Plumbing Water System Help

[JaycoJohn]

Hello Everyone,
I've recently become the proud new owner of a well maintained 1994 Jayco 1406 folding tent camper. I love it. I've read the original owners manual, front to back at leat 5 times now to familiarize myself with all the nice features and how things work. For the most part it's realatively simple, however the water system baffles me. I'll tell you why.
When purchased, the potable holding tank was empty. So I made the solution to sanitize the tank and lines. In the meantime, I drove the camper down to the tire shop to have a new spare tire sized and mounted. While driving away from the house I saw water dripping out of the shell and thought it was from the over flow tube. Eventually the water stopped. I came back home and parked it. Several days later, I opened the camper to air out and work on loading more supplies and found the sink was full of water. The air conditioner that sits right over the sink had water in the removable shell on the ceiling.
I immediately began cleaning the water. Anyone ever have this happen? How do you get the water out of the lines in preperation for travel? What am I missing here? I've since drained the holding tank until I figure this out.

 

[Texas Sam]

First, are you sure the water in the A/C and sink came from the holding tank? For example, was the camper parked outside during a rain storm or did you wash the camper with the top down? If so, the water may have come in around the external A/C shroud and in that case the solution is to reseal the A/C unit on the roof of the camper.

Second, did you turn the water pump on to pump the sanitizing solution from the potable water tank into the lines, including the kitchen sink? Were the sink faucet handles open to let the sanitizing solution flow into the kitchen sink? If so, could the water in the sink have overflowed into the A/C shell? There are no water lines in the ceiling, so the water in the sink and in the A/C shell could not have come from a water line in the ceiling.

Third, did you notice the water dripping out of the shell only after driving for some distance or was it immediately upon leaving your house? It is possible for water to be sucked out of potable tanks by air flowing over the discharge hoses but only if you drive at highway speeds.

It has been several years since we had a Jayco popup camper. In ours, we manually moved the kitchen sink from the wall area to the center of the trailer so we could slide the beds inward and lower the top of the popup. If yours is the same type of setup, the water in the kitchen sink could have gravity flowed from the potable water tank to the sink IF the faucet handles were left open. And if the sink filled up before you started towing the trailer, the water in the sink could have splashed into the A/C ceiling grille.

Hope this gives you some ideas to check out.

 

[Denise-JAY]

Hi Jayco John and welcome to the forum. We had a pop-up back in the early 90's, but never had the problem you are experiencing, so can't help ya. Hope you can figure the water thing out soon though. It will be nice for you to enjoy your new used pop-up! Let us know what turns up.

 

[JaycoJohn]

Water Issue Resolved

Thanks to everyone offering ideas, suggestions, and warm welcomes.
The long/short of it: I left the water pump switch "ON" and hooked up to the tow vehicle sending power from the tow vehicle to the water pump.
That's it. I finally spoke with Jayco Inc. who helped figure it out.
Talk about feeling like an idiot. If I had turned off the pump or at least removed the cap outside at the sink drain I would have not found the sinks full.
I was feeling so proud to have found a camper in great shape with everything in good working order and then to make such a silly oversite was well, upsetting.
All is good now, and very excited about getting out on the road to enjoy a little piece of home away from home.
Thanks ya'll.

 

[Denise-JAY]

Yea *clapping hands*. Glad you could figure out! Enjoy the trailer!

 

[Albertaguy]

Thanks to everyone offering ideas, suggestions, and warm welcomes.
The long/short of it: I left the water pump switch "ON" and hooked up to the tow vehicle sending power from the tow vehicle to the water pump.
That's it. I finally spoke with Jayco Inc. who helped figure it out.
Talk about feeling like an idiot. If I had turned off the pump or at least removed the cap outside at the sink drain I would have not found the sinks full.
I was feeling so proud to have found a camper in great shape with everything in good working order and then to make such a silly oversite was well, upsetting.
All is good now, and very excited about getting out on the road to enjoy a little piece of home away from home.
Thanks ya'll.

It seems we all have these irritating problems. I still have mine and the only time it stops for me is when my unit is parked and I am not anywhere near it.

Mike in Calgary