May - Jun 01





May & June 2001 - A big surprise greeted us when we went camping in late April. Soon after setting up the GT, I noticed a drip .. drip from the front of the trailer. Investigation revealed that the pressurized fresh water tank was leaking. I relieved the pressure and drained the tank as we had city water to use at the park. Once home I tore the front sofa bed out and took the water tank out. Sure enough there were several pin holes along the lowest part of the galvanized tank. After researching replacement tanks, I decided to forgo the expensive round metal tank and go with a new poly tank from All Rite (www.all-rite.com) and a new ShurFlo water pump. The floor under the tank was soft, just like the rear of the trailer. So I ripped out all the wood from the door opening forward. I also removed the interior walls for easy access to the the bolts that hold the aluminum frame to the edge of the wood floor. Note the close up of the old bolt still in the channel. The wood was removed from this bolt w/o cutting the bolt first. This wood was real soft. I took out the old fiberglass and painted the exposed frame with POR15. I then installed new insulation and a new plywood floor in two pieces so as the fit the floor into the space under the u channel. The marine plywwod was treated with epoxy to hopefully water proof it for the future and then the wood was glued and screwed to the frame. New bolts were used to reattach the u channel to the new floor. The interior skin was then re-riveted and the paint was touched up so as to cover the new rivets and scratches that were present. The new fresh water tank was installed and re-plumbed to the water pipes. The new pump was install on the driver side of the new tank under the sofa bed. Just barely had room to do this. The existing drain and filler was attached to the new tank so that from the outside the water system looks original. This took most of 6 to 7 weeks to complete. I barely completed in time to head off on vacation to South Dakota and Colorado. We took the GT and had no problems on the 2 week trip. See the next section for a report on this long 5000 mile trip.
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Last Update: 01/28/2002
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