Forgot to turn off the water pump to travel

[AlinCal]

Put me on the list for only turning the pump on as needed, plus the standard walk thru before departing checking for windows locked, pump off, etc. etc.

[wmb]

I hadn't expected so much debate over this. Having worked most of my career in software development (including automated process control software for the oil and gas industries), I'm always amazed when operators and technicians follow the "well, just don't do that then" playbook, when spending a little more building in failsafes would save money (and potentially lives) in the long run.


In our case the checklist didn't help because a) the water pump wasn't on it and b) as human beings we're not perfect and we both declined to run through it after a very brief pit stop. I'd have been happy for a $30 auto part to have saved us from our own idiocy. Apparently this isn't a freak occurrence - many people have had it happen, and the consequences are potentially very costly. I would have thought a failsafe would be appropriate in this case.


I met a fellow camper just a few weeks ago (a 10-year fulltimer) who sheepishly admitted that he had just had to replace his tongue jack because, distracted, he had driven off with it still down.

[bwpaint]

Happened to us while setting up. My wife usually goes in to set up interior while I am connecting everything outside. Not this time. She was helping me outside and when we opened the door, water was overflowing galley sink.

Turns out that galley faucet had bounced open and the drain stopper was in.
When I connected the water line the sink overfilled (just barely) before we went inside and realized it.

Had the water pump been on during travel, we would have had 30 gallons of water in the trailer.

My checklist now includes, drain plugs open and elastic headband around galley faucet handle, as well as turning off pump. It would now take three failures on my part for this to happen again.

After reading your post I will also be securing the bathroom faucet handle in the future.

[Caffeinated]

20 plus years of Travel trailering, and maybe a couple times I've left the pump on for a few hours while in motion. Never had a problem. I'm either really lucky, or this is a extremely rare occurrence. Easily solved though. Turn off the pump. Bleed the pressure off the fresh water. And head down the road.

Mike

[btowntincan]

Most of my towing checklist has been derived from 'lesson's learned'. I generally don't make the same mistake twice, but i have to admit that roughly 1/4 of our towing trips have this conversation about 5 minutes after we break camp: "did you remember to turn off the pump?.....nope". Then we pull over and turn the thing off. Never had an actual issue, but i realize it could end badly. I'll start trying to follow the advice on this thread of turning it on only when needed.

[Forrest]

That's just Denver's way of saying, "welcome to Denver."

Originally Posted by wmb

The last half hour or so of our trip was down US 285 into Denver which was a surprisingly bumpy ride - I bet that was what did it.

[Forrest]

More to the point, I just replaced some faucets and didn't give any consideration to whether the handles might turn on due to bumpy roads.

Thanks for sharing this with us. Otherwise, I might not have given it any consideration.

I've noticed that the handles on my new Moen faucets open quite easily. I didn't see a way of tightening them. They don't leak, but now I think I'll try to take one of the handles apart to see if they can be tightened.

[cwf]

We drain pressure from the lines before we travel... as part of our depart checklist. We don't always remember... so, we also try to shut off the pump after each use... like after showering, doing dishes... etc..

[WorkBGone]

Interesting thread.
I am taking the good advice in this thread to heart.
I could add one other precaution.

I have not had the problem created from leaving pump on (yet) but have experienced countless drips and a swiveling kitchen faucet in our 2018 27FB.

The faucet handle has even unscrewed itself several times.
To eliminate this i put a small piece of tape on faucet head and handle when traveling. I saw someone uses an elastic for the handle.

[Jimz]

Same thing happened to us about six year's ago when traveling in Canada with a full water tank in our 23 ft safari. We had enough water in the trailer to necessitate an overnight stay at a convenient Provincial Park where all the carpets came out to dry. It was a delightful stay nonetheless and just delayed our trip for a day. Now we always ask...did we turn off the water pump? And sometimes we find ourselves stopping at the next turnoff to double check...and sometimes we have forgotten it!

I guess the vibration of driving can jiggle the sink handle just enough for the water pump to be "demanded" and it does it's job...quite nicely indeed.

[rmkrum]

There are days the "Department of Overkill Engineering" seriously considers adding a relay to cut off the water pump if the truck is connected and running...I'm going to let that idea fester for a while so I can figure out a decent way to do it without totally confusing the issue. A cutoff relay might send me into a troubleshooting frenzy if it isn't obvious what it is doing...and when.



For now, I have the habit of turning off the water pump and closing the fantastic fans after we stop for a 'potty break' on the road...but I always do turn off the TV whilst we are doing this, and always pocket the keys....

[64GlobeTrotter]

I have a single lever tap on the kitchen sink and it will jiggle open on rough roads. Since I often forget to turn the water off after a pit-stop, I have added an elastic band to my check list that keeps the lever closed. I also remove any drain stoppers in case I forget the elastic band. One flood was enough.

[xisme2]

That's a good idea, I could do that on my lav faucet as well. Easily.

[DnS]

We picked our unit up brand new from dealer. Was on the way home and stopped at a rest area to use restroom in new rig. Turned pump on and used rest room and was just sitting in lounge area admiring the new unit. After a few minutes I heard a noise and saw water streaming from under the bathroom door and on its way to the carpet area under the bed.

To make a long story short the water line on the back of the toilet started leaking and was gushing water. They did not tighten it up from factory. Could have been a real disaster if we had pulled off down the road with pump on.

My rule number one is never leave the pump on when it is not in use.

[uncle_bob]

Hi

A pipe coupling that pops apart would equally be a really big deal on city water.....

Bob

[Orbsters]

We had the cutting board fly off the sink and dent our floor while in transport. Never again will we leave it in the sink.

[xisme2]

If you don't know you're landing spot carrying water's not a bad idea, but if you know your next spot has water don't waste the gas pulling the extra weight. Between fresh, black and grey there's close to 500#.

[uncle_bob]

Hi

There are some trailers that are much more stable with a full load of water ....

Lots of variables.

Bob