Fresh water tank level

[rprochnow]

The black tank was the most challenging, not only because it requires getting under the coach, but also because the only usable location for the sensor is extremely tight. My wife worked with the sensor and cleaning that area, since she has smaller hands and was able to reach that area better than I could.

I didn't get as many pictures of this tank.

#1: These are the wires I decided to cut closer to the front/driver side corner of the tank.



#2: This is the location for the new sensor, on the passenger side of the tank. As you can see, there isn't much room between the tank and the nearby compartment wall - having someone with smaller hands will help. This area will likely be very dirty and will require a thorough cleaning before placing the sensor.



#3: This is the black/black-white wire after I cut it from the original sensors. I then added extra blue and black wires to extend this over to the new sensor location. And afterward zip tied the wire to the nearest supports.



#4: This is the temporarily mounted sensor strip on the side of the tank in that tight space. It took quite a while to slowly remove the backing and permanently mount the sensor and then add duct tape to seal it.

[rprochnow]

Next week, I'll work on the final phase - swapping the pump switches and then connecting the new momentary switch up to our pump. I suspect I'll need to add a 7.5A fuse, as recommended in the SeeLevel II panel manual.

The fuse on the circuit is 15A. The pump appears to be rated for 7.5A. I'm concerned the new panel may have problems if it sees more than 7.5A (perhaps when the pump turns on) and to be safe, will likely add an inline fuse at the panel to provide additional protection between the panel and the pump.

Still looking for the wiring for the momentary switch. I'm assuming one wire is the same as the "Pump LED" wire connected to the panel - and the other on the back of the switch will either be 12V or ground. I have a few days to figure that out...

Overall, this wasn't as difficult as we expected. Other than the murphy bed not coming down at the beginning of the project - we didn't hit any major obstacles.

It took us about 6 hours for the project, with two of us working in parallel at times. However, we were very methodical - since once we started removing the old panel (and sensors), we wanted to be sure we didn't screw up the new system - especially since lead times to get any RV service are very long right now...

If you need any help on doing this - please PM me - and Crah will probably also be willing to provide advice.

[rprochnow]

Finished!

Received the JR Products 12815 mini momentary switch from Amazon - and installed it.

While installing it, I added an inline fuse holder (with a 7.5A fuse) to the Pump LED line - that is now split between the panel and the bottom pin on the new switch.

Getting the old switch out of the panel is a little tricky and requires patience. You must depress the plastic catches on both sides of the switch and then slide it out of the panel (without breaking the panel!). And putting the new switch was also challenging, because it is a tight fit going into the panel.

Unlike the instructions on that came with the switch, the top pin on the switch does NOT go to 12V - instead, it should be connnected to GROUND. The bottom pin on the switch is connected to the Pump LED wire going into the panel.

The Pump LED light glows dimly all of the time. Now when I press the switch on the panel or in the bathroom, the pump turns on and the LED light glows brightly. And then pressing the switch again turns off the pump.

During our "shake down" trip over the weekend, the only small issue we encountered is that by leaving the recommended gap at the top and bottom of the sensors, that leaves some of the tank and the top and bottom that aren't getting sensed. We were concerned it took a while before the gray tank moved off zero. But as far as we can tell, that sensor is working - just that we'll have a little reserve below 0 and above 100 - which is OK.

It was a challenging project - but now that it's all done - well worth it - and we probably saved hundreds of dollars of installation by doing it ourselves...