Tank Monitors

[Flyer]

Anyone installed a SeeLevel black and gray tank monitor system on their Monaco product? I installed one one my Winnebago Journey and it was relatively simple. I'm just not sure about the holding tank access on my Endeavor. Thanks.

[Flyer]

Anyone installed a SeeLevel black and gray tank monitor system on their Monaco product? I installed one one my Winnebago Journey and it was relatively simple. I'm just not sure about the holding tank access on my Endeavor. Thanks.

[jim d.]

Hi! Flyer, Never installed one before( sorry) Just wanted to say Hi, i live in Camas,Wa. You live on a great island. I have done some diving off Fox Island. Well good luck on installing your tank monitor system

[ronboc]

Hey Flyer -

Good talking with you the other day, nice to put a voice with a face.

Can't speak exactly for the PRQ floorplan, but I'd expect it's similar to my PAQ in the water-bay. Mine has a big white-plastic panel covering most of the pipes, hoses, wires, etc down there. It's kind of a bear to get off (multiple semi-hidden screws and then you gotta bend/twist the whole panel to get it out of the compartment), but once done the tanks are all out in the open.

There should be plenty of 'real-estate' to mount the monitor-strips on the tanks. The tanks do curve back inwards at the bottom, but I'd think the strips can handle the changes.

If'n you want, I think I still have digital pics of when I redid my bay and can post or email 'em to you so's you can see my tanks. I tore mine all up because the hose-reel (and power-reel) were installed upside-down - they should wind up over the top and not under from the bottom. Wasn't a big deal, they'd worked ok, but it bugged me that it wasn't proper.

Let us know how they work, we're all interested in seeing you spend your money first.

Thanks!
Ron

[Flyer]

Ron
Pictures would be great. Thanks.
Roy

[ronboc]

Awww, jeez Roy. Me and my big mouth. Now I gotta figure out how to load pictures to here. I hope we're still all using computers by the time I figure it out.

Ron

[ronboc]

Ok, here comes a picture (maybe) ...



Ummm, nope. Didn't work. How about a PM? I'll try that.

[Diplomat Don]

Flyer....I installed the Vena Tank Monitor because I liked the looks and operation of the unit better. It fit well into my panel. Vena uses a much wider sending unit than SeeLevel and may be a problem.

I was able to run a 6 lead bell wire down my monitor wall and through a bath cabinet, under the shower and into the screwed shut bay just in front of the right rear tire. This bay had the large end of the water tank where I installed the fresh water sending unit. (Sending unit is a 6" wide adhesive tape that attaches to the end of the water tank, top to bottom. This tank was easy.

Access to the large ends of the grey and black tank was behind the water bay service panel. The problem I had here was the ends of the tanks were hard to get to and had raised numbering from casting of the tanks. I had to scrape the numbers off with a razor. I installed the adhesive sending units on these two tanks.

Finally, I cut the wire to the propane sending unit and connected the monitor wire.

(Sorry, long post)

The fresh water tank reads perfectly and the propane and voltage are very accurate with easy to read percentages. The grey and black water took several tries and trips to calibrate. One trip they worked well and next trip didn't register. I initially got help from Vena with trouble shooting and thought everything was resolved. I took it on a week long trip and everything read perfectly after dumping the tanks twice. Next trip, no readings. The sending units are very finicky. Recently I called Vena to see what else I could do. There tech guy was gone for two weeks and when he did return, never returned any calls.

I'm moderately satisfied with the sensors and really like the look and operation of the monitor panel, but I have to believe that SeeLevel's narrow sending units are probably better.

Vena's answer to my problem was that some tanks don't read as well. That really helped.

[Flyer]

See Level II 709 installation completed. Here are some brief notes.

Monitor Installation

Mount monitor in a WIREMOLD ON-WALL OUTLET BOX (BW2) purchased at Home Depot over old monitor panel. Use unused wire harness that goes from behind monitor panel to water compartment bay to connect sensors to new monitor panel. LPG wire behind monitor panel is the orange wire.

Sensor Installation

Fresh water sensor mounted on passenger side of fresh water tank. Black and gray water sensors mounted behind water panel on black and gray tanks. Tanks may have molded letters in the way. I had to use a paint scraper to smooth them out.

Thoughts

Installation was not difficult, and not easy. Monitors are much more accurate than OEM monitors. Cost was ~$205 from rvupgrades.com. If you have any questions, give me a call (Roy 253-549-2044).

[ronboc]

Good news Flyer, and glad you got them installed easily. I shoulda had you come and help me do mine.
Santa brought me a 709 system too (got 'em from RVUpgrades too!). Guess she got tired of hearing me rant and rave about the originals. A better system was to just keep track of dump-days like we'd remember when to take out the garbage-cans – at least it was more scientific (sorta).
Anyways, install was going fairly-smoothly til we got another call from Mom to take Dad to the hospital again, which meant 2 days stuck with no water (I had to remove the entire water-bay panel-face and associated plumbing to get to my tanks) til I could get the time to finish the job.
It seems very accurate, and easy to use. Glad I listened to you.

Hey Don – I have the Vena AC/DC Panel and it's been great. Sorry to hear you're having issues. Once calibrated, it tells me everything I need to know about my electrical system. I also have the dual-AC voltage and current monitors on it, as well as ability to track the chassis battery condition.
I was considering getting the Vena tank-system too, since I was familiar with their products (and the panels would match) but no one was stocking them when I started looking a couple months back. My calls to Vena were also left unanswered, which was very contrary to earlier conversations with the helpful guys there. Makes me wonder if they're doing ok.

[MonacoMama]

Hey SacsTC ...You have my blessings sto go ahead and order your "See-Level" as an early birthday present IF you promise to have "Flyer's" phone number handy if you have questions

[MCDDY]

Haven't installed one but probably wish I had. Amusing story this past week. Last week after coming home from a local FMCA rally we dumped at the storage facility. As always I open the gray water valve 1st to check for leaks in the drainage system before opening the black valve. Learned "this" from experience. Did our dumping with Miss Sue watching but evidently forgot to dump the rest of the gray water. Before heading out Tuesday last week to another rally with the same group and had only electricity, checked the monitor board and it showed 1/4 tank on the gray, figured it was the squirrly lights, wrong. Friday while showering,totally lathered down, seemed like I was standing in water, gray tank was full. Managed to get rinsed & dried off and went outside and hooked up the old reliable garden hose to the tank and drained the gray into a handy ditch right behind the coach. OK, flame me if you must. Got out my handy little screwdriver set and reset the tank level light on the gray tank. When dumping at the storage facility yesterday, Miss Sue stood there and reminded me to dump the gray water, so we both learned something out of this little faux pas.

Dave

[ronboc]

Nope, Dave. Something like that has NEVER EVER happened to any of the rest of us. Guess you're the only one in the world that's ever experienced erratic/incorrect tank gauges.

Based on the recommendation of Flyer and a few other folks in here, I recently installed the 709 series See-Level system. Awesome! It shows me, right down to the single percentage reading, just how long of a shower I took, and so on. One less thing to have to worry about in the coach. I now confidently know I can go a week with black water and 5 days with gray (before it was all guesswork, with a real penalty if I guessed wrong ). Installation was simple and quick. Toughest part was snaking the wire from the water-bay up to the monitor on the wall. Got it at RvUpgrades, and they are fast and inexpensive.