Tank Gauge Lights?

[cbhughan]

Having problem getting the tank gauges to back to the empty indicator light on the display panel. After dumping one of the gray tanks and the black water tank still show 1/3 full. My Montana is only the second travel trailer I have owned and I had a similar problem with the Jayco that I had.

[pineranch]

I believe you are at the "good as it gets" point. My grey tank was right once this summer. I had water in the shower and sink and the grey tank showed FULL. If you show 1/3, call it good and move on.
Mike

[DQDick]

If you're bored the buttons are fun to play with but they are basically crap (pun intended). You can get an outside the tank monitoring system that should be correct all the time, but they are pricy. Camping World and others sell them.

[BB_TX]

Here is a recent discussion on the same issue.

[Slufoot733]

This is my third RV with the 'gauge lights'. They've all been a joke. It's a selling point for the dealers/manufacturers but I have never found them even close to reliable.

[1retired06]

useless

[Flymutt]

The only one I pay attention to is the "battery" button.

[Drifty1]

I do not know why they are still putting these in trailers! I have not looked at the lights in my unit since I have owned it. If I had choice I would install Tank Tender unit in my trailer. It would be nice if they would offer that option for you folks that ordered your trailer new.

[jimcol]

quote:Originally posted by Flymutt

The only one I pay attention to is the "battery" button.

Besides the battery I have found the fresh water to be pretty accurate. That's pretty important if you are in an electric only site. The others are as others stated, "WORTHLESS" Jim

[steelpony5555]

They make good Christmas lights lol lol..... The sad thing is that there are tank lights and gauges that do work out there. On my 03 Alpenlite they were dead on and have never talked to anyone with an Alpenlite that they did not work perfectly. There is even an adjustment on the panel in case they are not totally accurate. But I can't remember who manufacturs those gauges, but then guess it don't matter cause Keystone probably won't care cause they probably cost more. But believe me it was sweet to be able to go to the wall and check on all your tank levels and be able to trust the lights.

[HamRad]

Apparently Alpenlite used the external sensors. They seldom if ever give wrong info.. Accu gauge is apparently what they used. It appears to get very good reviews. It does cost a bit but if you are using their system you would know what your tank levels really were! Dennis

[2 for Him]

I'll let you all know how my DIY capacitance based sensors work in the next couple of days. I have the electronics and sensors figured out and built, just need to hook it all up to see if wiring lenghts are going to be a problem. If successful, should be cheaper than the original and dead on accurate.

[mobil]

A search for "Horst" in the MOC forums shows some members switching to "Horst Miracle Probes". Since they were installed in '09, are they still working accurately?

[ols1932]

This seems to come up again and again. The sensors only work when the rig is brand new. At some point after use the sensors get debris on them and no longer measure properly. You will develop a sense of when to dump after you've used your rig some. We dump every 7-8 days, sometimes stretching it out to 10-11 days.

Orv

[OntMont]

Put SeeLevel gauges in our coach, and never had any more problems. A bit difficult to retrofit on a Monty. http://www.garnetinstruments.com/

[Recumbent]

The gauges are for sales staff to show prospective buyers. Once that function is complete they no longer have any use.

[2 for Him]

Got everything hooked up and the program written, works within 1%, so far, so good. Will try it out for a month or so on our trip to Amazon in KS. So far less than $35 in whole system. Some (highly technical) improvements for ease of installation/setup could raise that up to $50.
Same principle as the Seelevel, just done with Open Source ideas, parts and software.
Will keep you posted and send links to copy my project when I'm sure it works a while.
Course, it might be more trouble than it's worth unless you are a dyed in the wool geek like me.
C++ programming anyone? CAD designing circuit boards? Seriously small soldering ability?
(Actually all the hard stuff is done)

[FLtravelers]

Talking about tank gauge lights... Mind if I hijack this topic?

I also found that only the battery and fresh water indicators were somewhat useful. After being hooked-up for the past two months, and never pushing those buttons, now that we're on the road again, I now find that all the indicator lights only light up the "E" level. Anyone have a clue on this?

[DQDick]

I can't help you, mine haven't read E since they were new.

[CamillaMichael]

We usually run the black tank rinser until the gauge shows empty...for the grey tanks, we have had success with filling the tank back up with fresh water and dumping again.