I recently purchased a 2008 Keystone Raptor 299MP. It still needs a good bit of going over as you could discover by all my questions in other posts. The more I learn about these RVs, the less I want to know
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One thing I discovered is the water pump leaves a lot to be desired. We will primarily be dry camping at dirt bike hare scramble races, so using the water pump will be a regular occurrence. While doing some testing after getting the unit home I was frustrated by a few things with the water pump. It ran almost continuously. The water pressure wandered up and down when it was running. When hot water was being run through the system the water hammer was terrible.
The pump was under the kitchen cabinets and was going to be a pain to reach through the lower cabinet, but I figured out I could remove the oven and then it was easily accessible.
After quite a bit of research I chose the FloJet High Volume 2840 series pump with accumulator for the replacement. Pressure settings were very similar to the OEM pump, but the volume was a little higher and it has a 1+ gallon accumulator. For comparison, the Shurflo accumulator that runs about $50 is a nice addition, but it's about a 5th of the capacity of the Flojet unit. The accumulator is identical to what you find in a home with a well, just smaller. It's metal and uses an air filled diaphragm to create the pressure. I did have to add about 2 PSI to the accumulator to match the specs of the pump. The pump and accumulator are already mounted to a sturdy platform and connected. All you have to do is connect the inlet, outlet and power.
It was a pretty simple install. I was even able to use the original screws and just screw them through the floor. The pump came with almost all the fittings necessary. I only had to pick up a few pieces from Lowes to attach the strainer that was included (about 1' of hose, 4 hose clamps and a barbed connector).
The only problem I had was with the threaded fitting on the pressure side. It kept leaking. I finally figured out what I was doing wrong... using the plumbers tape too sparingly. Wrapped it around 6 or 8 times and haven't had a problem since. I went ahead and put one of those $10 9V water alarms under the cabinets next to the pump to give me early warning if a leak does develop.
The water pressure is about the same, which was fine, but it's a continuous flow. There is no more change in pressure. You can also rinse something in the sink or flush the toilet without the pump firing up. It fills the accumulator relatively quickly even while water is running so the pump doesn't run all that much even if letting water run. I would say it's a dramatic improvement that I would highly recommend.
Now the old pump is in a storage bin for backup just in case the new one goes out some time down the road.
Enjoy!
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