Frantic in Kerrville

[Jon Wehrenberg]

Charles,

I will presume your coach was set with autostart. I will also presume the reason the generator kicked on was your inverter that handles the circuits described has had a failure, the house batteries lost power due to the loads on them and the generator kicked on.

The inverters have several potential power input failures ranging from the circuit breakers in the electrical panel and the switch on the remote panel to the circuit breakers on the front panel of the inverter itself. It sounds like you either reset or checked it all.

The inverters you have sense incoming shore or generator power and when that power is available they switch via heavy duty Potter Brumfield relays mounted on the front panel to pass shore or generator power through the relay to the circuits you have lost, and to switch the inverter from an inverter to a battery charger. If these relays fail to switch, either due to a failed relay or due to a defective control board your inverter will not function as needed.

This is solely a guess, but since you cannot get 120VAC power to the circuits described either through the inverter via shore power, or through the inverter as an inverter I think you have an inverter that has failed.

Those inverters have reached the point where they are being supported with repair parts, but the manufacturer has attached punishing prices to repair parts. Your choice is clear. Decide if you wish to retain your present inverters (despite the cost probably the cheapest approach) or to spend some serious money to change them out for newer ones, including what ever costs are associated with running wires for remote panels.

We can get into greater detail on this if you wish. See my previous thread about the care and feeding of inverters because it gives a phone number of a guy that can help with repairs or further diagnosis.

[Jon Wehrenberg]

Chuck..........see your PM's. I sent you one.

[jonnie]

Could it be a GFI?

[Charles Spera]

The shore cord looks good so I am now thinking the next area to look is the transfer switch; wherever that is located.

[Coloradobus]

Just a thought, we once lost power on one leg of the coach (dryer, stove etc), and turned out the shore post was at fault. We changed sites, and Voila, Joy as you say!

[Jon Wehrenberg]

Chuck,

I understand why you are hoping to find the problem in the power supply or the transfer switch. To put that question behind you and allow you to zero in on the problem turn off shore power and the generator and allow the inverters to function.

If doing that still fails to deliver power to the circuits in question, you can start to assume the issue lies with the inverter. On your coach like mine Liberty has provided input power to the inverters via the circuits marked "battery charger 1 and battery charger 2". Access the inverter in question, and carefully verify if you have power on the input wires. You will need shore power or generator power input to do this. Be careful. There should be two sets of input wires to each inverter, one set going to the inverter input, the other set going to the battery charger circuit. They are connected in your house electrical panel to the same circuit breaker.

If you have input power, but no output power the problem lies with the inverter, and as I said previously I would look first at the P&B relay.

[Charles Spera]

Drafted an answer a bit ago and somehow lost it before posting, so....
Chris Burkard' (210 422-0489) RV Repair extraordinaire came to the coach and, being thin, was able to get back into the invertors and find that yours truly is as blind as a bat.
Apparently I had missed the open circuit breaker that disabled it. Pushing it back in has us working fine and hoping that whatever caused it to pop in the first place was an anomoly...we'll see.
Once again, I have learned a great deal more about my coach through the help of a great group of people. Thank you, Thank you, Thank you.
You should see the big smile on Barb now!

[Jon Wehrenberg]

Chuck,

It could have been an anomoly. More likely however is the circuit breaker is old and tired, or there is a glitch causing it to trip.

The circuit breakers are quite common so if it trips again, go to WW Grainger or equivalent and get a replacement and install it. If the new one trips you have an internal inverter problem. The CB trip could have been caused by something as simple as overloading the circuit (DUH!).

[Ray Davis]

Do you use a surge protector inline with your coach. Check older threads, and you'll find several about protectors that protect you not only for surge, but for under voltage as well. Maybe your line took a hit, and luckily only a break popped. I believe that Gordon Dean had a voltage issue out at Kerrville, returned to his coach to find generator running, or inverting itself to death.

ray

[Jon Wehrenberg]

I think Chuck first needs to see if the CB trips again. I have many of that type on the plane and with age they tend to pop. I have replaced other CBs on both my coaches and I know other POG members have also dealt with breakers of that type or larger that just decided to trip for no reason.

I'm not ruling out funky power from the shore power, but I'm of the mindset that is inclined to focus on the root cause of the inverter failure, and when that simple fix is proven to not cure the problem then it is time to look more extensively.