Hi,
On a trip and no longer live in the state where I bought my motorhome. Called the original dealer but got some odd "off the cuff" remarks and wanted to verify or refute them here with the experts.
First the problem:
I stopped in a state park late at night 2 nights ago with very little water in the tanks. Wanted to be able to flush and rinse dishes so I just went to the closest POTABLE tap and filled the tank up most of the way.
Next morning I went to the bath house and was agast at the iron stains EVERYWHERE. The water evidently was so hard and iron-laden that you could chew it if you tried.
So, on departure I decided to purge that gross water from my fresh water tank and flipped the little lever in the access bay. Forgot to stop at the park exit and turn it off again and ran the tank completely dry. Drove all day with (I think) the pump on and no water....
Got to the next park with good water/full hookups and proceeded to rinse some clean water through the tank and then hook up to the city water connection.
When I went inside, I had good flow from the sinks and tub but no bowl-rinse in the toilet. Fiddled with this and that. Found the water filter half-full of air and purged that. Even called Coach-net Tech Assistance who told me it was probably a stuck back-flow preventer valve and to take it in for service.
Finally decided to see if I was getting water at the flush valve and disconnected the compression fitting on the back. Low and behold - about a tablespoon of grey/black grit was clogging the inlet screen on the flush valve. Cleaned that out and toilet is right as rain.
Question 1 - how did all of this grit get to the toilet? Does the water filter not filter ALL water that enters the coach? (The original dealer service manager told me it only filtered the kitchen sink.) Anyone have a plumbing schematic for 3170 or Sunseekers in general?
Question 2 - Why was this "junk" not fouling the aerators on the kitchen or bathroom sink?
Question 3 - Did I do harm to my water pump by running it all day dry? It seems to pump with good water pressure now - but should I be ready for an inevitable failure?
Question 4 - Could this "grit" have been the guts of my water pump making its way to the first fixture used after there was water available again (the toilet)? It didn't feel like metal or plastic - it felt like beach sand and looked like the calcium deposits you would see in a very hard water area.
Thanks in advance. Happily flushing and washing (for now!
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