Water system and membership

[luckylindyhopper]

Hey guys. You are always such a help so here I am with a couple of questions.

The first being we pulled our TM out of storage and decided to flush the water lines. My husband did everything by the book but we have no water coming out of any faucet. The water pump is running but no water anywhere. What are we doing wrong? Suggestions?

Also, I paid for a subscription back in December but I don't think my account here has been updated to reflect that. Who do I talk to in order to get a full membership? I have my receipt from PayPal showing that I paid the fee.

Thanks!

[MisterP]

Membership part is easy. Send a PM to Chris our admin. You will find his name in the site notices section.

The water question is not as easy. First, if you open all the drain valves on the bottom of the trailer is any water coming out? My suspicion is a blockage in a line. If you have an air compressor consider putting 20-30 psi of air on the system and open water valves one at a time. Remove all the aerators on faucets first. Might help locate a blocked line. If you haven't drained your hot water heater do that too. Sediment will build up.

[luckylindyhopper]

Checked the drains and sure enough no water. Breaking out the compressor now.

[commodor47]

. . . The water pump is running but no water anywhere. . . .
Thanks!

The on board water pump will pump water from the fresh water tank. Did you put water in the fresh water tank before turning on the water pump? Also keep in mind the water pump will start filling the water heater (about 6 gallons) before sending water to the taps. The pump should be self-priming but it may take a few seconds for water is sent through the system.

Dick

[luckylindyhopper]

Water is in tank. Had the pump on for a few minutes and no water.

[MisterP]

Water is in tank. Had the pump on for a few minutes and no water.

That makes me more suspicious you have debris in the tank and it has plugged the pump inlet. Not sure air would clear that, you may need to pull the pump.

Also search threads for installing a clean out port on your fresh water tank. There is a preferred brand that won't leak if installed correctly.

[ZekenSpider]

There are two ways to pressurize the TM water system.

Water in the tank with the pump running is one way.

A pressurized garden hose attached to the external supply port is the second way.

The second way will bypass the pump/tank and any problems that may be there. Pressurizing the system with a garden hose will supply water to both the water heater and the cold water lines without the pump running or without water in the tank. Once pressurized, water will flow out any open drain or faucet and out the water heater overpressure valve(if opened).

Lines or fittings that may have frozen with water in them may be broken and leaking into the area under the bath tub (from the external shower if you have one)

Perhaps...even though it is above freezing in CS now...there is still ice blocking the supply line from the pump or hose connection.

Just some thoughts,

Jerry

[luckylindyhopper]

So tried blowing out the lines and that did not work. We did hook up to a water hose to see if we could get water that way and we had success there.

My husband took a look at the water pump and he seems to think that there's something going on with it. Water doesn't seem to be reaching it.

[MarkoPolo]

My water pump lost the "prime". Will at the Car Show had the great idea of filling the tank, and I sat on the floor and pushed on the tank with my feet. That allowed enough pressure to move the water to the pump and voila...pump started to work right away.
I thought I was going to have to replace water pump. Sure was nice to have the "easy" button work!

[ShrimpBurrito]

If water had ever been in the water pump when the trailer was in freezing temps (and the furnace wasn't heating the interior), there's a chance the pump diaphragm might be torn, rendering the pump useless. The pump motor still runs as normal. Happened to me. Fix is to replace the diaphragm, a $20 part, and an easy repair if you have easy access to the pump.

Dave

[wbmiller3]

We didn't use the water pump much and after 10 years or so I had to replace the pump head. The symptoms were that the motor ran but nothing was pumped. It's been a while, but it wasn't terribly expensive (ordered the pump head off the internet) or difficult. It has worked fine since then.

[MarkoPolo]

On the 2922 reaching the water pump is a bear of a job. Probably have to remove sink to get good access. So, try the "push with feet" trick first. I was ready to drive the 2.5 hours to my dealer to have the repair done, so I was very happy this trick worked!

[ZekenSpider]

Another possibility is a plugged pump inlet screen.

Unfortunately, the screen is located inside the tank fitting that supplies water to the pump. Attached are a couple of pictures of the screen that came from the factory in my 2010 3326. Ultimately, I replaced it with an easy-to-clean inline filter and put in a water tank clean-out port (AquaSaver).

There is really no good way to clean the water tank without a clean-out port.

For what it's worth.

Jerry

[tentcamper]

These pumps are self priming and can lift water like 5 to 9 feet in a line with no water. It sounds like either the input line is leaking and breaking the suction or the pump has failed. I have had two pumps fail and in both cases they did what you describe. One was from freeze.

They are not that expensive $70. I think Shureflo 2.8 gpm pumps may be hard to get because they came out with the new revolution pumps about 3 years ago. The new 3.0 gpm pump 4008 should have the same foot print, but slightly different. Check the sureflo web site to compare engineering drawings. I think the 3.0 gpm pump is the one you may want to look at if you need a pump. They claim it is more quite and uses less power, plus you pick up 0.2 gpm.

[wbmiller3]

Here's the link to Amazon for the pump head replacement I bought. It's $53.

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00074QUC6/ref=pe_175190_21431760_M3T1_SC_dp_1

[luckylindyhopper]

And this is why I come here, for all the great suggestions and troubleshooting.

So we worked on it yesterday and managed to determine that no lines were blocked. So we decided to take out the pump. Lucky for my husband, I have very small hands so I did the hard part. We took the pump completely apart and discovered that the drive assembly was somehow stuck instead of freely moving like it needed to be. My husband took that apart, cleaned it, hooked it all back up and sure enough it worked! We remounted it (probably the most difficult and time consuming part of the whole ordeal) and we have water now.

[ShrimpBurrito]

Here's the link to Amazon for the pump head replacement I bought. It's $53.

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00074QUC6/ref=pe_175190_21431760_M3T1_SC_dp_1

Bill,

That part (Head Assembly) is comprised of the housing, diaphragm, and pressure switch.

I had a pressure switch go bad on me one time and the symptom was the motor was reluctant to turn on without a little hit on the head. Turned out there was a leaking pipe above it, and the switch rusted out. The housing is fine unless it is visibly cracked (can't imagine why that would happen, it's fairly beefy), but my guess is the diaphragm is what was your problem.....the motor keeps running (which was what happened when my diaphragm tore) because it can't build up any pressure for the switch to turn it off.

The diaphragm can be bought separately for a fraction of the cost of that assembly. For anyone who may need it in the future, see here:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000FQ7976

Not a bad idea to travel with one, actually. Cheap, lightweight, and can be replaced with a screwdriver and, in the models with the pump under the sink, a bit of blood from your arms.

Dave

[wbmiller3]

Thanks for the suggestion. I kept the old head so I'll take it apart and see if the diaphragm was the problem.

[tentcamper]

Great to hear you solve the problem. Happy camping. Test it out a few more times before your next trip.

[SmokeyJoe335]

Regarding your water system, I had a similar problem in September, 2015. Got to the campground, no water out of kitchen sink or bathroom tub. Bathroom sink worked fine. I could not fix at campground so I took my 2720SL to my local TrailManor dealer. They replaced my kitchen and bathroom tub faucets. A person at the RV place told me that my problem was symptomatic of not being winterized properly. I thought I had done everything correctly, drained the water lines and my unit is garage kept. I thought that sediment had built up in the faucet valves and hardened. To prevent this in the future I purchased a water pressure control valve and a water filter for the water intake port and I am going to pump in some RV antifreeze before winter.