Liberty Inverters/Shore Power

[JIM CHALOUPKA]

Jim, What the H are you dragging a dog into the important subject of storage, inverters and chargers. Keep the thread creep to yourself. Your not required to comment on every thread that gets posted. That priveledge is reserved for the Lewster & I.

Harry, Just remember Creep/Crap is in the eye/ear of the beholder

Crap/Creep to one is Music to another

Just because you have TWO buses don't be feeling Cocky

[Lee Bornstein]

New Inverter Experience!

Just pulled into new campground with 30A service. Plugged in coach, flipped 30A breaker on post and breaker immediately tripped.

Scratched my head, went inside and turned off all AC Breakers to eliminate all load. Filpped breaker on post again and it tripped.

Scratched my head again, unplugged coach, reset breaker and it stayed on.

Then, with all this head scratching I remembered something someone said earlier in this thread... Inverters will not run on GFI protected circuit. Sure enough, the 30A breaker on post was GFI. Looked at other sites in park and no GFI on the 30A breakers.

Site I was assigned to was only one with 30A GFI.

Convinced the campground manager that since I was paying for Full Hookups that it would be nice to get a site that was compatible with my coach.

Moved to new site, plugged in, turned on all breakers and we're comfy and happy here in the North Woods in Gilbert, MN.

Lee
See us on the map: http://map.datastormusers.com/user1.cfm?user=2352

[Jon Wehrenberg]

Lee, the ground fault is likely related to the transfer switching in the coach and not the inverter. But the fact remains we will trip a GFCI with coaches that are set up like our Libertys. I cannot say anything about any other converter's product because theirs may be set up differently.

GFCI 30 amp receptacles (or breakers) are coming. It is just taking time for the codes and UL standards to get wide acceptance.

I am not selling Thompson Coaches, but I know Rick Thompson has given this area in his coaches a lot of thought, and his method of doing a "soft" changover from inverter to shore or generator power will not trip a GFCI. I really like his coaches because of the logic that he has built into the electrical system.

[gmcbuffalo]

Jon
How does this "soft change over" work or it's concept?
GregM

[Jon Wehrenberg]

Greg,

I wish Rick Thompson would post an explaination here, but absent that I will give a limited answer.

Whenever our coaches that have automatic transfer switches go from one power source to another, such as from inverter to shore power or generator, relays handle the switching action. If a circuit such as the shore power circuit has a lot of devices in the "on" position and they are not under power from the active circuit, such as the inverters, a heavy load is imposed and arcing occurs on the contacts. This is probably not a big deal if it is a small load, but if it is several Cruise Airs powered up simultaneously, the starting load is large.

When such a load transfer is made, it is beneficial if loads are shed or off of the system until the switch is made, and then are turned on at varying times so the systems such as the 50 amp circuit breakers are not tripped by a sudden overload.

It is good practice to manually or automaticaly shut off all loads each time we go from one power source to another, although it is not always possible or practical, such as when a generator is set for auto-start, or when there is a campground power outage. I know Thompson for one has an extensive system for handling loads and controlling demands.

[Gary & Peggy Stevens]

Jon, have you ever seen one of Thompsons used coaches http://www.thompsoncoach.com/usedcoaches.html for sale? Maybe he hasn't had them in the market long enough for them to come out in a used condition?

When Ben and Peg and I looked at his bus in Tampa, at the RV Show, it truly was a remarkeable bus. He has really put some thought into his electronics.

Gary S

[Jon Wehrenberg]

I saw one on RV Trader that hung there for a while.

Di and I really like his electrical systems. He has made it so the coach is literally all automatic.

[merle&louise]

Gary,

I remember about 9 months ago, a Thompson coach (no slides) was for sale on eBay. If I remember correctly it was a 2001 and it had a buy it now price of $360,000 which I thought was a great deal. I don't know if it actually sold (it probably did) but I never saw it on eBay again. It was very nicely finished inside and the outside was blue, silver, and s.s.