Freshwater Sensor Not working

Hello, all!

I recently purchased a brand new travel trailer.  The experience went from awesome to horrible in about 3 days...But im not here to complain...I need some guidance.  I have literally owned this thing about 3 days. The guy that walked me through it stared me in the face and said he filled up my fresh water tank.  I told him the gauge says its empty.  He then told me with a straight face that he personally checked it and he guarantees that it works.  Then he told my wife the same thing.  My BS detectors went off but I didnt call him out.  So, today, I decided to drain the tank since Im not going to use it in the next couple of weeks...it drained...and drained....and drained for 15 minutes or so.  So I filled it up again....FULL.  And the gauge says its empty.


SO, here's what I know:

The tank seems to be directly between the axles and has some sort of corrugated plastic cover.  I can't see much or get in on the sides well.  BUT....I think there is a hole about the size of my fist in one of the framing cross members that I can see inside to the wiring.  Is there anything I can check to potentially fix this myself?  I stumbled across an install manual, and I have a suspicion that the ground wire is probably not hooked up or something...but I do not know that.

The gauge DOES work for the battery.  Grey and Black tanks....I don't know...I havnt used it to tell.

Can anyone point me in the right direction?  I know its under warranty, but frankly, the idea of them working on a brand new rig after supposedly checking it screams of incompetence at best, and downright dishonesty at worst.

I havnt found something I can't fix on my vehicle or house...but I need a little bit of direction.  The gauge is an intelliview led type.  I have a switch for pump and water heater, as well as buttons for fresh, grey and black tanks.  I see the install manual online says there is a pink wire that goes to the panel, but Im assuming there is a pink wire for fresh, and grey and black, so that may not help.  Im assuming that since the E lights up, that the wiring to teh panel is just fine.  So, Im hoping its something simple at the tank itself?

Thank you for any insight.  I can't even figure out how to get the panel off the wall...I didnt try hard for fear of damaging it though.

Those gauges are bad at the best of times my black water is 3/4 full always lol so i dump 5 gallons in it and empty it eve ry couple of days. In your case my guess is a wire has come disconected. Sometimes they are not. Atatched properly from the factory.

OK. I read about this "Resistor Pack"...is there just ONE of these that all of the sensors from the three tanks go to, or does each tank have its own resistor pack?

Good luck my friend, welcome aboard in these pieces of crap from any rv dealers !

Based on the fact the TT is right off the showroom floor, I would bring it back and tell them to fix it. You paid for new, you should have a new ready to go trailer. Plain and simple. Factory tank level sensors are not precision instruments by any means. But yours isn't working from the get go. Let them fix it!
You can always find another dealer to do any warranty work afterwards after the selling dealer makes it right by you.

Before you take it back to the dealer, fill up the other tanks to make sure they work. After some time, you'll find that the gray and black water tank sensors will not be accurate. That's the nature of the beast. But seeing the trailer is new, there's no reason why they should not work now.

I will test the other tanks.  I am going to look for obvious problems first.  I dont want to haul it 50 miles to fix a disconnected wire.  If its not obvious, then Ill take it in.

I think, based on the installation manual, I will have three resistor packs..one for each tank.  And there should only be ONE WIRE per tank going to the panel itself.  For some reason, I now have a suspicion its the blue wire on the back of the panel.  These connectors are all installed and built 'as needed'.  I bet that wire is loose or not stabbed in effectively. 

The black and gray indicator probes get fowled inside the tank and don't work well after some use but the freshwater indicators usually work well and don't normally get fowled.  I agree it should be warranty work but I also agree that I'd rather fix it myself.  Before taking it back you could try to find the probes on the side of the tank and see that all wires are connected and not broken.  But first I would check the indicator in the trailer for detached wires.  The face plates normally just pry off.  Do it carefully.  First slide you fingers along the outside edges of the indicator panel.  You should feel a little tab likely on the left side edge.  That is where you pry.  If the connector is seated well inside and all the wires are tight in place and you can't find any broken wires at the freshwater tank...take it back and make it the dealers problem.

Cool.  That sounds like a plan.  I couldnt figure out how to get the bezel off until I zoomed in the the install manual and saw those little tabs you are talking about.    Ill try.  I can't imagine a broken wire or that they forgot to hook up three wires to a tank, so Im betting on a poorly seated wire.

That said, I can't believe they don't bench test the sensors after install....like short across the tank sensor to verify the panel read....

I'm sorry. I just don't understand why going through all the trouble trying to repair something that should be working in the first place. It's a brand new TT!

I'm done.

denmarc said:

I'm sorry. I just don't understand why going through all the trouble trying to repair something that should be working in the first place. It's a brand new TT!

I'm done.

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Mark, because they did say which made sense to me:  I dont want to haul it 50 miles to fix a disconnected wire.  If its not obvious, then Ill take it in.

I had the same thing happen to my Fuel gauge on my toy hauler - one wire wasn't connected properly so i just left it until i took it back for a different repair. i wasnt about to take it back just for that, when i knew being a new trailer something else would need fixing and it did  ;D

I am totally new to owning a trailer, and I must say, I am kinda surprised at hearing that new trailers need so much warranty repair work done.  Why is this?  I certainly see from searches that there is plenty of 'things to fix' on a new rig, but I cannot understand why that is the case?

The wires all seem to be attached.  I can't get the damn  bezel off the panel.  IM scared to break it.  Im mostly irritated that some yahoo at the factory didnt catch it and then another yahoo at theh dealer didnt catch it, and yet a third yahoo stared me in the face and told me it worked. 

Is there ANY way I can test or short leads to verify that the blue wire is attached behind the panel without taking the panel off?  If I have a red LED and it says E all teh time, does that mean the blue wire HAS to be connected?

Dude chill before you have a stoke wait until there is some other issues that you need to get fixed then under warranty take it in for service, they will fix it im sure.

Alright.  Its on my list.  I gave up for today and had a glass of bourbon instead.  ;D

Unfortunately trailers are still made by hand on an assembly line - i have a 2015 trailer i've had a broken blind ( installed wrong) broken blind( the string was broken) busted micro wave ( wouldn't heat) water pump split, missing remotes, missing spare, a/c issue and more, and my trailer is a high end model $100 k plus . these things happen its part of the fun.make a list of things that need to be fixed in some cases that list can be 10-20 things its a part of RV ownership good or bad lol ;D

agdodge4x4 said:

Alright.  Its on my list.  I gave up for today and had a glass of bourbon instead.  ;D

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Now is a great time to set up camp in your driveway.  Use the trailer just like you would on a trip.  You may come across more stuff that needs attention and will make that 50 mile drive back to the dealer a little more bearable.

Yeah, we are going to camp in the drive soon.  I have tested most of the other systems, but we havent USED them.  Im going to do that and see where we are.  Thanks for all the advice!

You're story sounds too familiar. I took my brand new TT out for a month (January) and 1200 miles. At the second campground, all my level indicators were flakey (except battery). The levels jumped around such that I could not depend on the indication. Not having any experience with tanks, I found my self filling the fresh tank (to overflow) and dumping the black/greys daily to avoid a problem when showering or flushing in the middle of the night. The level indicator was still unreliable at the third campground but at the fourth, fifth and now at home, everything seems to be as expected. I have no idea why it wasn't accurate for a time. I looked at the rear of the panel and didn't see anything weird.

I also, understand not wanting to drag your TT any distance (I'm 100 miles away) for a minor issue. I've been doing very minor repairs off and on for a month. Just before my warranty expires, I'll drop it to the dealer for anything I feel is too difficult or costly to do myself. Maybe the level indicator will make that fix-it list.