawers

[B]Steve These are our Kitchen Drawers. The one in front of the sink is a tilt out drawer. There is a white basket on the back of the drawer front. It contains our toothpaste and two electric toothbrushes.

The drawer on the right is a pull out drawer and contains dishtowels, an apron and ... It is counter depth.
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