5.0 TA Black Tank Wiring

[Greg A]

I may have missed it in the thread, but have you pulled the monitor panel and verified that all the connections have been completed correctly.
In our 19 the wiring behind the monitor panel leaves a lot to be desired and is unprotected from stuff going in and out of the cabinet which can wreak havoc on those connections.
Tank connections are rough to get to on the 5.0, so I’d check the easy to access area first.

[cpaharley2008]

Here is a picture of Dave and Linda at ETI....yes. he is the one with the beard.

[jnfrombigt]

Originally Posted by cpaharley2008

Here is a picture of Dave and Linda at ETI....yes. he is the one with the beard.

Thanks Jim I thought that was him

[ATHiker]

Originally Posted by Greg A

I may have missed it in the thread, but have you pulled the monitor panel and verified that all the connections have been completed correctly.
In our 19 the wiring behind the monitor panel leaves a lot to be desired and is unprotected from stuff going in and out of the cabinet which can wreak havoc on those connections.
Tank connections are rough to get to on the 5.0, so I’d check the easy to access area first.

If you remove the Monitor panel, swap the black tank wire with either the grey or fresh water tank (one that is reading correctly). and retest. Retest the tank functions to see if problem has also changed to another tank or is still in same tank.

If it still displays E on the same tank, replace the printed circuit board.

If it displays E on different tank, the problem is an open connection in the tank wiring or pigtail.

The is from the KIB Enterprises manual. I am unable to post a link.

[jnfrombigt]

Originally Posted by ATHiker

If you remove the Monitor panel, swap the black tank wire with either the grey or fresh water tank (one that is reading correctly). and retest. Retest the tank functions to see if problem has also changed to another tank or is still in same tank.

If it still displays E on the same tank, replace the printed circuit board.

If it displays E on different tank, the problem is an open connection in the tank wiring or pigtail.

The is from the KIB Enterprises manual. I am unable to post a link.

Thanks That's a logical process of evaluation.

[jnfrombigt]

Originally Posted by Greg A

I may have missed it in the thread, but have you pulled the monitor panel and verified that all the connections have been completed correctly.
In our 19 the wiring behind the monitor panel leaves a lot to be desired and is unprotected from stuff going in and out of the cabinet which can wreak havoc on those connections.
Tank connections are rough to get to on the 5.0, so I’d check the easy to access area first.

In our 5.0 the wiring behind the panel appears to be well protected. I'm going to try Brian's suggestion and fill the tank about half way using a five gallon water tank. That way I'll have some idea how much is in there as I fill. I will definitely check the indicator panel before I start rooting around looking for tank wires.

[Kent]

Originally Posted by jnfrombigt

Hey boys and girls. Can anyone tell me how to access the wire connection points on the 5.0TA black water tank? I have not had any status indication other than empty.
thanks jn

Look into the compartment where your electric jack switches are. Should see access panel on the floor.

[jnfrombigt]

Originally Posted by Kent

Look into the compartment where your electric jack switches are. Should see access panel on the floor.

I pulled that panel and you have access to a small plastic plug on top of the black tank and that's it. It appears that going into the area where you do the manual jack operation might give access to the forward end of the black tank. I just sent an email to Dave at ETI and maybe tomorrow I'll get the definitive answer. I would like to install a better system for a more accurate indication of tank capacity. Thanks for the info. If I still had my place north of Big Timber I would buy you a beer.

[cpaharley2008]

I have a feeling that the new Seelevel sensors should have been installed during the trailer manufacture. Good luck.

[jnfrombigt]

Kent up in Bozeman got me started in the right direction. I removed the right wall panel from the propane compartment and there was the black tank along with the wires. When installing a Seelevel II system you can use existing wires. On each Seelevel sensor there are just two wires, a ground and one to the monitor. One wire from a Seelevel tank sensor goes in parallel with one wire from each of the other two tanks' sensors to the monitor while the other wires from each of the tank sensors attaches to a common ground. The Seelevel system also displays the battery's actual voltage. So thanks folks. One more problem solved.

[jnfrombigt]

Originally Posted by davidmurphy02

When you find the problem I'll be interested to hear what it was. I have experienced the same thing with ours - gray and fresh tank gauges seem to work, but black tank never came off empty and once when we dumped I had figured the tank must be around half full. We've only had it out for one short trip other than the trip home from Chilliwack, though, and I figured I'd just wait until our month long trip in September and then determine for sure if it was working or if the sensors were just mounted kind of off.

I've never worried too much about a black tank gauge, the sensors get clogged and then give false readings pretty commonly. After using a trailer for a while it's pretty easy to have a good feel for how long we can go before needing to dump black, and I can just look down the toilet with a flashlight to check if it seems to be getting near full.

The sensors are put on at ETI, and I don't think there's an exact science to that as far as accuracy of the different levels - it's always possible that the sensors were mounted too high on the tank and don't even start registering until it has a good bit in it. If you don't have the spray foam you can look at the sensors and see where they are mounted, and make sure the wires are all connected to them. We have the spray foam so I'll never know about the tank sensors - if it was my fresh water tank that wasn't reading properly I'd do more to check into it, but I've never relied much on a black tank gauge. I suppose it's also possible there's a loose connection at the gauge panel in the trailer, or a defect in the panel indicator.

I have a six gallon potable water tank so I used it to put a measured twelve gallons in the tank. The indicator showed 1/3 full so it's working. I suspect yours might also be working. Like you I was surprised how much had come out of the black tank with no indication other than zero. Like I mentioned, we spent four days at the Goosenecks and I had even added some water trying to get an indication other than zero. Thanks to Kent in Bozeman I was able to find a way to access the tank and wires. I mentioned in another post that I removed the propane tanks and then removed the wall panel on the right side of this compartment. I'll try to attach a photo. The black tank measures ten inches vertically. Having this access will allow me to install a Seelevel system.

[kwthere]

Forget the black water tank sensor - never worked. I turn off the water pump (or pressure from "city" source), open the toilet valve and peer directly into the tank, using a flashlight, to visualize the level.

[Bill R]

Sorry to resurrect an old thread, but this may be relevant.

Our Escape 19 picked up 12oct18 had incorrect black tank sensor wiring. The factory wiring of the 5-wire pigtail was:
top nut: white
middle nut: yellow
bottom nut: green
offset bottom nut: orange

I noticed this when I did a fill test, adding a gallon at a time and recording the monitor reading:
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 gallons
E E E E E E E E E E E 2/3 2/3 tank gauge

I corrected the wiring to:
top nut: orange (full)
middle nut: green (2/3)
bottom nut: yellow (1/3)
offset bottom nut: white (ground)
The attached picture (top sensor on the far left with the orange wire) has the correct wiring. The factory wiring was exactly backwards.

With the correct wiring, the fill test yielded:
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 gallons
E E E E E E E 1/3 1/3 1/3 1/3 2/3 2/3 tank gauge

Surprisingly, adding water over 13 gallons to the black tank overflowed into the gray tank. Our 2018 Escape has 1 roof vent for both the black and gray tanks, and apparently this allows black tank overflow. Our 2014 19 had 2 roof vents and I don't remember any overflow.

FWIW, the monitor readings on our 2018 have been fairly accurate -- I'm told that the 2018's use Horst probes. The monitor readings on our 2014 gray and black tanks were not that accurate -- I made spray wands from pvc pipe for both the gray and black tanks, and using them would correct the monitor.

On our 2018 19, the black tank is under the driver front dinette bench. A plywood box covers it, but there is an access hole in the top of the box covered with thin plywood cover. Remove the 4 S2 screws to remove the cover and you can see the wiring.

The most likely reason for wonky black tank monitor readings is fouled sensors, but if it's consistently wrong, it's worth peeking at the wiring.

Bill R

[Little Richie]

I have a ta. When I open the compartment in the propane storage area I can see the jack, I can see the back of the tank, but there are no monitors. Are the hidden someplace else??

Dose any one gave any suggestions