Black water tank removal

[groetschel]

Hi
I have watched some YouTube videos on how to remove a black water tank. Please take a look at the attached photo. Have you ever seen a tank like this? How do I remove it?
Regards
Gunnar

[Belegedhel]

Not familiar with your particular model, but in most of these trailers that have a black tank sitting on the floor, the only thing holding them in place is the above floor surroundings (which you appear to have already removed), and the dump valve assembly attached to all the ABS plumbing under the trailer. Have you gotten underneath and cut all that piping free?

[groetschel]

no, not yet. I am currently trying to evaluate and not destroy too much.
Some rivets holding the last two interior panels are behind this black water tank, so I just wanted to get it out of the way. What would you suggest? removing the belly pan first?

[Belegedhel]

I guess it depends on what your objective is. A) Are you stripping the entire interior to do a rebuild or replace the floor? Or B) do you not really want to remove the tank, but you need to get at those last rivets?

If A), then I would say you will need to remove the belly pan, banana wraps, tank, etc., anyway, so forge ahead.

If B), then I would recommend getting a long putty knife, and instead of drilling out those pesky hidden rivets, just reach down in there with the putty knife, and tap the handle to shear them off. That being said, it will be impossible to put them back in again....

good luck!

[groetschel]

Thanks for your answer. Really helpful. I think you are right. I am planning to do A) replace sub floor and full rebuild. You are right: belly pan has to go off.
Do you have done this before and some good advice?
Thanks
Gunnar

[Belegedhel]

I have done a complete rebuild of my '73--shell off, floor replacement, insulation and interior skins replaced. I suspect that your 2000 still has a lot in common with the way they were built in the 70's. The floor is (typically) sandwiched between the "base" of the wall and the outriggers of the frame. For this reason, you will have to remove the belly skin and the black wraps around the edge so that you can get to the top and bottoms of the bolts.

When I did mine, I lifted the shell with some homemade wooden gantries, and that worked quite well. There are lots of folks who build bracing inside the shell and jack the shell up against that bracing, but it seems to me that by the time you get all that bracing and jacking done, you could have built the gantries and been done with it. There is also the option to do a shell-on floor replacement, but that has always struck me as the most difficult way to go about it. Do a search for "full monty" "gantry" and "shell-on" and you should find a bunch of threads showing what others have done.

good luck!