Water tank sensor wiring

[flymerc]

When I push the "press to test" buttons to check the water tank levels, (Fresh, Black, Gray) all indicate "E", even when they are full.


I crawled under the camper and found the sensor wires broken at the studs protruding from the tanks.

However I could not locate any broken or cut wires on the trailer harness side????

Does anyone have a schematic or photos of how these sensors are wired?

Thank you in advance!

Shawn

[j52wf]

Google rv tank sensors. There is a lot of info. There should be wires of the same gauge running along the underside of the camper that would attach to those sensors. Wonder why the PO cut them off.

[mainah]

One ground wire to all, one sensor wire to each sensor. Before you cut the sensor wire make sure what sensor wire lights what light to insure you have enough wire by touching it to the ground wire. Don't expect miracles they are notoriously inaccurate. I believe the colors are somewhat standard as to their purpose. If you really what accuracy SeeLevel gauges can't be beat and the sensor boards stick right to the outside of the tanks.

[JohnB]

Hi Shawn,

Is your camper is a 2004 model? If so you have the KIB tank monitor system.

Down at the tank, the 3 terminals in your pics should look like this. There is a red resistor pack that makes the whole thing work right.

This is off my 2004 T310SR


A close up of the resistor pack


This is what you are missing
https://www.amazon.com/KIB-K101-Repl...+resistor+pack

That red wire that is skinned and no terminal on it in the Amazon pic is the wire that goes up through the floor and connects to the tank panel with the water heater and water pump switch in it. Depending when your 2004 was made (what month/year) it has a 2 switch KIB tank panel on the earlier ones or a 3 switch KIB tank panel on the later ones.

Sunline ran that red wire up through the floor in a plastic sleeve pipe chase. Look around under the camper for a white plastic sleeve filled with black silicone caulking up the wires in the end of the sleeve. It should be where the other 2 tanks have their wire going up into the camper. Hopefully there is a dangling wire there that you just need to hook back up when you get your new resistor pack.

The yellow leed is the bottom most terminal, the green the center and the orange the top.

The prior owner may have ran over a lot of brush or tall weeds and the wires got caught up and yanked off.

Hope this helps

John

PS Are all your tanks missing wires, even the fresh tank? They all use the same resistor pack just the red wire hooks to a certain pin on the tank panel. If you are missing "all" 3 tanks we can help you sort out which is which once you find that pipe chase.

[flymerc]

John,

THANK YOU!!!!

The missing wiring makes sense after reading your post.

I am missing all 3, not sure how or why that happend. I suppose running the trailer over brush could have ripped the wiring off. Or a previous owner had sensor issues and removed the resistor packs.

Thank you again John for your knowledge and assistance!!!!

Shawn

[JohnB]

All of them gone... Ouch.

There is also a white wire on each tank that goes to a probe by itself and then to the camper frame ground. That wire seems to show up in your pic and since you have none working, thought I would mention that.

Thanks for the thanks. We are always glad to help

John

[flymerc]

I found the wiring conduit near the tank senator's control panel.

I found a brown # 16 gauge wire that has been cut coming out of said conduit.

I removed the control panel and found (5) #20 gauge wires attached to the circuit board.

Thus, it appears the wires were cut and removed from the conduit for whatever reason.

I guess at this point I need to rewire the sensor system from the control panel to each sensor.

Looking at the exterior part of the sensors, I have to wonder if they need replaced, as the nuts are corroded. ?????

[j52wf]

Attached is a pic JohnB sent me of his wiring diagram for the control panel. As far as removing the sensors, there is a great You Tube video showing removal using a box end wrench with an oversize washer and using a nut to pull the sensor out. Made it look very easy.

[j52wf]

Wiring at the control panel appears correct. Looks like you only need to splice in a red and brown wire under the camper to whatever they go to.

[JohnB]

I just realized we have the older KIB manuals and some wiring diagrams in our files section.

See this one. It can be a lot of help and it shows how the tank sensors mount and expand.
Sunline Coach Owner's Club - Sunline Owner's Files - K.I.B. Monitor Manual

And here is a wiring diagram with the colors and what tank is what
Sunline Coach Owner's Club - Sunline Owner's Files - K.I.B. Monitor Panel M21VW

Since you have a brown wire under the camper, you are only missing 2 wires down the conduit hole, the gray and the blue. The red and white on the PC board is 12 volts + & - to power the board, not for the tank sensors.

A trick I did to shove a wire up the conduit tube was this. I took a piece of 1/4" OD plastic tubing, (actually polyethylene compressed air tubing) Also looks like ice maker water line for the fridge, and it was stiff enough but not too stiff to shove up the hole with all the other wires in the and not scrape any of the insulation off. Once the tube is up through, then a thin wire or wires can be pushed up center of the tube.

You can see the 2 tubes hear. I had to get 3 wires up there, and I left the tubes in place. In my case, the red wire I added was to fix a skinned fresh tank wire that grounded out on the frame of the camper and the black and white wire is a temperature sensor I added to my enclosed tank compartment.


On your rusted sensor probe nuts, these


If it is only the nuts that are rusted and the probe stud is still not rusted, maybe just replace the nuts. There should be 2 nuts, one to hold the sensor in and then a 2nd nut to hold, jam nut the wire eye on.

I did have one of my sensors out. When the nut is loose against the tank all the expansion pressure should be gone on the rubber bushing and the probe comes out. It's not much to it. A threaded stud with a hat on top in a rubber hat bushing. When you tighten the nut, the stud pulls on the rubber hat busing and it expands and seals up the drilled hole in the tank.

Hard to tell here on mine, but there are 2 nuts on each


Hope this helps

John

[flymerc]

Like always John, you're a wealth of good information, and knowledge!!

Thank you very much for sharing your info and knowledge John!!!!!!

You sir are indeed a blessing!

[flymerc]

I'm confused with how the sensor panel wires are routed to the water tanks.

I see the wires at the control panel, but cannot find them where the other wires exit the trailer on the floor under the kitchen sink.

Nor can I find any holes in the wall near the control panel that would allow me to route new wires.

I guess I can make a hole and get r done, but I would rather use existing routing paths if possible.

Anyone know where the sensor wires are routed between the control panel and water tanks?

Thanks in advance!

[j52wf]

The three main, in my case red, sensor wires (1 for each tank) run up that conduit hole in the floor and through that same hole behind the control panel. After it exits the bottom of the trailer, my wires run along the propane line. The red resistor unit for each tank (which branches into the 3 individual wires for each of the three tanks) are sitting outside on the underside. There are some good you tube videos showing these. Google rv tank sensors.

[flymerc]

I checked continuity from the 22 gauge (small wires) at the control panel, to the 18 gauge (big wires) under the trailer frame.

I found the continuity between the large wires and the small wires was good. Evidently somewhere they spliced from small to large.

I removed the old sensors from the Black & Gray water tanks and replaced them with Horst Miracle Probes. I then wired new resister packs to the three probes, grounded the forth probe and using an environmental splice attached the red wire to the respective existing wire from the control panel.

Haven't tested them yet, hopefully they Will work as advertised!

[JohnB]

Your install looks good.

Mine are routed like Jim stated, down the white conduit hole and then to the tanks.

The sensors should work. The key to keeping them working is a good flush of the tank after each dumping. Slime on them or toilet paper gives them false readings. Using tank sprayers in the black and gray helps keep them working all the time.

And when I say they "work", they are better than nothing and give you a general idea of the level. Since they read out in 1/3 rd's of a tank, what you know is,

Let's take the fresh tank for example.

Full, on fresh water if you just filled it, it should be full. It will stay full for a short while as water is used. How long depends on use, and probe placement.

2/3rd's full. When the "full" light goes out and this light is still on you are "something" between 2/3rd's and just left the full probe. You are not really at 2/3rds, just something less then full.

1/3rd full. When 2/3rd's goes out, you are "something" between just under 2/3rd's and 1/3rd.

Empty. This means you just left the 1/3rd probe and have "something" between just under 1/3rd and really nothing left, the pump will suck air and dry lock the pump.

Point: Understand the wording and they can help but don't hold a lot of faith in them.

On mine, for reasons not known, Sunline drilled the holes in my gray tank, black too, at not the actual 1/3rd or 2rd's or full marks on the tank. My tanks have molded indents where the probes were supposed to go from the tank manufacture. My gray tank goes from empty to 1/3rd full after washing your hands once.... And my black tank goes to 1/3rd from just the starter water I added to the tank.

But....After camping with on board tanks long enough and being water misers, we can go 4 days using onboard tanks and even longer if I drain some gray water and refill fresh. The black we can make 8 days. It is just the 2 of us and it works for us on our tank size.

If you want to know more accurate, Sea Level makes a more analog upgrade. This place https://www.garnetinstruments.com/rv-shop/

Here they are at RV Upgrades, a place here in Ohio that I have used often and have had good service. https://www.rvupgradestore.com/RV-Ta...stem-s/164.htm

While they work better, the Sea Level is a higher cost upgrade.

Thanks

John

[Tod Osier]

Thanks john, I may do that upgrade. That setup looks slick.

Originally Posted by JohnB

Your install looks good.

Mine are routed like Jim stated, down the white conduit hole and then to the tanks.

The sensors should work. The key to keeping them working is a good flush of the tank after each dumping. Slime on them or toilet paper gives them false readings. Using tank sprayers in the black and gray helps keep them working all the time.

And when I say they "work", they are better than nothing and give you a general idea of the level. Since they read out in 1/3 rd's of a tank, what you know is,

Let's take the fresh tank for example.

Full, on fresh water if you just filled it, it should be full. It will stay full for a short while as water is used. How long depends on use, and probe placement.

2/3rd's full. When the "full" light goes out and this light is still on you are "something" between 2/3rd's and just left the full probe. You are not really at 2/3rds, just something less then full.

1/3rd full. When 2/3rd's goes out, you are "something" between just under 2/3rd's and 1/3rd.

Empty. This means you just left the 1/3rd probe and have "something" between just under 1/3rd and really nothing left, the pump will suck air and dry lock the pump.

Point: Understand the wording and they can help but don't hold a lot of faith in them.

On mine, for reasons not known, Sunline drilled the holes in my gray tank, black too, at not the actual 1/3rd or 2rd's or full marks on the tank. My tanks have molded indents where the probes were supposed to go from the tank manufacture. My gray tank goes from empty to 1/3rd full after washing your hands once.... And my black tank goes to 1/3rd from just the starter water I added to the tank.

But....After camping with on board tanks long enough and being water misers, we can go 4 days using onboard tanks and even longer if I drain some gray water and refill fresh. The black we can make 8 days. It is just the 2 of us and it works for us on our tank size.

If you want to know more accurate, Sea Level makes a more analog upgrade. This place https://www.garnetinstruments.com/rv-shop/

Here they are at RV Upgrades, a place here in Ohio that I have used often and have had good service. https://www.rvupgradestore.com/RV-Ta...stem-s/164.htm

While they work better, the Sea Level is a higher cost upgrade.

Thanks

John