Robert,
 
No damage will be done to your Airstream by traveling with a full tank of fresh water. It is designed to be able to handle this load and it will often will improve the trailer's behavior while towing. It's location at the front or center of the trailer makes this possible.
 
However the black and gray tanks on Airstreams with the rear bathroom, are in the rear of the trailer. As the trailer travels down the road the rear will bounce up and down with each little change in the road's surface much more than any other part of the trailer. The trailer will handle its own weight fine, but add the many pounds of full holding tanks and you can easily see the extra stress that you are requiring the frame to handle. In the early years of the gray tank's existence the frame was not strenghthened enough to handle this extra weight while bouncing down a bumpy road. Several trailer's frames bent under the stress. A fix for this is available from Airstream. This is not believed to be an issue with the mid bathroom models since the tanks are located closer to the axles and not subjected to all the bouncing that rear tanks are.
 
Scott Scheuermann
 
 ----- Original Message -----
Sent: Wednesday, April 11, 2001 1:25 PM
Subject: [VAC] Meeting Harvey and Fresh Water Tank

....But a question for someone who cares to pick up on this....with all the talk recently of filling the fresh water tank before leaving on a trip....is it possible that all that weight could do damage to the fresh water tank in transit?  When w! ! e first purchased our Airstream in Jan, we were warned that driving with the black or gray water tank full could break the brackets that hold them in place, so always dump them before taking off on the road.  Is this same precaution wise for the freshwater tank?  On our Tradewind, the black and gray tanks are in the rear, while the freshwater tank is in front of the axle. 
 
Robert
 

Reply via email to