Water Pump Questions

Robstopaz
A picture for you some will say it’s no different .the pressure needs setting correctly .
to work and well help the life of your pump.when fitted and set up correctly is a great improvement
saying its not needed maybe correct what some think.
but unless you have one fitted and set up correct will not clearly understand and note see the improvement

Robstopaz wrote:If fitting a Shurflo or similar, its worth also finding room for a Fiamma A20 Expansion tank to smooth out the water supply.  Rob

My Shurflo doesn't have or need an expansion/surge tank.

I've had Shurflo in Symphony and Nuevo, never needed expansion tank. Now have Flojet and don't need expansion .

Robstopaz wrote:If fitting a Shurflo or similar, its worth also finding room for a Fiamma A20 Expansion tank to smooth out the water supply.  Rob

You don't need an expansion tank as such but it will remove the pulses. You can get a much smaller domestic one from a plumbers merchant. I may well do that when I next take it apart to rotate the boiler 180 degrees. Another expansion tank that would be worthwhile on a Bourton would be to add 40 litres to the fresh water supply.

Roopert wrote:...... Our 1983 Frisky had a typed Owner's Manual.........

Ha! Yes you are right. My first camper was an A/S VW LT panel van, and I recall now that that came with about 4 pages of typed manuscript. It would have been a '70s model.

As a matter of interest, my in-tank water pump failed after just over a year. Auto-Sleeper told me they are very unreliable and recommended fitting a Shurflo pump.

Even if they fitted the new Shurflo pump, they said they still needed to lower and gain access to the inside of the tank.

They would replace the pump in the tank under warranty, but if I wanted a Shurflo pump (as recommended by them) I would have to pay the full cost of fitting the new pump, including the cost of lowering the tank!

I ended up having the Shurflo pump because it is fully accessible in the future. It also has an accessible filter.

Yes, the new pump is noisier than the one in the tank, even on large rubber mounts. It does provide better pressure, but not a smooth flow. Yes, it should have an expansion, or accumulator tank fitted and I may get around to doing this in due course. but space around the pump is limited.

You don't need to remove the whale submersible, it would very very slightly add resistance to the water flow but it's certainly not worth dropping the tank and removing it. I have fitted three Shurflos to various vans and it's fine without removing the submersible. A far more worthwhile fix would be to add another cold water tank - if you have an inadequate one like on my Bourton.
You don't need a large accumulator, we are only talking about low flow rates. I might well fit this one:
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/185522077878?chn=ps&norover=1&mkevt=1&mkrid=710-134428-41853-0&mkcid=2&mkscid=101&itemid=185522077878&targetid=1814673647502&device=c&mktype=pla&googleloc=1006933&poi=&campaignid=19089547614&mkgroupid=142438599285&rlsatarget=pla-1814673647502&abcId=9303859&merchantid=101743408&gclid=CjwKCAiA0syqBhBxEiwAeNx9N6DqNdpuTg0KH1taQIXTO20A45DJ4KjyKfUfvc0u_6hktEzq5SQsbhoCHVYQAvD_BwE

gassygassy wrote:You don't need to remove the whale submersible, it would very very slightly add resistance to the water flow but it's certainly not worth dropping the tank and removing it. I have fitted three Shurflos to various vans and it's fine without removing the submersible. A far more worthwhile fix would be to add another cold water tank - if you have an inadequate one like on my Bourton.
You don't need a large accumulator, we are only talking about low flow rates. I might well fit this one:
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/185522077878?chn=ps&norover=1&mkevt=1&mkrid=710-134428-41853-0&mkcid=2&mkscid=101&itemid=185522077878&targetid=1814673647502&device=c&mktype=pla&googleloc=1006933&poi=&campaignid=19089547614&mkgroupid=142438599285&rlsatarget=pla-1814673647502&abcId=9303859&merchantid=101743408&gclid=CjwKCAiA0syqBhBxEiwAeNx9N6DqNdpuTg0KH1taQIXTO20A45DJ4KjyKfUfvc0u_6hktEzq5SQsbhoCHVYQAvD_BwE

Yes, I agree, a larger water tank would be very useful. I believe they used to fit an additional one inboard. Of course, this takes up storage space, but one thing the Bourton doesn't lack is internal storage. Was it removed to save weight, or money???

When Auto Sleeper advise a certain course of action, I tend to go along with them, while still within the warranty period. I do not want to give them any excuses to decline a warranty claim!

We have been buying Auto Sleepers since the mid 1980s. Must be Stockholm Syndrome.

I have fitted a extra tank and my camper was still under warranty and was at A/S having warranty repairs and was looked at and clearly was a shock to see the space and what I had done .the tank I use is made to fit in this space and I have fitted this to other campers for people .i did look at putting a tank inside but the gain was not what I waned so did the larger tank outside . its all down to space you have inside and a tank that fits

grahamsb wrote:As a matter of interest, my in-tank water pump failed after just over a year. Auto-Sleeper told me they are very unreliable and recommended fitting a Shurflo pump.

Now that's not really a good thing for a company to admit.
They know from customer feedback that something is very unreliable but carry on fitting it anyway. For years, decades even.
Al.

bikeralw
as for been unreliable its clearly down to the cost saving fitting the item and what they save in a year .its what the screen says its saved them looks good .if you asked them at a show why they fit the pump what would they say

When I had mine done in 2019 the A-S Svc Centre said A-S used to fit Shurflos and they now frequently replace the Whale submersible, NRV & pressure switch with a Shurflo which is why they have them in stock.  There are customers who are happy with their Whale but I was not one of them.

Moran Motorhomes,  who recently announced they are no longer AS dealers, always replaced the submersible pumps with Shurflo before handover, presumably to pre-empt problems that they expected to happen later. Shame to lose dealers like that.

Paulmold wrote:Moran Motorhomes,  who recently announced they are no longer AS dealers, always replaced the submersible pumps with Shurflo before handover, presumably to pre-empt problems that they expected to happen later. Shame to lose dealers like that.

Moran supplied my van new and it has a Whale

bikeralw wrote:
Now that's not really a good thing for a company to admit.
They know from customer feedback that something is very unreliable but carry on fitting it anyway. For years, decades even.
Al.

Please be clear, the company made no comment, an employee (at the time) gave his (her) opinion to elcit work for their department.

Peter Brown wrote:

Moran supplied my van new and it has a Whale

Maybe they started doing  it later than your van after too many customer problems, I know they been doing it for a few years.

glyne lock wrote:Robstopaz
A picture for you some will say it’s no different .the pressure needs setting correctly .
to work and well help the life of your pump.when fitted and set up correctly is a great improvement
saying its not needed maybe correct what some think.
but unless you have one fitted and set up correct will not clearly understand and note  see the improvement

Ok Glyne, so how do you setup and fit it correctly, would be helpful to let us know?

Richard

grahamsb wrote:......I believe they used to fit an additional one inboard. Of course, this takes up storage space, but one thing the Bourton doesn't lack is internal storage. Was it removed to save weight, or money???
...........

I did once see an A/S in a dealer with an additional water tank under the rear facing sofa behind the driver. The dealer said it is an additional 40 litre tank. I was a bit sceptical partly because it looked to me like 20 litres, so not worth the bother of fitting, and it had a 1/2 inch pipe running from this tank to the main tank. I thought that would take ages to fill, the blow back out of the filler would be spraying water all over my trousers.
However I am considering fitting another tank towards the centre of the vehicle adjacent to the main one, under the floor. Alternatively I might fit one where I saw the other one, under the seat behind the driver. As you say there is plenty of surplus storage space. I think it would be fairly easy to divert the main filler pipe which is ?2 inches? into the new tank and then back out to the main tank. That would not reduce the fill rate capacity. Trouble is, we are very close to, or over the 3500kg and another 40kg of water won't help. 
I just need to get on and finish all the other 'must do' jobs. I've got a list somewhere . . . . . .
Get rid of the air conditioner and fit a skylight comes into it somewhere. . . . .

GG - you might want to add TankBlankets to your long list of jobs now that winter is approaching.  My voyage of discovery started earlier this year and is charted in this trail:

https://www.autosleeper-ownersforum.com/t40487-tank-blankets?highlight=tank+heaters

I can't believe I was the only one with faults.

Having had a expansion tank in the past and removed due to bellow failing, now thinking of fitting A20 again to reduce pulsing, anyone know the max distance from pump o/l to expansion tank? I have repositioned the Shurflo to the battery area due to overheating of pump next to Truma unit. I don't have much room on the drivers side, as our Duo has a cutout in the offside bed to take a table leg.
Richard