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Old 07-24-2021, 03:09 PM   #1
thegumbos
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Fresh water capacity

According to the specs, our 2017 Montana High Country 305RL should have a fresh water capacity of 64 gallons. After running out of water much sooner that we anticipated, we filled the tank and then carefully emptied it into 5 gallon jerry jugs. We came up with 43 gallons. Has anyone else seen this discrepancy?
Is there something we're missing or does anyone know where the other 21 gallons have gone to?
 
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Old 07-24-2021, 03:37 PM   #2
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Part of the fresh water is your 12 gallons of hot water.
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Old 07-24-2021, 04:05 PM   #3
brooks340
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It's a mystery to me as well. I have a 2020 294RL, manual says fresh water capacity of 66 gallons and the most I can get into the tank is 45 gallons. Even adding the water heater at 12 gallons, and allowing for some water in the lines it doesn't add up to 66.
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Old 07-24-2021, 05:31 PM   #4
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Just curious, when you emptied your water, did you raise the front jacks? The tanks aren’t flat on the bottom. That’s why we always get residual in our black and gray tanks. We have SeaLevel Gages and if I don’t raise the front I can end up with up to 30% left in my black tank. Not saying that you didn’t, just asking. We get 7-9 days without dumping/refilling.
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Old 07-24-2021, 05:36 PM   #5
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No, I didn't raise the front jacks — we were completely level when I measured the capacity. So, my question is: in order have access to ALL the water in the tank, do I need to raise the front end? If so, by how much? Since we boondock a lot, I wouldn't want to have the nose up for extended periods of time in order to prevent damage to the refrigerator.
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Old 07-24-2021, 08:15 PM   #6
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Kurt, two different questions. No you don’t need to raise the nose, it is sloped to get the most water out of the tank when it is level. Your question was where is all of my water. Some of it is still in the tank if you did not raise the front to get it out when you were measuring. So, you have 64 gallons of capacity, you had water in your water heater, lines and since you didn’t raise the front, I would guess you still had water in the tank.

If you do a lot of boondocking, I recommend the SeaLevel Gages so you have accurate tank measurements and a water bladder and pump from harbor freight to augment your water supply. In another thread they talked about the 40 gallon bladder. And while you have the coroplast dropped, switch to Valterra sold wire dump valves. Also, look at the ARP Fridge Defender. We live in the mountains and are going up steep grades all the time. Hope this helps.
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Old 07-24-2021, 08:21 PM   #7
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In the very tiny print in the brochure it says they have

"the right to substitute tanks at any time"...
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Old 07-24-2021, 08:51 PM   #8
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Ron & Terrie: thanks for all the info! It's really helpful. But I'm still confused. If my rig's stated capacity is 64 gallons, and, if I subtract 12 gallons for the hot water heater and, let's say 2 gallons for lines, etc., I should then have at least 50 gallons in the tank. If, as you say, the tank is sloped to get the most out of the tank when level, shouldn't I measure close to 50 gallons when I drain the tank (not 43 gallons)?
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Old 07-24-2021, 10:18 PM   #9
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Kurt, I do not believe that you got all of the water out when you measured your 43 gallons. I believe the drain is not at the lowest point. I believe the water line to the pump is at the lowest point.
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Old 07-24-2021, 10:29 PM   #10
thegumbos
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Ron & Terrie:
Since I wanted to know how much water I had when using the pump, instead of using the drain at the rear end of the rig, I used the pump drain at the convenience center. When the pump started spitting air, I stopped measuring.
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Old 07-25-2021, 04:43 AM   #11
Dave W
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Our 343 has a 64 gallon fresh water tank. The pump will not drain that tank 100% as I have seen by opening the tank drain, this being done at winterizing. I suspect that the pickup is not on the bottom to allow for accumulated crud or, most likely an incompetent assembler. On a past TT neither the pump pickup or the frain would allow complete draining. In this case, the tank was accessible and translucent plastic. At least 1 + inches of water remained - which was a problem when dewinterizing and pink stuff remained as there was no winterizing arrangement other then dumping antifreeeze in the tank to run through the system
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Old 07-25-2021, 05:41 AM   #12
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I'm guessing when you say "pump drain at the convenience center" you are referring to the low point drains? The cold and hot lines that run out the bottom? They are only to drain any water in the lines of the rig for winterizing. It shouldn't drain your tank even with the pump running.
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Old 07-28-2021, 05:11 PM   #13
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Don’t forget ! , us gallons are smaller the imperial galls, 3.75 to 4.45 ishMaybe your measure if jug ��
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Old 08-01-2021, 12:38 PM   #14
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Maybe I can be of some help here since I have had the entire coroplast cover off of my unit. The following info applies to my 2011 unit, so not sure about the newer ones.
My fresh water tank is simply a one piece molded/ flat bottomed tank.
There is a small lowered/recessed area where the tank drain is located.
The water pick up connection is off of the lowered section.
Because of the weight of the water, the tank sags quite a bit on the bottom which prevents all of the water from getting to the lowered section.
After each trip I open the drain valve to drain the tank while driving so all the water flows to the drain valve.
If you drain it while sitting still you will have several gallons that will not drain out.
As for the size of the tank, I think I calculated that with length/width/height measurements, but I can not for life of remember what is was.
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Old 08-04-2021, 09:16 PM   #15
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After doing some more research I found this earlier post from kendotmontanaclub:

Probably not a big deal for most campers, but I discovered today that the specs for freshwater holding tank on 2019 model 305 RL is in error. The Keystone webpage identifies the fresh holding tank at 66 gallons. With a flexible camera I was able to visualize the part number on the side of the tank as W1468.manufactured by Ameri-Kart. They confirms that this is a 50 gallon tank. I spoke with Keystone customer service today. Agent placed me on hold returning saying that she had spoken to management and that there was nothing they could do about the variance. Apologies made and end of discussion. Suggest to club members, be suspect that specifications stated at time of sale and on Keystone's webpage as of this morning are invalid, you probably have a much smaller freshwater tank capacity then published.
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Old 08-04-2021, 10:14 PM   #16
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All of the Montana brouchures and spec sheets say "Fresh Water 66 Gals.". Nowhere do they mention the tank or its size. The Fresh Water capacity is the 50 gallon tank, 12 gals. in the Water Heater, and however much water is contained in the 1/2" Pex and fixtures is the piping system (I bet it is very close to 4 gals.).

I am sure someone will do the math on how much water a 1/2" Pex can contain per/ft along with how many feet of it there is in a rig. Me, I really don't care. All I worry about is getting my 45 gal. bladder full of water into the fresh water tank.
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Old 08-05-2021, 08:03 AM   #17
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No way to really know how many lineal feet of pipe is in our campers.
I did find a multiplier for the volume inside half inch PEX pipe. It's lineal feet x .00961
So for every 50 lineal foot of pipe you have slightly less than a half a gallon of water.
So I cannot envision your pipes holding more than a gallon and a half or so
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Old 08-05-2021, 10:04 AM   #18
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Quote:
Originally Posted by beeje View Post
...
So I cannot envision your pipes holding more than a gallon and a half or so
Probably not even that much, because I can completely winterize all my lines with 1.5 gallons of pink-stuff. The other 1/2 gallon gets poured down the drains for the P-traps.
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