Water Pump??

[orlando5]

We own a Coleman Westlake 2001. We recently went camping and there was no water hook-up or electricity.  So I filled our 20G fresh water tank and plugged the camper into my vehicle tow plug.  I turned on the pump switch and it began to run.  It never built up enough pressure to move any water?  Any suggestions? I can hear the pump run.  A pop up shop suggested looking for an off and on valve.  Near the front of the camper I spotted to valves near the water heater. Each opens to ground.  I believe one is for supply the other for return.

[tknick]

We own a Coleman Westlake 2001. We recently went camping and there was no water hook-up or electricity.  So I filled our 20G fresh water tank and plugged the camper into my vehicle tow plug.  I turned on the pump switch and it began to run.  It never built up enough pressure to move any water?  Any suggestions? I can hear the pump run.  A pop up shop suggested looking for an off and on valve.  Near the front of the camper I spotted to valves near the water heater. Each opens to ground.  I believe one is for supply the other for return.

I don't think there is a shut off, only hot and cold water drains like the ones you found.  Check all of your faucet to make sure they are off.  If any are open, the pump would never shut off.  When I had a travel trailer I had a similar problem with the pump not priming.  I took the shower head off of the hose and sucked on the end.  That drew enough water into the pump to get things working correctly.

One thing I thought of was the hot water heater.  If your Hot water heater was empty, it would take the pump a while to fill the tank.  Maybe it was working fine, but it just wasn't done filling the tank.

The other option is to remove the intake and discharge lines from the pump, attach short hoses that you can put into a bucket.  That way when you turn on the pump you should be able to see if any water is being drawn into the pump and also if it is being discharged.

HTH

Travis

[AustinBoston]

Another possibility is that the intake screen is clogged.  It is just before the pump, and usually has a clear housing so it can be checked without opening the case.

Most likely, though, is the hot water heater filling.  You could wait 5-10 minutes for that to fill.  You need to have the hot water faucet open to let air out while it runs, or when it does shut off the system will be filled with compressed air.  You could suddenly have large amounts of hot water violently coming from the cold water faucet.

Austin

[Loboto-Me]

We had a similar problem this weekend on our 96 sequoia.  Husband filled the water tank and then turned on our hot water heater.  This had been the first time we actually used the water being as this PU is new to us.  The allowed the heater to do its thing (heard the pump start up) turned on the heater as well.  The problem was nothing was coming out of our taps.

We left it alone for a long while then when we came back to the "problem" we realized that nothing was left in the water tank!  The water had drained out.  Much searching revealed that the hose connecting to the hot water tank itself had gotten loose and was leaking underneath the bench seat.  Husband reinstalled the hose fitting, making sure it was tight, refilled the water tank (had to do it by hand ... 15 gallons of water from several collapsible water containers!) and now we have hot water!  No problem since then.  

The only thing is, we noticed that the floor is rotting in the corner underneath the dining seat where the hotwater tank is.  Being new to buying PU's we didn't know enough to check for hidden floor rot and hot water heaters.  

Check for loosened hose connections and leaks.

[tlhdoc]

I too think it was the water heater filling.  Was there air coming out of the faucet?  Open only the cold water faucet and see if the pump stops running.  It will run for a while until there is pressure in the water heater.  Once the cold water is running, close the cold water valve and then open the hot water faucet and leave it open until the water heater is filled and water is coming out the faucet.  Then light the water heater.  Never light the water heater until it is full.