Class B water tank ratings
I noticed on an e-bay ad for a 4x4 Roadtrek, that they listed a bigger water tank than they have had in the past. It was a 170 which has only the underbody tank, and they listed 20 gallons. The underbody tanks on all the Chevies has always been 14 gallons. I looked at the Roadtrek site and it was listed at 20 there also, with the 190 going up to 31 gallons from 25. Cool, I thought, I wonder if the new tank would fit the older vans, especially since we removed the inside tank, and a little extra water wouldn't hurt if it wouldn't use up any space. I couldn't find anything, anywhere, about a new tank or increased fresh water capacity. I finally was looking at the new and improved 2014 Roadtrek manual on their site, and they still have a specifications area in the manual. In the manual, the 31 gallons is listed for the 190, but has an asterisk on it. Check out the asterisk, and it says the the 31 gallons includes the 6 gallon water heater. So, nothing has changed except to say they have 6 more gallons of "capacity". Of course it is capacity you can't use, because it is in the water heater and has to be replaced to get it out. You still can only use 25 gallons in a 190.
I mentioned it on the Yahoo board, as there had just been a lengthily discussion about if the water heater water was usable for capacity, or not. A comment from a Roadtrek knowledgeable source said that the change was an advertising thing because the competition changed to including the water heater capacity to their rating. I looked around and found that Pleasure-way has done the same change. I haven't had a chance to check the other B manufacturers at this point. It appears that in the current B world, misleading customers is OK as long as everybody does it.
Neither Roadtrek or Pleasure-way let you know that they are rating unusable capacity in their sales, or specs publications, which I think is not a good thing. I would bet nearly 100% of customers are going to think they have the full listed "capacity" available for use, and only find out after they buy that they don't.
On the boards and forums, we often see the folks who are researching mentioning water capacity, so I hope the word gets out in the general B community, so folks don't get deceived.
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