Winterization Concerns

[hobo]

I winterized my Elite II yesterday and it was pretty straight forward based on the video provided in the Oliver University.   My one issue is that the the suction from the rear port seems very weak.  It took over 20 minutes to pull only a half gallon of RV antifreeze from the jug.  (My pickup hose was far less than 3 ft in length).

As a little background, this past summer I noted the same thing when sanitizing my system and found lots of plastic debris in the pump filter and the stainless, braided line at the pump which I cleaned out (with a lot of effort BTW).  That being done, within the cabin, the water pressure at the spigots improved immensely  and continues to be good even now.  The concern is how slow the pump brings in water from the rear pickup.

I did get the RV antifreeze to eventually come out of the spigots (hot and cold) but it was a lot of sputtering, foam and only occasional solid streams.  It never got to be consistent, solid fluid from all systems.  My guess is that the pump was starving for source.

I can't imagine ever being able to boondock in a situation where we depended on using this system to pull water into the trailer.  It would take forever to get even a small amount of water on board.

(Not that it makes any difference but we have a TRUMA hot water heater and it was taken out of the loop per instructions.)

Anyone have thoughts on the problem and remedy?  We are still under warranty but 10 hours away from Hohenwald.

Thanks.

[topgun2]

Have you re-checked that water pump filter?  Assuming that you had your valves in the correct orientation then I'd move each of those valves back to original position and then back to the winterization position (several times).  Hopefully this would loosen any particles that might be stuck in those valves.  If you do this, re-check that water filter pump again.  Hopefully this will take care of the problem.

Bill

[Overland]

This is the second recent thread that we’ve had about the boondocking port not working well. Perhaps it’s a coincidence, but it’s worth questioning if Oliver has made any changes to the pump or plumbing. 

 

[bhncb]

Assuming there isn’t a recurrent blockage in the pump inlet lines, try replacing the screened washer in the rear inlet with just a plain washer. If that doesn’t help, disconnect the flex-hose at the pump inlet filter and set the two valves to direct flow to/from the rear inlet. Use 30-50 psi compressed air at the flex-hose end to reverse clear the line.

It may be possible that there is a connection leak allowing air to be sucked into the rear inlet line but that would have affected your previous sanitation efforts as well.

[Landrover]

You could also disconnect the inlet side of the water pump. Connect a hose to the inlet side of the pump then into your antifreeze direct feed.