No Coach water

[Jeff Watt]

After  a 12 hour day driving trough wind, snow and temperatures of about 15-20F I arrive at a park and go to hook up. First the handle breaks off the bay door, fortunately after I plugged in, but i closed it because it is going to 20 or so in Onawa Iowa. (I think a trusty vice grip will allow me to open it).

Now, after a drink and supper, went to rinse a few things and there is no water. Had some when I first arrived, although low pressure. I can hear the pump trying to run, but nothing coming out. At 10pm and tired I am not going to look now. The monitor says the bay temperature is 40.9, so it shouldn't be frozen, but??? I know there is a pressure tank on it, but that shouldn't be the problem. I am thinking some kind of blockage (hopefully not ice). A little disconcerting if the coach can't handle a day of these temperatures.

Of course to get at the pump I have to somehow open the bay door that I managed to break the handle off of....

Any thoughts will be appreciated,

Jeff

[Joel Ashley]

First thing I'd check, assuming there is water in the tank and you can hear the pump run, is the in-line filter on the pump.  The screen may be plugged with scum or debris.

The big park near Onawa is a cool place, probably literally this month.  Just across the bridge over the Missouri was Ashley home ground 100 years ago.  Decatur, NE, was where my English blacksmith ancestors settled, and ran govt. trading posts on the Omaha reservation from before the Civil War.  The bridge was just being built when I was there as a 6 year old.  It was great to see it survived the great floods of a couple years ago;  I'd never been back for 58 years until 2012.  Leave it to Canadians, my mother's side of the family, to be RVing in that country this time of year   .

That's a bit off track.  Check that filter, Jeff.

Joel

[Jeff Watt]

Joel,

Didn't get to look at the filter yet.....however after arriving  in Wellington Kansas it worked. Don't know why.

Did take a while to get into my bay. With some help we managed to finally open the lock; wasn't going anywhere with 10' of power cord out. Switched out a lock from one of the fuel tank bay doors.

Jeff

[Joel Ashley]

Jeff-

Perhaps your tank's water pickup was temporarily blocked by debris of some sort, that dislodged on the highway.  Another thought, though you probably have a clue how much is in there, has your tank monitor been working correctly, or might it have been registering water that wasn't there?

I'd still check the filter because it is easy to disassemble and clean the screen.  But consider very slightly tilting the coach to the passenger side and fully dumping the tank to flush out anything that shouldn't be floating around in there;  this presumes your water tank dump valve port is on the curb side.

Joel

[Lee Welbanks]

On our Thunder one time I had left the Fresh Tank Fill Valve open, with that the pump just goes around in a circle and no pressure, hit switch close valve problem solved.

[Jeff Watt]

Been without Internet access for a few days.

Joel, the tank was drained and filled to about 1/2 at home before leaving and as i can see the tank I know there is watere in it. The pump worked well for the remainder of the trip. Now that I am in my spot here in Texas, I can look into the pump filter. Must have been something that was lodged as I rally don't think it could have been frozen.

Lee, the switch was off so that wasn't the culprit.

I do have some tasks ahead of me as I am simply astounded at the poor insulation in the bay doors. I don't know who placed the styrofoam insulation in the doors - the manufacturer or the PO - but it is next to useless, piieces are haphazardly placed in the doors so they have shifted around leading to bare spots. I plan to do some upgrading.

I know most of these coaches are never used in cold weather but somebody should have done a better job. I looked the brochure of my 2000 Triple E and it had 1.5 inches of styrofoam in the floor, plus spray foam in the bay doors and underneath the coach. This unit has no insulation in the floor (according to the brochure) and the bays aren't insulated that I can tell. I'm not expect Newell standards with multiple inches of floor insulation but Monaco/ beaver could have put some in the floor - the tile gets a little cold:) need that infloor heat!

Jeff