Newbie Needs Help for Water System Pump

[weaver1950]

I am a new newbie currently in the Nevada desert at Burning Man with little or no tech support. Last night my water pump stopped working in my 1970 25 foot Trade Wind. The battery had very little charge at the time and later was totally depleted. I plugged the trailer into my Honda 3000 generator but the water pump did not turn on. I am now charging the system battery.

Can the water pump run directly off the generator or does the battery need to be charged first before the water pump works? I checked the fuses and they are all good. Can you suggest another possible reason why the water pump is not working?

Problem Number Two: Before the water pump stopped working, the water in the bath tub was not draining into the holding tank. I can take a very short shower before the water starts collecting in the bath tub. The previous owner installed a separate grey water drain valve. Am I doing something wrong? Do I need to open the two red water drain valves next to the black water drain valve for the grey water system to store water? It appears that the grey water holding tank is not receiving water. Is there a grey water holding tank on my Trade Wind. Why grey water from the bathtub reaching the grey water holding tank? When I open the grey water release valve, the grey water is released.

Thank you for your help.

David

[DKB_SATX]

In general, if the generator is connected and running *AND* you have a good converter/charger, the water pump, lights, exhaust fans etc. should operate while the battery is being charged. Do any of these other things work, and just the water pump is down? Or is your entire 12v system down?

Problem 2 is difficult to answer, since it seems like a PO has taken some shortcuts in adding a graywater tank. As originally built, your trailer could accumulate a small amount of graywater in the space between the black tank dump valve and the sewer cap. It sounds like you're saying the PO has attached some connection from there to the added gray tank. Since you specify that there are two valves, I wonder if the PO put in 1 valve to close off the graywater coming from your drains into the sewer pipe, and another to let the water stopped by the first valve flow into the gray tank. If that's the case you want the valve to the sewer pipe close and the valve to the gray tank open. Once you get into "custom" installations, figuring out what the PO was thinking can be a bit of a crapshoot.

[TG Twinkie]

Many units of that vintage did not have a grey water tank or valve. The grey water piping connected to the sewer system down stream from the blackwater valve.
The grey water drained out on the ground as it was used.
Perhaps the PO installed a valve on order to have control when using a portable tote.