Pump suction issue

[Matt_L]

I was de-winterizing the camper last night (2011 Rockwood 8317SS). Swapped the suction hose from the little lead hose I dip in the antifreeze to the hose coming from the tank, turned on the pump, and started to empty the antifreeze from the various faucets and fixtures. At the same time I was filling the tank with a garden hose (no hose fitting, just had the hose pushed into the fill hole about 2", see pics). After I seemed to have gotten all the antifreeze out of the interior fixtures, I went out to get it out of the exterior shower wand. That's when I noticed the tank was overflowing, and I pulled the hose out. Water started shooting out of the fill hole, and probably a gallon or two spurted/spilled out before in finally stopped. At that point I noticed when I turned on a faucet, the water was spitting a lot of air and the pump wasn't shutting off, even when the faucet was off.

I shut the pump off and reconnected the lead hose I use for suctioning the antifreeze and dipped it into a full bucket of water to see if I had pump problems. I turned the pump back on and opened the faucet, and it sucked the bucket dry just like it was supposed to. When I reconnected the tank hose to the pump, it was getting a little bit of water thru, but was sucking mostly air.

Could I have overfilled the tank and possibly blown the hose partially off where it connects to the tank? Or is there a check-valve I could have destroyed? And how in the heck do I get to it to find the problem???

1st camping trip of the year starts Friday, so I need to get something figured out, stat!

Matt

[CHICKDOE]

why are you connecting the tank to the antifreeze inlet? isn't there a valve that switches the pump input from the tank to the antifreeze inlet and back? if there is have you ever switched it to pull from the tank. most likely it is set to still pull from the antifreeze port and that is why you are getting air.

[Matt_L]

No, I don't have a switch or a separate draw for water and antifreeze on my pump. My pump has a suction inlet and a discharge outlet. When it's time to winterize, I have to manually unhook the hose from the water tank to the suction inlet of the pump, hook up a short 4'-0" lead hose in its place, then I put the other end of the lead hose into a bottle of antifreeze, switch on the pump and pull the antifreeze thru my camper's water lines. When I de-winterize, it's reversed... I unhook the lead hose, reattach the hose from the water tank, and suck clean water from the tank to clear the antifreeze from the water lines. It stays like that til I'm ready to winterize again.

Rockwood 2011 high-technology

[Flybob]

You should install one of these.