My name is Tom and I am new to trailer camping or" glamping".  I have only camped in a tent so this will be a huge learning curve for me. I/we are from Spanish Fort, AL. Most of my camping was either as a young kid-teens with my family,  Uncle Sam,  or with my boys at young Cub-Scouts.   My boys are now in their 30's so that has been awhile.   

More recently my camping  has been a tent, sleeping bag and what ever I could fit in the saddle bags of either my H.D. or more recently Gold-Wing and always solo.  But as the years pass by that ground gets a little hard and cold in my bones.

So as you can see this will be a huge upgrade for me even in a small trailer.

I have just purchased a used 180 for my better half and me.  She is willing to try it  so big enough for two but not too much over kill if she doesn't cotton to it and I end up going solo again.  

Welcome to the board Tom.  Hope you enjoy your Pod.  Use the search system here to answer many of your questions but be sure to set the scope to a wider range of dates than automatically comes up. 

 As for your water level indicator is doing what pretty much everyone's does -- it's inaccurate.  There are sensors on sides of the tanks that are supposed to detect the presence off liquid, but the are notoriously quirky.  None of the tank level indicators work reliably.  You can replace the sensors, but if you research the topic, you may conclude it isn't worth the bother.

+1 What Fred said.  I haven't even looked at my sensors in years.  It's surprisingly easy to learn to live without them.  Regardless of whether they work, it's a good idea to have a way to add more water to the tank when you're dry camping for several days.  (How long a tank full of water depends a lot on how many showers you tank and for how long.)  Most places have water somewhere even if they don't run it to your site.  So a 5 gallon tote and a funnel or something more imaginative can keep you going indefinitely.

TT

Like the others have said, tank sensors are notoriously unreliable. Some can work perfect for the life of a rv, while others never work, or read a false reading. 

Coming from a motor-camping background is a huge advantage for you since you already know how to pack small and only with necessities. Getting the wife on board to think and pack small may or may not be so easy

I was raised in NOLA, and we had fantastic pralines there, but as a kid I remember always stopping at some kind of big gas station/gift shop near Spanish Fort to buy their pralines when going to and from the Gulf Coast. That was in the late 60's.....and a different lifetime ago. 

Oh and you might want to try a Hammock. That's all I use now when motor-camping, last trip was three weeks and 5500 miles all but one night in my hammock. I also take it with me when rv-ing and if the site we park in has trees, that's where I sleep. Zero pressure points, backache, etc. 

My fresh water sensor is generally accurate in that if the tank is full, it will read full and the level will indicate a decrease as the water is used. Now there are a couple of things. On is the spacing of the sensors. When it is full, it takes a while to stop showing full and display 2/3. Then it does not take nearly so long to drop down to 1/3. Likewise, it does not take long to drop down to E. Then there is generally a good reserve before the pump starts pulling air. I think that is a vortex forming and pulling air before the water level actually is down to the pick-up. Looking at the tank, the pick-up line is an inch or two above the actual bottom of the tank which sags down due to the weight of the water. This works as a general level indicator but is far from an accurate gauge of water level.

The gray tank seems to be somewhat reliable, much as the fresh tank is due to there being no solid matter in the gray water (hopefully) to plug the sensors. The black tank is notoriously unreliable. Think about it. There is a little probe that needs to be in contact with the tank contents to read properly. When solids and paper are flushed into the black tank, those can cover the sensors which leads to false readings. Treatment with a good biological agent such as TankTech's Rx or Unique Products' RV Digest-It or some other equivalent product can help break down such things and make the sensors read properly. That is, until more paper, etc. is flushed and the problem repeats. The black tank flush helps, but does not guarantee that the sensors will be cleaned.

I agree with making sure the wiring is intact and that the panel is actually getting power. Also that the power is reaching the probes when a button is pressed per Mike's advice above. One thing I just thought of: Do you have your battery connected (proper polarity) and charged? If there is no 12V power, then there will not be any display. Polarity is important because if you connect the battery with reversed polarity, even for a second, there are two 40A fuses in the power panel that will blow to protect the power converter. Then the converter won't be charging the battery or supplying 12V power if they are not connected.

But if they let you know when your fresh tank is getting empty that provides a warning that it is time to think about finding a water source and dump station. The vast majority of my fresh water ends up in my gray tank so both events occur within about a day of each other for me. Refilling with a 5 gal container will get me about another day, after that my gray tank will need to be emptied anyhow.

I did try the search but I did not change the date range.. I guess it takes a little trial and error to get them to search with good results. That has been my experience with them anyway.

I will take a look at the wiring and try some of your other recommendations.... I'm really not that concern with running out as I was trying to get my tanks full so I can try to start fine tunning my Weight Distribution system to my Ford F150 ..

Today I worked on putting leveling jacks on the rear of the trailer.   I am making an "U" bracket  to bolt 4 bolts from the jack plat  into from the bottom of the "U" bracket then 4 bolts threw the U bracket and the 2x4 beam that the trailer rest on.  

I think it will be more stable than just bolted into the the bottom of the frame.   

I've ordered the fancy smancy  Progressive Industries PT30X Surge Protector/EMS.  I think it is probable overkill for my needs but seeing that I get power spikes at my home I can only imagine that campground power is less consistent.  

The Progressive surge protector is a great idea.  I have the hard-wired one.  Great insurance.

As for leveling jacks, Pod frames aren't tough enough for leveling jacks.  What Pods have are stabilizing jacks, and that's all they're meant for.  There are various ways to level side to side, the simplest, conceptually anyway, is to drive over leveling blocks or boards to raise the low side.  Leveling front to back is done with the tongue jack.  Once level, the stabilizing jacks are lowered, firmly, with no intention of lifting or leveling.

TT

Sorry, wrong choice of words.. Stabilizing Jack is what I meant to say.  Not leveling jack.  I realize now in the camping world there is a difference.   The new ones I got are a little more robust than the OEM. My Dad was all about over building everything.   I guess I inherited that gene. 

Are you talking your black or gray tank or both?    I understand the principle behind the logic. Our dealer set up lady and also a U-Tube video suggest Dawn dish detergent as well.

How do you put ICE in your gray tank or was that just down the black down the toilet?

+1 to furpod's video link. Ice is useless. A good biological agent will do much better.

http://tanktechsrx.com/unclogging-your-rv-holding-tank-or-toilet/ - http://tanktechsrx.com/unclogging-your-rv-holding-tank-or-toilet/

Originally posted by Motor7 Hey, I was not advocating it, just that the suggestion is prolific on the 'net ;)

It's prolific everywhere...

A) Tank monitors are hokum. Did you know they build campers without them? those owners never have this discussion. And yet, they camp just fine.

B) Now that we have lots of people with phone cameras etc, and youtube accounts, a lot of documentation is available about all kinds of stuff. And this is one of those things a person can look up, and watch the video(s)..

C) The sensors are just continuity connections, so any dampness on the walls of the tank may connect them, no matter what it is.

D) When the shower backs up, grey is full. When the toilet doesn't go "sploosh", it's full.

E) The sensors are installed by untrained monkeys, who place the sensors randomly on the tank wall. On our Pod, the top or "full" sensor on every tank was at least a quarter of the way down the tank wall...

F) In general, grey is the issue when camping. It takes a serious amount of potty visits to fill 30 gallons in a weekend.. or a week for that matter. My experimentation shows an average of one quart going down each time.. that's 120 "events" to full.. If you are going in there 40 times a day (3 day camping weekend), I think you need to change your diet to whatever the doctor recommends after your visit, which should be on the Monday you get home from the CG.

There are tank sensors that read through the wall of the tank. SeeLevel is one brand.

https://www.rvupgradestore.com/Garnett-Technologies-Model-709P3-SeeLeveL-II-p/709-p3.htm - https://www.rvupgradestore.com/Garnett-Technologies-Model-709P3-SeeLeveL-II-p/709-p3.htm

The price on Amazon is a lot better:

https://smile.amazon.com/LEVEL-709P31003-Tank-Monitoring-System/dp/B01N6B5ORH/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1549303985&sr=8-1&keywords=SeeLevel - https://smile.amazon.com/LEVEL-709P31003-Tank-Monitoring-System/dp/B01N6B5ORH/

It is still very expensive. I can live with the sensors that came with our RPod.

Horst Miracle Probes are a much less expensive option but I don't know if they are a miracle cure or if it would be a miracle if they really work since I have not tried them.

https://smile.amazon.com/Valterra-T21301VP-Horst-Miracle-Probe/dp/B00YJIB7WE/ - https://smile.amazon.com/Valterra-T21301VP-Horst-Miracle-Probe/dp/B00YJIB7WE/

They do come in both black and gray water versions with the gray costing a couple of dollars more than the black tank version.

For me, I think tank level meditation is the way to go.  It is every bit as accurate as the OEM tank monitors.  You just contemplate the liquid input and output in the tanks, your organism, and that of others and sooner or later you will achieve nirvana and enlightenment.  

Just to put it in perspective.. we have now owned our Lance 2.25 years. We have 96 nights camping in it and almost 10K miles pulled. I have, as of yet, to push the button and see what our tank levels are. Seriously.

We did 13 nights over Christmas and new years.. I dumped grey twice, and again last morning on the way out, but didn't dump black until the last morning. We do have 45 gallon tanks. We probably dump a quarter to half our dishes water into the black tank..