Water pump position

How difficult is it to adjust the position of the whale pump in the main fresh water tank?
I ask this because it's currently positioned on the offside of the van, the shower drain is on the nearside.
We tend to park our van (Warwick XL) with a list to the nearside, to aid shower tray drainage. This means the water in the tank pools on the opposite side to the whale pump.
I did consider dropping the tank to see if there's an access hole on top but it's a lot of trouble if there isn't. Any advise/knowledge would be much appreciated.

It might be impossible?

I believe that from about 2017 (definitely "about" ??) A/S began buying in tanks with the pumps already installed on a rigid pipe. This was to address the priming problems so many of us have had when the pump was on a flexible tube, and could sit in the wrong orientation.

I got this from Mark before he left the Service Centre so it's likely to be true, but I'm not at all sure of the date.

Hope this helps.

Thanks for that. I was told when I bought the van that to replace the pump was a big job necessitating the tank be dropped, your info confirms that. I had a look inside the tank with an endoscope, from what I could see the pump is not fixed, I was hoping to somehow move it to the other end of the tank. I need to know if there is an access hole anywhere in the tank.

What exactly is the problem Palette?

I may be going a bit senile, but I can't see it from your comments.    

The problem is when the tank is around half full the pump starts cavitating. If the pump was on the other side of the tank, this would not happen until it was nearly empty, bearing in mind the way we have to park the van to allow the shower to drain.No the biggest problem in the world I know, but really annoying non the less.
I just need to know if there is an access hole on the tank?

Ah yes. I understand now.

It sounds as if your pump is hung up well above the bottom of the tank.

Only two solutions I can think of, and both involve dropping the tank.

I think there must be an inspection hole in the top of the tank for fitting the pump in the first place. (Probably!!)

1). Re-position the Whale pump and make sure it stays on the bottom of the tank, just where you want it.

2). Remove the Whale and fit a water intake spigot (or whatever they are called?) and position that where you want it. Then fit a Shurflo pump and have no further problems for ever more.

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Someone else may have a better suggestion. Fingers crossed. 

Thanks for that Gromit, I can see that the pump is on the bottom of the tank, just on the wrong side. I have bought a Shurflo pump and was going to fit it as described in the link, but as the pump is at the wrong end of the tank it won't make any difference to my problem. A spigot is an excellent idea but I still need to access the inside of the tank to fit a backing nut. Oh the woes of an AS owner.

Just an update on my small problem.
There is no access hole in the fresh water tank so no way to change the position of the whale pump. It's almost possible to hook the pump via the main fill point but difficult. So I've ended up putting some packing on the top drivers side of the tank, so tilting it little. This has a few advantages:
The water is now level when the van is parked to allow the shower tray to drain properly.
More of the available water can be pumped out of the tank before it starts cavitating.
The tank now drains more thoroughly when the van is parked level.

Sorry Palette just seen this thread , our Kemerton at 2014 had the pump installed on rigid pipe but when A/s installed the pipe they cut it too short and the pump drew air when  still a quarter of the water remaining. Our tank did have an access hatch on top from new. I believe the way the pump was installed ie vertical caused a bubble to form arouhd the impeller as it filled and created the classic inability to restart flow after filling an empty tank. I extended the pipe and put the pump at a 30 to 45 degree angle on the tank bottom and never had a single issue with restarting  after  filling after that and was able to empty the tank by  drawing from the pump.

kaspian wrote:Sorry Palette just seen this thread , our Kemerton at 2014 had the pump installed on rigid pipe but when A/s installed the pipe they cut it too short and the pump drew air when  still a quarter of the water remaining. Our tank did have an access hatch on top from new. I believe the way the pump was installed ie vertical caused a bubble to form arouhd the impeller as it filled and created the classic inability to restart flow after filling an empty tank. I extended the pipe and put the pump at a 30 to 45 degree angle on the tank bottom and never had a single issue with restarting  after  filling after that and was able to empty the tank by  drawing from the pump.

This sounds absolutely spot on from my experience, and from discussing the issue at some length with the Service Centre techies.

There has recently been a lot of research into this by the technical officer of the A/S Owners Club which would be well worth pursuing. It's very comprehensive and revealing.

Gromit    but we don't need a ' technical officer ' of the owners club 'elite'    to tell us what has been staring those if us who have experienced this issue in the face. Any way you could reproduce his findings for the ' untermensch!'   
          I contacted A/s over this at the time but as usual I fear it falls on deaf ears and when I asked Mark if he would pass it back to the shop floor he more or less admitted it would make little difference if he did! Suppose it kept him and the service centre in a job and busy with remedial works...

kaspian wrote: I contacted A/s over this at the time but as usual I fear it falls on deaf ears and when I asked Mark if he would pass it back to the shop floor he more or less admitted it would make little difference if he did! Suppose it kept him and the service centre in a job and busy with remedial works...

So did I, and got the same disparaging response. He became very disenchanted toward the end of his time there, didn't he.

The one thing I can say with confidence is that since we had the Shurflo fitted I've had not the slightest concern about the water system.

Previously I always spent a nervous half hour persuading the submersible to prime as I filled up for a trip, and all during the holiday I gnawed at my fingernails every time the pump faltered or made an unusual noise.

Best of all, if the Shurflo ever does pack up I can very easily replace it in a few minutes with nothing more techie than the trusty screwdriver. 

Gromit wrote:

kaspian wrote: I contacted A/s over this at the time but as usual I fear it falls on deaf ears and when I asked Mark if he would pass it back to the shop floor he more or less admitted it would make little difference if he did! Suppose it kept him and the service centre in a job and busy with remedial works...

So did I, and got the same disparaging response. He became very disenchanted toward the end of his time there, didn't he.

The one thing I can say with confidence is that since we had the Shurflo fitted I've had not the slightest concern about the water system.

Previously I always spent a nervous half hour persuading the submersible to prime as I filled up for a trip, and all during the holiday I gnawed at my fingernails every time the pump faltered or made an unusual noise.

Best of all, if the Shurflo ever does pack up I can very easily replace it in a few minutes with nothing more techie than the trusty screwdriver. 

And a spare pump, but I am sure you carry one just in case
---------
Richard

I don't actually Richard, but perhaps I should.

They are pretty easy to source anywhere in Europe, and very reliable anyway, so I haven't so far bothered to get a spare.

Gromit is there any way you can get your hands on that techie report  and copy it to here ?  I'm sure there are a few on here would love to see the conclusions.

Sorry, I binned the magazine with the article.

Dennis may be able to help. He posts on here and he's the author.

Here's one of his threads if you want to contact him.

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