"Priming" dry water pump

[MarkoPolo]

We took our first trip in our new 2922KD last weekend to a Trailmanor rally at Jackson Lake State Park near Ft. Morgan Colorado. As happened last year, a storm blew in just as we were starting our pot luck supper Saturday night. We ended up breaking camp in a snow storm (had been close to 80 degrees Friday). I drained the water but did not "winterize" by opening faucets as I did not expect it to get much below freezing. Wrong, it got to 19 degrees Sunday night. Worried that I had frozen something I opened camper Monday and opened faucets to let remaining water out. I noticed then the water pump was on and running. Not sure how that happened as I was certain I had turned it off breaking camp.
At any rate I added water today to check for leaks. The pump would run, but no water anywhere. So, Will at The Car Show came to rescue! (He is quite good at that). Seems the pump needed to be primed to get it to start. Well, If you know this model the pump is under the counter behind the sink. You would have to remove the sink to get to it, ugh! But Will suggested filling the tank completely and then put pressure on it to force water up to the pump.
So, got enough hose to reach the outside water inlet and my wife sat on the floor with her feet pushing the sides of the under sink tank and voila, the pump primed and started working normally:D
Boy did that save a lot of work or a 200 mile round trip for service. I had never heard of that, so wanted to pass the trick along in case others need to prime their under sink water pumps.
Again, Kudos to Will at The Car Show.

[tentcamper]

The shurflo water pump is self priming. It should suck up the air and draw water. So unless your hose connection at the pump or water holding tank has a vacuum leak when it's priming it should work. A small vacuum leak you would draw water but have lots of air.

It sounds like you had water freeze on the primary side of the water pump and the plastic frame that pushes against the diaphragm broke. I had this happen years ago. You can rebuild it for about 1/2 the price of a new one, which a new one is about $70. I would go with a new one.

[MarkoPolo]

A quick update on the water pump. I set up the camper today and put in about 10 gallons of water. I wanted to see it the water pump would prime properly without a full tank. It worked just as it is supposed to. Again, kudos to Will at the Car Show. I would have never thought of "squeezing" the water tank to prime the pump.