After much procrastination I recently finished the R&R of my 12 volt pump setup, which had been a source of irritation because of noise and veriable performance issues. When I bought the rig it had a very old Shurflo diaphragm pump installed without the benifit of rubber isolators on the mounting feet. The performance was OK for such an old pump (1982 is the date on the receipt), but the noise was overpowering because it was mounted diectly to the plywood floor under the bunk, as are all of our systems.


In an effort to restore things to the original setup as supplied when new, I found and installed a vintage PAR pump, which worked better than the Shurflo in the noise department, but had the same surging waterflow problems. I bought a Shurflo air/water pressure tank and an inlet filter to use with the PAR, but there were many problems with compatibility with the two dissimilar pump types. Then the problem was made simpler when the PAR decided to poop out!

I used the Shurflo pump I already had, coupled with an inlet strainer and mini pressure tank, by fabricating a raised platform to mount the equipment on while retaining plenty of room for plumbing and avoiding conflict with existing equipment in the under-bunk space. I installed a gate valve in the tank outlet line (lacking when I got it) and ran new 1/2" food grade reinforced clear tubing underneath the new pump platform and up into an L Shurflo fitting that goes through the very end of the platform and onto the inlet strainer. The strainer, pump and pres. tank are all inter-connected with nifty Shurflo connectors. The outlet from the pres. tank is then connected via 1/2" tubing to a new, large water filter that I mounted to the rear inside of the bunk framework. I plumbed the system so that both water from the tank and from a shore connection are filtered.

Working in the aft end of the vehicle requires lying down to do most of it, which isn't as fun as it might seem. Then there's the problem of stuff getting wetter than you would like, and getting it all dried out before covering the space back up. You will see from the photos that much of the old plumbing is 1/2" copper that is quite hard to work on because of the location - especially when it comes to soldering. After persistent leaks from the exisiting flare fittings in mine, I gave up and went with a "Shark's Tooth" female adaptor, that works like a million bucks. :>))

mine is not pumping the antifreeze thtogh to the lines the pummp turns on abnd seems to work oki...just not getting it through the pipes,,do i need a new pump or i have other issue?

Pretty hard to say without being there. Both the PAR and Shurflo are diaphragm pumps and should self-prime with no issue - unless there's an air leak on the suction side.