Is my water pump bad?

robertrael · 01-12-2019, 01:47 PM

Hi All,

I have a 2003 Trailmanor 2724SL. I haven't used it for awhile, but decided to get things in order since I have it open already.

I read some forums here, and tried city water pressure as a result, and I am getting water at all of the faucets, the bathtub, bathroom sink, and kitchen sink. The outside shower is dicey, but the hose is full of kinks, and I imagine it's been that way for a long time.

My water pump switch is turned on and lit, after I turned off city water.

When I turn on the faucets, I am not hearing the pump, and get a little bit of water out of the faucet. The pump is very hot to the touch. My assumption is yeah, the pump is bad, but hoping for a second opinion.

If it is the pump, is it difficult to replace? I'm sure I can find the answer here also.

Thanks.

**commodor47** · 01-12-2019, 03:49 PM

The water pump is designed to work with the onboard water storage tank. The tank should be under the kitchen sink. Before you can use the water pump you need to add some water to the onboard storage tank. Try adding water to about the 1/4 full then activate the water pump. It may take a a few seconds for the pump to reach pressure but once it does you should get water from all taps.

Dick

**Bill** · 01-12-2019, 06:28 PM

The water that comes out of your faucet can come from either of two sources.

As you noted at the beginning of your post, the water can come from the city water source, via a hose that screws into the TM's high pressure inlet on the sidewall of the TM. In this case, the city water source provides the pressure needed to distribute the water throughout the TM plumbing.

Alternatively, as Dick described, the water could come from the storage tank that is built into your TM. In this case, there is no city water source to provide pressure for distribution, so an on-board pump is used. The pump takes water from the tank and pushes it through the plumbing.

If you select the second method (as you described in your post), then there has to be water in the storage tank. If there is no water in the tank, then the pump has nothing to pump, a condition known as dry-pumping. Dry-pumping is not good, because the pump motor will run too fast, and the pump will get hot because there is no water to cool it. This is the situation you described.

Although dry-pumping is not a good idea, these pumps are pretty rugged. As Dick suggested, try putting some water into the storage tank, then turn on the pump, and see if it works.

There is a diagram of the plumbing arrangement at
http://www.trailmanorowners.com/foru...&pictureid=435
Perhaps it will clarify things further.

Bill

robertrael · 01-12-2019, 07:26 PM

Hi All,

Thanks for your replies. I am embarrassed that I thought I was writing a very concise post of my problem, but I failed to include that my fresh water tank is 3/4s full. I have had my Trailmanor since 2015, and have not had any problems with the pump until now. The city water thing was to test that the lines were not blocked, per a quick read on the forum here.

What else could it be, besides the pump being bad?

Shane826 · 01-12-2019, 08:05 PM

If the pump is hot, it’s probably junk. Give it a couple tappety taps with a small hammer or something solid like that. Like a fuel pump or starter motor on your car, you may jar it into spinning a little bit, which will tell you electrically everything else is good and you need a new pump.

tentcamper · 01-12-2019, 08:54 PM

The pump is very quiet when running and not pumping any water. Is the pump running, or just hot. If it's running but not pumping water it could be there is a vacume leak on the input side and is sucking air.

Otherwise it sounds like a new pump or time to rebuild it. Your pump should be a surflow 2088. Surflow developed a new gen pump that will fit in the same spot and is more efficient and cost less. The 2088 is getting pricy since few suppliers are sticking them. Not sure what the new model number is. There are parts for you current pump. I think the pump assembly is made up of 3 PN's. If you figure out the right part you need it's about 1/2 the price of a new pump. Get it wrong and you spend the same or more of the price of the new pump for the 2 pn's.

**Bill** · 01-12-2019, 08:55 PM

It is not unheard of for the outlet of the water tank to become blocked or clogged. After you've whacked the pump a bit, you could run a quick check of the water supply. Just drain most of the water from the tank, leaving perhaps an inch above the outlet fitting. Then disconnect the tank's outlet pipe from the pump. What you should get, of course, is a big stream of water out onto the fluffy towel that you so wisely spread out on the floor before you began. If you get the water stream, then the tank is not blocked, and the pump is probably bad. If this happens, and you are truly masochistic (or cheap like me), you could remove the pump from the trailer, then open up the pumping chamber (6 Phillips screws), see if the motor still turns, and see if the pump mechanism itself is bound up. If the motor is frozen, you are likely done. If the pumping chamber innards are shot, you can buy a repair kit that might help you out.

By the way, I can't get a response from the ShurFlo website. It appears that ShurFlo (and its website) are now owned by an outfit called Pentair.com, which has an incredibly inconvenient website. After drilling down through several layers of meaningless stuff, I found some useful info at
https://www.pentair.com/content/dam/...RV_Catalog.pdf
There has got to be a better source. If anyone finds it, please post here.

Bill

robertrael · 06-27-2019, 12:43 PM

Hi All,

I am embarrassed to say I just haven't had any time to work on changing out my water pump. I've had the replacement since January I believe.

The trailer is set up right now, so I feel now is my time to tackle this project.

I admit, I overthink these things, and have a hard time getting these types of projects started.

Someone here was nice enough to sell me a used one -- not sure if they want to be named.

So, my two main questions:

1. The bracket on my new-used replacement pump is different than the one in my TM. Will my TM need new holes to mount the replacement? Or do the brackets come off? This is me overthinking, and not removing the old pump and just seeing what I can do.

2. In this last post, Bill mentions draining the water in the fresh water tank so that 1 inch remains, and then removing the inlet to the existing water pump, in hopes that the water comes out -- my pump is above my fresh water tank. Is the fresh water tank pressurized such that the water about 18" below will come out?

Other troubleshooting -- I finally whacked it with a hammer as suggested here, and no change. Still not able to pump the fresh water tank. No sound of it even trying.

tentcamper · 06-27-2019, 03:10 PM

Since you are on the second pump, it sound like something is blocking water flow between the tank and pump or between the pump and the common water pipes.

Since the camper is pre owned it could be a modification someone made. Some people made modifications to the water supply from the tank or from the pump for water transferring. Which could include valves on the pipe leaving or going to the pump from the holding tank. Check and see if you have any valves. There should be no valves on the lines coming and leaving the pump. If there are some you will need to figure out they are set.

robertrael · 06-27-2019, 03:46 PM

Woops, wasn;t very clear. I have been lazy to install the replacement pump, and I have it in hand, but have not replaced it yet. My fear is I have to make new holes on the wall of the TM because the holes on the replacement pump do not line up with the holes from the "original" pump. It might not be the "original" pump, but I will call it that to differentiate between my current replacement.

I saw some photos of someone else's pump, and it was on the floor, so now i understand how testing the inlet of the pump would work in that situation. In my trailer, there is no room to mount the pump at the bottom. Could that mean someone put a larger tank in?