2013 RZ2 Ballast Problem

[jeddlemon]

Good evening. I have a problem with my 2013 RZ2. A few years ago I upgraded the rear bags to 1000 lb (I think) fat sacs. My son surfs goofy so this weekend when filling the starboard sac, I notice water coming out of the side - I thought I accidently hit the drain button, but it turns out that bilge pump had kicked on. I look in the engine compartment and I have a pretty good amount of water coming from the rear starboard drain hole. I shut off the ballast pump and the water eventually stops leaking in.

I put the boat back on the lift and removed the fat sac, went back out and turned on the starboard rear ballast pump and had the hose over the side, pumping back in to the water and I still have water filling the bilge. I check out the pumps and don't see anything leaking around the pump. I am not very familiar with the routing of the fill hoses, is it possible I have a split hose under the deck somewhere?

Thanks in advance,

John

[chpthril]

Did you access the drain pump? Its below the false locker floor. My gut says it had some water left in it, froze and broke.

[jeddlemon]

That makes sense - I could hear the drain pump running, but could not figure out how to get to it. I have a small hatch that I opened in the rear of the locker, but I did not see it there. Is that easy to swap out?

[Galaxy24]

I don’t have the same boat but I have a 2013 Z1. My fill line has a “Y” in it. One hose will go to the bag in the locker. The other hose will go to the hard tank under the false floor. One of my hard tanks had a crack in it and was leaking water into the bilge area from the port drain hole. I don’t know if your boat is setup the same but may be something to look at.

[jeddlemon]

Thanks for the response. I am hoping it is either a cracked pump or hose issue. How did you fix the crack in your hard tank?

[Galaxy24]

On my boat, I removed the subfloor to access the hard tank. A lot needs to be removed but definitely accessible. No special tools required. Once I removed the tank I could see a crack located at the fitting where the drain pump connects.

Probably simple enough to do on your own but I took it to a local RV service center to be repaired. They said they fix hard tanks all the time and wouldn’t be an issue to fix this one. Of course, they were curious as to where this size tank came from. The repair was quick and inexpensive. Knock on wood all is good so far.

Also, the split or “Y” in my plumbing from the fill pump is easily accessible in the engine compartment. So it was easy to follow. Hopefully yours is the same.

If you have any other questions feel free to hit me up.

[jeddlemon]

Thank you for your reply. I will keep you posted.

[jeddlemon]

I am going to go ahead and order a few spare pumps to have. Are the pumps on the RZ2 the Atwood Tsunami 1200s?

[Galaxy24]

I don’t know for sure but if I had to guess I would say yes. I know mine are.

[jeddlemon]

Thanks - Do you know if your drain pumps are the long intake? For some reason I think my fill pumps have the short and the drain have the long threaded intake. Thanks for all of your help.

[Galaxy24]

I will need to double check but I am pretty sure that my fill pumps are long and I know my drain pumps are short. I will double check tomorrow.