Water tank gauge - How to replace or know it is working?

[jcody]

I have a 2007 54DS - When I turn on the water pressure breaker, I have an analog gauge that seems to show two tanks are full and the 3rd is half full. However, when I checked and filled tanks it appears all three were nearly empty.

Can someone explain how this works? Is there a pressure gauge or a level gauge on each of the tanks? Just need to understand the basics on how the gauge reads the level as I suspect maybe this is broken and I need to replace it. When I looked at the physical tanks ONE tank ( 3 tanks total) has a blue round knob on it that says 2 1/2 " 2UN,

Thanks

[Charlie-Bravo]

I can’t help with 54 footer specifics, but a lot of water tank level ‘estimation devices’ rely on the conductivity of the water, some rather basic with screws penetrating the tank at various heights, which relate to either analog gauge or a set of led lights in a row, sometimes I feel that a float mechanism like the fuel tanks might be better, ……. but all fail given time.

However the resistance is being produced, I find with the float mech type on fuel tanks, some read full with virtually no electrical resistance, some read empty at no resistance, but apart from that they are identical, so I would deduce that perhaps your gauge / sender wires are either disconnected (a blown fuse perhaps, or corrosion ) or ‘shorted’, worth metering them to see what they read, it might give a clue.

Worth investigating the root of the inaccuracy, and understanding how it was supposed to gauge the level, (which is part of your question I know)  if a resistance type, quite often cleaning the bits of metal inside the tank improve accuracy issues, or if it is a float type it probably needs a bit of a clean and love to ensure it all moves freely, and that the variable resistance strip on it is spotless, it can be easily checked with a cheap multimeter, but I haven’t seen too many floats in water tanks.

Time and technology has moved on, and no doubt ultrasonic devices and others which don’t need to be inside the tank exist, and would probably be a bit complex for the diyer to fix, unless it’s just a clean up that’s required.

I am sure a 54 owner will come along and enlighten you on your boats tanks soon, or even an experienced owner of a similar model, we all have tanks.

I just fill them up before a trip, run one until empty, ….. then I know I’m halfway through the tanked water, regardless of how many lights are lit up on the tank gauge, basic but works for me.

CB