We are preparing to leave on our annual desert trip and yesterday I decided to fill the fresh water tank and purge the lines etc. I've done this a bazillion times but for some stupid reason I was trying to multi-task (at my age) and when the tank was filled to where it was draining out of the overflow hose under the coach and coming out of the fill inlet, I discovered that I hadn't switched the tank valve over from the "City Water" position to the "Tank Fill" position. I opened the drain valve in the bay and let some water drain out and then did switch the valve over to the "Fill Tank" position and topped it off again. I did notice that it took a much longer time to purge the lines afterwards, which I did with the hose still hooked up and running. After I finally got the lines fully purged and the water was running smoothly at all outlets I disconnected the hose and turned on the water pump. Everything worked as it should, no problems thankfully. All appears to be fine, my main concern is could I have damaged anything in the system by not switching that darn valve over before starting the tank fill? Just looking for some reassurance here I guess even tho as mentioned all seems to be okay...........so far Any input here will be greatly appreciated by this old numbskull.................. Thanks and regards, Bankshot
Most of the time if the pump runs air bound for 5 or ten minutes or so it's not a problem, it's when they run air bound for hours or more, that's when the pump impeller could over heat and warp. Usually then they loose their ability to move water. My previous trailer had the lite switch and pump switch next to each other, there was a few times when my kids would turn the pump on (while on city water) and I found the pump running air bound before I discovered it, well the pump worked just fine the next time I used it on the fresh water tank. My guess you will be okay. Mike
Don't worry about your water pump, if its still working, there should be no damage. If you're still worried, pick up a spare pump when you have some extra $$ and keep it on board. As far as doing stupid stuff, we've all done it. Here are some of my offenses: Not verifying the hitch was put on properly on our tent trailer and having it come off 3 blocks down the road. Coming back from a trip and finding a severed extension cord lying in the lawn. Rv was still plugged in when we drove away. But the absolute worst one i hesitate to mention (out of embarrasment) was when i was about to dump the holding tanks, i went through my mental checklist to make sure the hose was firmly in the drain hole, covered by a rock, the rinse hose was hooked up and ready to use, so i pulled the knive valve for the black water. Then i realized i didnt hook up the other end of the dump hose (luckily the drain cover was still on), so now i had 2' of stuff in the pipe i had to get rid of. Never dump tanks in the early morning befor your first shot of caffeen!!! Chris g.
Dumbest I ever did was put down the tongue to take off WDH bars - then driving away without having put the tongue up.
Thanks for the "votes of confidence". I sort of knew everything was okay, guess I just needed a few of you to tell me it was. I checked everything again yesterday and the pump is doing its thing just fine and there is no water dripping out anywhere under or around the coach either. Just a small "brain fart" I experienced while trying to do more than 17 things at one time........... Safe travels everyone, we be taking off early next week and heading for the desert to soak up some sun and sip some wine in the evenings............
If you have one of the common Shurflo or Aquajet RV pumps, there's no impeller to overheat and they'll run dry for hours with no harm done. Have a great trip!
I think I may have either said it incorrectly or you guys are reading what I did say incorrectly? Whatever, no big deal of course but I never did run the pump with no water. What I did was forget to switch the water fill valve over from city water to the tank fill position. I discovered that once the tank was finished "filling"...??? The water was bubbling out from the inlet and the overflow was going strong under the coach. I shut of the water, opened the main drain valve and let some of it out. Closed the valve back up, switched the valve over to the fill position and topped off the tank again. Switched the valve back over to city water, hooked up the hose from the house and bled the lines using water from the main intake hose. After the lines were fully purged I unhooked the hose and then turned on the pump. All seemed to be working okay and so far so good. I was then wondering where does that water go if the valve isn't switched over to the tank fill position??? It must still go into the tank as it certainly didn't leak out anywhere while it was filling. Don't mean to make a big thing out this, my curiosity got into the game here as I wasn't wrapping my old brain around what i had just done. That's my story and I be stickin' to it.................... BankShot
Ahh! Ok, is it possible that the valve was not fully in either position so the tank was still getting some water coming in?
Had a guy that knows his stuff drop by today and he told me that it really doesn't matter what position the valve is in when you fill the holding tank as it's a gravity fill. He said the valve just means when you are hooked up to a pressurized connection for water the valve should be set to the city water position and that's all we need to be concerned about. I am going to forget about it for now and just take off and enjoy our trip. Everything is working as it should and gas is still low so that makes for two happy RVers. Oh, and one small dog. Look out AZ, ready or not here we come................ Again, thanks to those that gave input here..............Bankshot
Ok, that puts a whole different light on it! We didn't realize you were using the gravity feed instead of the city water connection. Yes, they are completely independent. You can, however, also fill the tank from the city water port by switching the valve.
Nothing to add to the water pump issue, but I'd enjoy hearing more confessions re:"Ever do Something dumb?". The dumbest I felt was years ago towing a trailer before I had G.P.S. and thinking I would remember someones multi-part directions to a state park I was planning on camping at. I was on a very narrow road and went up a very steep little hill, and realized as I came down the other side that the road dead ended without warning at a river straight ahead of me. I had a barrier in front of me, someones "estate" with chain link fence on both sides and the prospect of the steep hill immediately behind me. I thought my only option was to unhook my trailer and somehow try to get enough angle to re-hook in the opposite direction. I got lucky as the owner appeared with a key to unlock an inconspicuous gate in the fence and invited me to turn around on his lawn. Then again, I may have remembered the directions correctly, and the local person giving me directions may have looked at his watch a few minutes later, laughed, and said "let's see- he should be reaching the river about now".
I got one, 7 yrs ago I had missed my exit to a state road and the interstate highway ended up going into down town Pittsburgh PA!!, so here I was driving through the city in my truck & TT... needless to say I was saying some choice words. I did manage to find a hotel parking lot which I parked the TT, went into the hotel and they were very helpful and printed up directions to get back out of the city and back onto the interstate. Mike
Driving my little 24 Class C from Hwy 101 southbound to hwy 1 in Cali down to the coast. This stretch of road is one of the steepest and windiest I've been on in any vehicle and that includes 10% grade Teton pass. After I finally finally got to the bottom my brakes were probably ready to catch fire and were nearly useless.... give your brakes a break on roads like this!
I learned early on when descending steep grades prior to staring down I drop the tranny down a gear and let the engine do most of the braking. Depending on how steep the grade is determines whether I go down one or two gears. Never had the breaks overheat and when the rpm's do start getting a tad higher than I want them I simply tap the breaks a few times to keep the speed and rpm's.where I want them. I would imagine I'm not the only one with a "gasser" that does this....
Yeah Bankshot that is always an option.. but I've learned that brakes are far cheaper to replace than transmissions. Perhaps better to take time and pull over more often.
I'll explain myself a tad more on this. I will watch for the sign that tells how steep the downhill grade coming up is. By the time I get to the top of the hill and start down the other side I am usually able to slow down to when I do downshift it is barely noticeable. If the grade is 6% or below I start down and tap the breaks every 100 yards or so just to keep from over revving the engine or doing any damage to the tranny. This has worked out fine so far as the steepest grade we've had to come down so far has been a 7%er and all went smoothly on that one also. Overheating the brakes usually happens when you keep your foot on them continuously while descending and I don't do that. I have seen a few motorhomes sitting beside the road with smoke coming out of the wheel wells, front ones especially. Would love to see someone invent a gas Jake brake system as that would really help out but that apparently cannot be done, or at least if it has I haven't seen any on the market as yet. Haven't tackled the Teton Pass as yet but one day I'm sure we will and that will indeed be one for me to test out......................
Learning to use "stab braking", rather than steady braking, is a very effective practice along with downshifting on steep downhill runs. Both are well known techniques to professional drivers. "Jake" style braking on diesel equipped vehicles basically just restores the engine compression braking of gas engines. Running in overdrive diminishes the compression effectiveness though, so turning it off on downhills will add more engine braking.
Moccasin Grade on the way to Yosemite had us sweating bricks and swearing up a blue storm. That was NOT a fun road to be dragging a 38' fiver up. It was even more fun going down.
If that is the grade that goes to Groveland before Yosemite it is a long one. I didn't have a lot of trouble with it. Started down slow with the F-350 diesel in tow haul.
With our truck we fear no mountains. Dumb thing. I just did about two weeks ago. Been full-time RVing almost eleven years. Pulled into a campground and was told to pick our own pull thru site. Ended up pulling into the site the wrong way. Pedestal on the passenger side. Of course there are several other RVers sitting outside watching. So pulled out, up the hill to the office got turned around (only place to do it) and back down the correct way.
