# Chausson Allegro 93 - waste tank fell off!



## bracken (Apr 26, 2006)

:?: OK then you clever people, tell me the answer to this problem.

Yesterday just before leaving Lincoln, the wife was complaining about a large puddle of water under the van and very inconveniently across the doorway. On inspection all the water was coming from the grey water tank. WHY? The tank has either shaken out of its mountings or broken off them! The only thing fortunately still holding it in was the back ledge lip on the ALKO extension frame!!!! Just as well a 100 litre tank hadn't fallen out on the M1 then!? I managed to jam it back up into the chassis with some scrapwood to drive back home.

Now having delved through the forums and had a look on the web, this doesn't appear to be an everyday occurance - thank goodness. My problem now however is 'How does the thing fit up into the chassis and tight under the floor' - there are no obvious fixings when looking from the restricted gap under the rear of the back valance and the whole thing has dropped down. This is fitted, (or today not fitted), to my 3 1/2 year old Chausson Allegro 93 I have reported on elsewhere here. I know the French are pretty awful engineers, but surely they would have come up with some sensible solution to holding in a tank which could weigh up to 250 lbs when full.

Does anybody out there, a repairer or service engineer, know how it should be fitted and could perhaps point me in the correct direction for putting it back properly?

I know you are not supposed to drill the aluminium extension chassis, but believe me if putting a couple of metal straps across the members under this tank will prevent it crashing down on the road when traveling, that is what I will do if and when I get it back into place. The current system doesn't appear to be fit for purpose!

For any Council Road Maintenance Engineers and Useless highwayman politicians out there, this is an indictment of the rubbish, potholed state of our English roads. On the same journey back, a pothole also shook a glass lightshade off and smashed it on the table, and then all over the dog who was hiding underneath!

That's my little rant about money being stolen from the motorists for no good purpose!


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## Spacerunner (Mar 18, 2006)

Just had a look at my Chausson Welcome 85.

The waste tank is sited right at the rear of the chassis and held in place by two rigid steel supports about a foot apart from the centre of the tank the full length and front to rear .
These two strap are bolted on to the main extension chassis. The whole thing appears to be substantial and firm.
Look for bolt whole at the rear most cross member, the fixing may be captured nuts.


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## WildThingsKev (Dec 29, 2009)

Any chance of a photo? Without being the owner of a Chausson it is difficult to visualise, I suspect the fixing arrangement is similar to other vans like our Rapido, but can't help without knowing for sure.

Kev


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## bracken (Apr 26, 2006)

Hi both, Thanks for your replies. 

The current situation is as follows: I phoned the men in the workshop at Highbridge, where the motor-home was purchased. The guy I eventually spoke to had no idea how the tank was fitted, but did helpfully point out that it was now out of warranty. He also mentioned that they wouldn't be able to get it into their workshops until well into May, so perhaps I had better make some other arrangements for the repair. That was me on my own then!

So having lifted the back of the vehicle up on ramps and removed my temporary wooden wedges, I tentatively undid the four nuts which I could see under the big black thing. This turned out to be a very large cover over the waste water tank, and was actually affixed to the extended bolt ends of the 'framework', which should hold the tank in place. I put the word framework in inverted commas because it is a seriously flimsy piece of construction, fabricated from bits of approx 30 X 2mm metal, totally unsuited to holding up approx 100 litres of waste water. Not surprisingly one of the straps had sheared off at the corner bend, and all four corners of the frame fixed to the underside of the motor-home floor had bent downwards away from the fixing bolt holes to an angle of approx 40 degrees. I suspect the frame corners had been cold bent so would have immediately inherited a stress weakness. The distance of the fixing holes from the corner is probably 70mm, but I guess nobody bothered to work out the relationship between weight and mechanical advantage on this design. I now have to go out and source some decent material to construct a pair of new tank hanger frames. 

This is a disgracefully shoddy and inept piece of engineering in my opinion, and has done nothing to improve my views of French workmanship and design. Some things they get horribly wrong and this is one of them.

If you have a 2008/9 Chausson Allegro I would suggest that it may well be worth your while checking under the back to see if the cover has a gap between its top edge and the underside of the floor. If there is, my advice would be to either take the cover down yourself and check the mounting frame or get it done as a specific request next time it is serviced. It should be less than a half hours work when up on a hoist to just drop the cover and refix it - it's only 4 nuts and washers and disconnection of the waste rod from the side, and then all will be revealed. The top straps should be flat to the underside of the floor, right up to the bend on the corner. If they angle downwards on the outside of the fixing bolts, (4 off X 8mm hold the whole thing up), then you have a potential problem. I really dread to think what may have happened if this lot had dropped out on a busy road.


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## Medallionman (Nov 26, 2005)

I sympathise, I had a similar problem with the freshwater tank on my Auto-Sleeper. Fortunately I was in a 30 KM/H zone and going over a speed hump in France. If it had happened on a motorway I dread to think what would have happened. The tank was full as we had just topped up before leaving the campsite. See my post http://www.motorhomefacts.com/ftopict-130781-.html and you will see the cradle I made and the feeble original that AS fit. How do they get away with this crap stuff? The aluminium straps had work hardened and one just snapped.
I hope you manage to get it sorted,
Cheers,
Brian


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## bracken (Apr 26, 2006)

Well the tank is now lashed back into place with some stronger brackets, but I will be making a very strong cradle for it sometime in the near future, probably based around steel box section and some long thicker studding bars. I'm not worried about payload as it is a 4 Tonne rated chassis anyway. The cover is yet to be refitted as working under a black floor, on a black tank and black 5 foot long cover, eventually became too much for me in the dark. I know I'm a wimp but tomorrow is another day.

I guess the reason why motor-home manufacturers don't fit sensible cradles into their constructions is because (a) you cannot see most of them because they are hidden out of sight, and (b) it must be very difficult for them to make a profit on a £55,000 motor-home!? I'm not cynical - honest!

Actually I am amazed that there are no legislation penalties in place to prevent this type of stupid construction. The tank is good, the concept and placement of it are good, but the fitting design could be improved by a five year old.

The state of Britain's roads really is now getting beyond a joke. This problem happened around Faldingworth in Lincolnshire. Two years ago, I went through this same 'village' and it had the most stupid rumble strips I have ever come across - high solid concrete affairs across the full width of the road either side of a bend. These literally shook the lights out of the motor-home ceiling. The grossly unnecessary lengths of yellow striped 'rumble strips' leading to roundabouts are another serious problem, both for bad back sufferers like me, and also for wrecking fittings and contents of 'motor-homes'. I could cheerfully shoot the idiots that put these down all over the country. The bits of material they use to make the bumps would be far better off used to fill the myriad potholes all over the country. The section of the M1 southbound North of J19 has very large potholes in it currently. (Not that I was nervous of a complete tank dropout on the way home yesterday you understand)! As an ex-biker I'm rather glad that I don't have to ride one these days on a dark wet night.

The drains on the Chausson are also very slow, but there is little chance of re-routing the pipes, they are internally routed behind the furniture. I have now discovered that they exit into the top of the waste tank underneath the shower tray so have a definite uphill kink just before the tank. The French always did build everything upside down or backwards!


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## WildThingsKev (Dec 29, 2009)

I still can't quite picture your setup but our Rapido tank (and insulating outer) has a transverse recess underneath through which a steel channel runs. This is hung off vertically from; what! I'll now have a look in the morning! But as it's between the wheels I guess its the Alko chassis.

Kev


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## yokeljohn (Mar 2, 2013)

*CHASSON WASTE TANK*

I recently hadto take down my waste tank on my c.i.motorhome, ihad to replace part of the floor due to exstensive rot due to lack of sufficent sealing when manufactured in italy. I replaced the old straps with two stainless steel ones, cost me a fiver at a local steel fabricator, the old ones were almost rusted through,i just bought the stainless strips and bent them myself using the old straps as a pattern. use stainless nuts and washers and grease the bolts that they all fit on yokeljohn.


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## bracken (Apr 26, 2006)

Kev.

The tank is a long unit, basically a rectangle with two longer arms out of the back end. The whole thing is hung from four 8mm bolts through the bedlocker floor, (hopefully welded into plates to spread the load), but this feature is under the lino (I hope). The frame is simply a pair of 30 X 2 mm thick galvanised straps which screw to the bolts sticking down from the floor The bolts are about 60mm in from the end of the right angle bends which are bent down to form the sides of the frame. Two other pieces of flimsy strap go across the tank below and above it to trap it in place, these are bolted to the bottom of the side straps. The only recesss for positioning the tank are vertical recesses in the plastic tank sides, which is where the strapping runs down each side.

I guess some of the rigidity of the final unit is given by fitting the cover underneath - part of which goes round one of the chassis members so is held relatively firmly in place There is nothing at all holding up the rear 3 feet or so of either the tank or cover. (There will be when I've finished tomorrow. I intend putting a solid piece of wood under the cover lip and into the back cross bar of the aluminium extension chassis). 

Your Rapido appears to have a slightly better system of positioning the tank. 

The stainless steel straps are an excellent idea, but make sure the stainless is not too hard a grade, as I know from experience that this will fracture if frequently flexed too.

Problems, problems! I hope this clarifies it a bit for you though.


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