fresh water gauge stuck

[dpiano]

Hi all,
On our 2013 R/29 tug, the fresh water gauge is faulty, reading full constantly. If I cut power to the pump, the needle goes to 0. Andrew says it must be the sending unit in the tank, not the gauge itself. I opened up an angled panel in the cave toward the front and can barely see the tank, but I see no way to access the rest of the tank, and there seems to be no room between the tank and the cabin floor to remove the sending unit to check it anyway.

Has anyone ever dealt with this problem?
I guess one place to start is to rip out the fridge and have a look down there. I'd appreciate any helpful ideas.

As a side note, some time ago the fuel gauge also went wonky. I discovered that Ranger had installed a small hinged hatch on the cave floor to access that sending unit, but the hatch was in the wrong place. I would've needed to cut the floor out to get to the unit but eventually figured out there was a faulty crimp connector . Ranger has always been helpful solving problems for us but sure seems like they could have put more thought into designing access for repairs.

 

[Red Raven]

Have you taken the boat out in rough seas since this issue began? Our fresh water gauge gets stuck all the time. It has always started to work again after taking the boat out on a bumpy ride.

Curt

 

[dpiano]

We're on the Columbia so we don't get much chop in winter. I've chased a couple tugs but so far, no luck. Summer winds get fierce here so maybe it will clear up then.
Unless I take a chainsaw to the floor before that..
Thanks, glad to know I'm not the only one.

 

[linedoctor]

I had the same problem with my 2011 R29 water gauge. It began as an intermittent problem and eventually showed full all the time.

Turns out my problem was in the wiring between the sending unit at the tank, and at the gauge.

You can remove the entire side wall in the cave and easily access the tank and sending unit. The screws are hard to spot in the monkey fur, but they are there.

In my case the wiring was tie wrapped a few feet from the tank so I couldn’t pull the wire run all the way out to look at it, but a couple of yanks on the wires fixed the problem...must’ve been a short or an open, or maybe the bad language I was using at the time.

After that it worked fine until I sold the boat a few months later. Once you get to the wiring it shouldn't be too bad to diagnose.

 

[dpiano]

And thanks for that..... I will practice my English the next time I get to the boat, pull the panels off in the cave, and have a go. Mouse fur screws are no problem since I had them all off when I removed the seats to recover the cheap flaking upholstery several years ago.

 

[S. Todd]

I don't know how applicable it is to your boat but we had the same issue with our 2015 R25SC at about year #4 . Removing the refrigerator revealed the gauge sending unit that was mounted to the top of the fresh water tank. It had some black scum like stuff on the tube that the float moved up and down on. Cleaned it off and reassembled and it worked perfectly thereafter.

 

[zekeandboone]

I echo Curt's fix. On our '17 25SC the gauge would get stuck and sometimes just adding water fixed it, but the best fix was a trip in bumpy conditions. Regards from up the road in Battle Ground!

 

[dpiano]

thanks all for your help.
I spent some time yesterday jumping on and off the swim deck from the dock, and got her rocking pretty good but still no luck. If it doesn't clear on its own sometime before I retire from boating, I will open up the cave panels, check wiring,
and maybe yank the fridge to see what I can find. They call this pleasure boating........