[VACList] grey or black water tank replacement

[jon fitz <fitzjo1@xxxxxxxxx>]

Hi, Mark.

I won't attempt to answer all of your questions, but
will focus on the the black tank.  I studied the one
on my 68 in depth and even prepared ACAD drawings
prior to doing any welding.  Beware that I can't
comment on the details of a 65, but I doubt they are
radically different.

First off, I think you will find that the 65 has a
black water tank only.  The toilet probably mounts
directly onto it, so it would not be a grey water
tank.  Since the toilet is mounted directly without
any extensions to the tank or intermediate pipe, the
tank should be "flush" against the floor.  Otherwise,
the tank will be hanging from the toilet fitting.

The 68 tank sits inside of a sheet metal box.  The box
sits on top of two pieces of 1" angle iron.  These
angle irons span the distance between the frame rails.
 One is in front of the box; the other is behind it. 
There are tabs welded into the angles to hold the box
centered relative to the frame rails, since it isn't
as wide as they are far apart.  The angles are bolted
to 4 "ears" that are welded to the frame rails.

I suggest making lots of careful measurements before
doing any welding.  I discovered that the original
installation actually provided about 3/8" less space
than the height of the tank.  I would have never
caught it without the aid of the drawings--too many
offsets for my brain to keep track of.

I rebuilt the steelwork on the rear end of my unit
during a big project.  I still haven't put the tank
back in, though.  I stopped my sheet metal guy at the
last minute before fabbing the box.  I have a crazy
notion that instead of building a sheet metal box to
hold a cracked plastic tank, I may as well build a
sheet metal tank (I was already planning to use
stainless steel for the box).  For the time being, I
am using a porta-potti and an external grey water
tank.

Jon in SC
68 Overlander