Troubleshooting an RV Water Pump
The words you don’t want to hear when you are finishing setting up your Travel Trailer… There’s no water coming out of the tap…
You’ve just finished driving 4 hours to the park, battled cottage country traffic, you’ve survived the defusing of a bomb by parking the trailer on your campsite without an argument, and you are finally in the final stages of leveling and stabilizing your trailer. We filled up the fresh water tank and the gauge registered full, not to mention the trailer spat back water like an overstuffed baby. Yet the tap is not even sputtering and the tell tale gatling gun of the Water Pump is not sounding. Without a doubt, this isn’t good.
Silence… Not a good thing
What the heck? You enter the trailer and turn the Water pump switch off then on again and engage the faucet as if that will somehow magically fix it. Nope. You listen to make sure that the pump is making some sort of noise, and it is… so not a power issue. You go to the Shower to see if Water will magically come out of that fixture, and you swear the trailer laughs at you as you try. What could it be?
Basic Troubleshooting
So the next step is to get the tools and unscrew the access panel to the pump. Praying with every turn of the screwdriver that there isn’t a lake of water sitting there. The panel comes off easily and you breathe a sigh of relief. No water where it shouldn’t be. The pump is making an encouraging whirring noise but not its loud obnoxious banging as it would normally pressurize. You sneak to your phone to quickly google water-pump troubleshooting and there we find overly confident bloggers touting that they have the simple fix to resolving your issue with your Shurflo 4008-101-A65 RV Water Pump . Sound like you too? Well here is what I did.
Steps I took:
- Checked the Strainer for debris. Other than some shavings and some coating on the foil it was still flowing water
- Checked the line in and out of the pump. No obstructions and there was water on the output side of the pump
- I took the strainer off and put water in the outer ring where the strainer attaches. Turning the pump on and off again as I add more water
- I Unscrewed the pump and disconnected it.
- I took the pump head off. While this was straightforward although it does require you taking note of what screws have washers and ensuring that you put the head back on. In my case both of these were ok:
- Check the input and output tubing for any debris
- Check the valve assembly manifold for any tears in the rubber or debris
- Check the check valve to ensure that it can depress easily and that there isn’t any debris
- Put it back together and connected it up. I then started the pump again with the tap open. (No Luck)
What Now?
It was at this point I had exhausted all the helpful blogger’s sure fire ways to start your pump up again. I resolved myself to not having a shower and sought out to enjoy the rest of the evening including having a small fire. I then sought out to figure out how to empty my 36 Gallon fresh water tank. That turned out to be an easy fix where I found a good spot to park the trailer with good drainage away from it and others. There is a drain plug on the bottom of the tank and I was able to evacuate the tank with ease.
About to Give Up
It wasn’t until I returned home that I had a brain wave. I had watched one of the vloggers use the antifreeze tube to fill up the pump with water to prime it. While I had attempted the same thing with the strainer port, the hose would afford me much more water entering the pump. I picked up a small funnel from the dollar store and headed to the trailer. I filled up the fresh water tank up to 1/4 full. Then took the antifreeze hose and put the funnel in the end and loaded the tube up with water:
The Solution:
- Put the input valve to the antifreeze hose like you would when winterizing your trailer
- Uncap the antifreeze inlet and place a funnel in the end
- With the pump off and a tap open to cold only fill the line with water until it stops gurgling
- Then turn on the pump and get ready to add more water to the line. After 2-3 fills the pump started to make its familiar machine gun noise and the kitchen tap sputtered to life
Success!
I then turned off the tap, reset the winterizing valve to pull water from the fresh water tank and capped the antifreeze hose line. I then said a silent prayer as I opened up the faucet on Cold again. There was a bit more sputtering and then I heard the pump reengage again. It was now pulling water directly from the fresh tank! I checked all the other fixtures and they all sputtered to life as well.
Always Learning Something New
With each trip with the trailer I learn something new. In this case when we were eager to empty the tank the last trip we ran the tap until it was empty. I think between that and the warm weather it dried out the pump, and as a result, it wasn’t able to self prime itself. I am thankful for all the people who have posted their troubleshooting techniques and videos that helped me fix my own issue. I would have hated driving it all the way to the dealer for such a rookie mistake. Hopefully this helps you be better prepared to address your own water pump issue.
This article contains affiliate links to Amazon. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases and this helps to support this page. Also note that this article is what worked for me, I am by no means an expert. Please review your situation with a professional.