Errant
Explorer
Yep, it won't do any good with a cracked housing, but will help with leaky gaskets. One online source: http://tweetys.com/rocket-pump-repair-kit.aspx
Chaser water pump
- Thread starter Bergger
- Start date
cnynrat
Expedition Leader
Can you really take one apart and put it back together in the field? We had one fail on us recently. It wasn't immediately clear how to take the darn thing apart. After I got home I figured I'd just brute force it. I did get the silver housing separated from the mechanism by just pulling it apart, but the two parts seem to have been glued together. Unless you have some of that adhesive I don't think you could put it back together successfully.
At about $30 replacement cost and with a relatively low failure rate I think I'll carry a spare and treat it as a throw away item.
Errant
Explorer
There are small screws on the underside of the pump that go through the black base into the chromed housing. There shouldn't be any glue, unless that's how your pump was mounted. I think AT uses glue or silicon in their install. I installed mine with a flexible bulkhead rather than glue, so that the pump can be easily removed from the tank for repair or replacement.
cnynrat
Expedition Leader
AT does use silicone between the pump and the water tank - I assume that's to create a seal to keep fine dust and so on out of the tank. You're right about the small screws on the underside, but at least on my pump I still couldn't get the silver housing separated from the rest of the pump after I removed those screws. I tried that when we were having problems in the field thinking that if it was something simple we might be able to fix it somehow, but it wouldn't come apart.
Once I was home and had replaced the pump with a new one I had nothing to loose (read: at this point I didn't care if I broke it), so I put enough force into it to get the silver housing off. The outer housing was held to the rest of the pump module with a sticky gray glue or sealant. Although it behaved like a glue, my guess it was also serving as a sealant. The screws would hold it together, but I'm not sure if it would work without somehow replacing the sealant.
When I bought my new pump I spent a little time looking into repair kits on line and I ran across a number of comments that others couldn't figure out how to rebuild or repair the pump either.
This simple solution is genius! Go with a plastic bag over the wool sock to fight any breeze and I'd bet the faucett would be good to go in the am. If the water in the tank isn't frozen you'd have running water.
JPK
adventureduo
Dave Druck [KI6LBB]
Just back from Utah in negative 5 degree cold and ours just now stopped too. Really weird. It froze on the trip and could not be operated, but functioned fine on the way home once it defrosted. Now it seems to be broken all together. Ours is also 6-7 years old, so Im going to R&R it this week and possibly just replace it. $36 at Dyers Rv online. Anyhow, For the back up, we use a 5 gallon sparkletts bottle battery operated water pump.
adventureduo
Dave Druck [KI6LBB]
Both :victory:
Randall Haynes
New member
Frozen pump
I had this happen to me last fall, Elk hunting, 3rd season, 8500' here in Colorado. Pump froze and broke on the Chaser. Temps were around 10F.
I knew this would be an issue and it was. Gotta keep the water flowing or the temps above freezing. The ability to have water on tap is awesome, but I have found a 5 gallon Scepter can kept in a warmer place is key.
If I back pack in, my water is kept in my sleeping bag so it doesn't freeze up on you. Nothing worse than finding you water rock solid and you need to fill you water bladder in your hunting pack when you wake up in the morning.
Do that the night before so you are ready. It is sometimes hard when you hunted hard all day, are cold and beat and want nothing more than a hot meal and a warm bag. It has been as low as 15 below 0 F in the morning on hunting trips
As a side note, I am a Firefighter by profession and our departments S.O.P.
(Standard Operating Proceedure) for the Pumpers in freezing temps is to keep the engine running and any lines with water in them are cracked open for water flow to keep the pump and line from freezing up.
I had this happen to me last fall, Elk hunting, 3rd season, 8500' here in Colorado. Pump froze and broke on the Chaser. Temps were around 10F.
I knew this would be an issue and it was. Gotta keep the water flowing or the temps above freezing. The ability to have water on tap is awesome, but I have found a 5 gallon Scepter can kept in a warmer place is key.
If I back pack in, my water is kept in my sleeping bag so it doesn't freeze up on you. Nothing worse than finding you water rock solid and you need to fill you water bladder in your hunting pack when you wake up in the morning.
Do that the night before so you are ready. It is sometimes hard when you hunted hard all day, are cold and beat and want nothing more than a hot meal and a warm bag. It has been as low as 15 below 0 F in the morning on hunting trips
As a side note, I am a Firefighter by profession and our departments S.O.P.
(Standard Operating Proceedure) for the Pumpers in freezing temps is to keep the engine running and any lines with water in them are cracked open for water flow to keep the pump and line from freezing up.