Water Tank Beam

    I looked under the Vibe and it's the same as the r-pod two 3/16" screws on each side of the front rail holding the fresh water tank. I don't know the strength of the screws but you would think that they should be a larger screw or bolt. My question is if you drill into the frame will you affect the strength of the frame enough to be concerned about? I am thinking of using a 1/4" bolt and attaching a bracket under the support rail on each side. That would require drilling two 1/4" holes through the frame. This is the first time ever heard of someone having a holding tank come lose on a r-pod so wandering if the risk is that great.

Originally posted by David and Danette     I looked under the Vibe and it's the same as the r-pod two 3/16" screws on each side of the front rail holding the fresh water tank. I don't know the strength of the screws but you would think that they should be a larger screw or bolt..

Just shot the missing screws in on mine-   were yours really 3/16?   Mine were #14 which is close to 1/4", take a 3/8 socket to drive them in.  The 3/16 (#12) take a 5/16" socket.
If yours were indeed #12 I'd pull them all out and replace with #14.

One other thing- unlike J-Cats pics mine only had the bottom 2 screws in, the top was skipped on mine.  The top hole was partially welded over, IOW it was too close to the edge of the frame and because of the weld not leaving a flat surface for the screw to tighten down-  I drilled new holes about 1/4 to 3/8" down.

  Sorry I was wrong. Budward, you are right 1/4" not 3/16". Still deciding if I want to drill holes in the frame or not but I can't think of any other way to strengthen the rail that holds the tank except for drilling holes in frame. I forget the frame size on the r-pods on the Vibe it is a 4" by 2" box frame.

Just to offer a counter-point, my pod now has over 15,000 miles on it, with many of those miles hard and bumpy.  I usually travel with the fresh tank full, and many times with full waste tanks (and almost always at least partly full), without a failure.  I haven't checked how many bolts/screws are installed but I'll be working on other things on the pod tomorrow so I'll take a look.

Here is the fix should help to prevent the shearing. Thanks CharlieM