Fresh water Not accessible; house batteries low

[fotoman1527]

I have just had two strange problems while boondocking which may or may not be related. Both remain unsolved.

Despite the fact that the gauges on my 2012 flying cloud 27 indicate that I have over 60% of freshwater left (we filled the fresh water tank to capacity just prior to boondocking for three days and used appropriate techniques to minimize water usage), all we get when we open any faucet or shower, with the pump engaged, is gurgling.

I can’t believe we used up all the water or anything close to it, yet we can not access any fresh water.

Also, I keep getting emergency messages on my BatteryCheck (a device and app which allows me to monitor my house batteries), indicating that I have very little power in the house batteries (see attached photos).

I am sure that the batteries were charging when the generator was on for two hours per day, in that the house gauge indicated full power to the house batteries while charging, indicating that charging is going on. I also had a blue light on the Furrion 30 amp cable, and the 120 outlets all worked during charging, all positive indications that charging was taking place. I would’ve expected the batteries to have been well charged, but I am enclosing two screen shots of my BatteryCheck app this morning, which indicate otherwise.

Does this make sense to anyone?
Do you think these issues are related?
Can you suggest a remedy for either problem?

This community is the best! Thanks for reading and for any help!

[DKB_SATX]

re: the water: The system can behave that way if it's "sucking air" between the tank pickup and the pump. It may be that a connector is a bit loose or there is a crack somewhere in that path.

If there was a period when the pump was running for an extended period trying to build up pressure and picking up air instead of water, it may have run much more than you expect and used up some battery capacity. I can't imagine not noticing the stock pump running in one of these, though... it's a noisy thing.

[HowieE]

Well you have 2 possibilities.

The gauges are wrong and you are out of water or you are sucking air into the pump.

Not the easiest think to check in the field but if you can get a couple of gallons of water and put that in the tank. If the pump picks up a prime and water flows you could be out of water.

Note if there is air in the water flow as that would indicate you are sucking air before the pump.

We can generally go for 3 days on less than 10 gallons of water. I always travel with that amount just in case we get stuck on the road.

[Mollysdad]

I'd think the pump would still run on 11 v.
Do you hear the pump running?
Did you have water earlier? After you filled the tank for this trip?

[pmclemore]

Probably not related to your water issue, but two hours of generator won't really accomplish much if your batteries were very low or if your usage is matching your input.

Pat

[Bill M.]

You should be able to access the pump and the pickup tube to look and see if it is primed or if it is just pulling air. Which I suspect it is. And the pump would then run continuously creating a huge draw on the batteries. And the pump might be fairly quiet if it is free spinning and not pumping water. So I think you need to go ahead and find the pump and check/fix the intake line.

I still do not have my head around how often and how long you have to run the generator to keep the batteries charged. But it is a lot longer and more often than I have been trying so far.

[fotoman1527]

First, I want to thank every person who took the time to answer this latest call for help.

What an extraordinary community of knowledgeable and helpful people!

Second, I have some new information.

We just checked into a full-service campground and when I tried to hook up the camper to shore power I got no shore power.

Ultimately, I deduced that the culprit was the power cable between the pedestal and the Airstream. This is the same power cable that had been used in the field between the generator and the airstream. I should note that the power cable was fine before I used it for that purpose, but something happened in the course of using it for the Honda 2000 to provide power to the house batteries that must have fried the power cable.

This would explain why I had no house battery power after running the generator for hours- Except why then did all the 110 outlets work during charging?

How or whether this cable issue relates to the water issue is unknown.

I intend to follow the advice given herein and put a couple of gallons of water into the freshwater tank, disconnect the shore water and see if I can get it to prime the pump, as suggested.

I will report what occurs.

Footnote: this shows the benefit of having a second power cable on hand. I’ve carried it around for three years and never used it, but when I needed it today, I sure was happy I had it on board.

Thank you again to each and every person who posted to this string!