Newbie needs advice on electrical issue

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Hi everyone.  Must say again how much I appreciate all the input.  Seems Winnebago was correct.  We replaced dead batteries and everything is up and running.  Rep must have been right about inverter/charger not running when battery charge below 11. Though still can't rap my head around why everything worked with generator power on dead batteries, but with shore the 12v would not work.  Anyways, hopefully is the least of worries. Thanks again
 
Hi all.. Late to this thread. I too am a 2005 Itasca Horizon owner (40KD). I had a similar problem when I bought it and drove home (Tampa Lazydays to NH).
turns out... Dimension Inverter needed a reset (inside the unit I was told), AND my 3x12v house batteries were dead.  Had the Dimension Reset, and bought 4x 6v new exodus, and has been rock solid now for 10 months since installed.
Good luck and enjoy your RV... just keep putting miles and smiles on it :)  I'm heading out to the storage facility tomorrow to winterize it and put her to bed for the winter.. makes me so sad.
-mike
 
Windebrook said:
Though still can't rap my head around why everything worked with generator power on dead batteries, but with shore the 12v would not work.
  Anyways, hopefully is the least of worries. Thanks again
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With dead batteries there is no 12 volt power to operate anything...with the generator running or plugged in to shore power the 12 volts come from the converter and only pass through the batteries (Maybe depends on the set-up) some pass through and some feed the house circuits directly from the converter....I suspect that when running from your generator it goes direct to the 12 volt circuits and when on shore power it does not!! BUt you would need to do some wire tracing to figure that all out!

Just like trying to start a car with a dead battery - won't work and neither will your electric windows and anything else in the car...well the RV is the same thing...dead batteries and no lights or anything else that is 12 volts!

God Luck, glad you got the problem solved and welcome aboard!!

Jim
 
Hello Harry and Bev,

If you have a voltmeter measure the coach battery  right at the battery terminals when the shore power is plugged in.
The Battery should read 13.2 - 13.8 Volts. If not shore power is not getting to the charger or the charger is bad.

Then turn off the shore power.
If the battery drops right away to less than 12.3 Volts then there is either a load on the battery or the battery is bad.

How many coach batteries do you have?
If more than 1 battery are they 6V or 12V batteries?
Do you have a refrigerator with 12V mode? If so turn off the refrigerator 12V mode

If they are 12V batteries and they are wired in parallel then there may be complications.
 
with the generator running or plugged in to shore power the 12 volts come from the converter and only pass through the batteries (Maybe depends on the set-up) some pass through and some feed the house circuits directly from the converter...
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I've never heard of a set-up where the 12v power actually "passed through" the batteries. The loads would have to be in series with the batteries for that to be true and that isn't a workable design. The circuit is always parallel rather than serial.  However, a totally dead battery in parallel with the loads and charger could overload the charger and cause it to shut down or blow a fuse or trip its supply breaker, any of which would have a similar result: no power anywhere. Multiple 6v battery configurations can also give that appearance if one battery goes bad or breaks a wire.
 
Glad you are up and running Harry.
Keep an eye on things if your batteries are 12V.
Both my Winnebago View and my Rialta have a pair of 12V batteries wired in parallel.
It is a real pain to keep them balanced and if I do not keep them balanced, they can go dead without warning.

I wish Winnebago would use a pair of 6V batteries wired in series - the batteries last much longer that way.

Best Regards
 
Have been on road since 11/1 and all seems ok so far.  At moment plugged into 50 amp and did have a funny fluctuation in power a couple times yesterday when I had a lot of things running, think maybe i was trying to draw too much. 

Don we have 3 12v batteries wired in parallel.  Fridge runs on either propane or 110 shore.  My panel says that charger is working properly with batteries charging or conditioning or floating (13 - 14 range) when plugged into shore.  Used batteries on road and did seem to run down a tad bit faster than norm so will try your suggestion and see whats happening.  I also have trickle start from house to chassis batteries, so wondering if may have a draw going on there as well.  Did have cummins service engine a few days ago, thought they had checked the batteries, but better double check again.  What do you mean by complications? 

Have been reading alot about 6v being a  better set up, especially for amp hours.  Anyone else doing that? 

Now working on new tires too - ugh. 

But ocean is great!! and sun has been out alot.....and yes sir, I am smilin'!  :)
 
With 6V batteries you wind up with the same issue as with 12V since there will be two in series and then two in series and then the four in parallel to achieve the required amp-hour capacity.  I was never motivated to change to 6V and for me there is no reason to change. 

You are fine with 12V batteries in parallel but be aware if one cell in one battery goes bad, it will cause the entire bank to be overcharged due to pulling down the bank voltage (just like 6V batteries in series-parallel.)  When it's time to replace batteries in parallel, replace the entire bank at one time with the replacement batteries being all alike.  I recommend Lifeline AGM batteries for your house bank, I have group 31s with a 20 hour capacity of 125 amp/hr.  They are truly maintenance free, charge faster due to lower internal resistance and will easily outlast standard flooded cell batteries by a factor of two.

Tip 1: With your engine running, you should have about the same voltage on the house and chassis battery banks (above 13V)

Tip 2: We have the same coach - here's my web page of the mods I've made over the years.
 
I guess that I am surprised at all of the back and forth about all of the electrical what ifs before anyone even mentioned having the batteries checked. In all of this the easiest thing to have done was to take the batteries to a battery retailer and have them professionally charged and load checked. Just like your wife, if the batteries are not happy no one is happy.
 
navy flier said:
I guess that I am surprised at all of the back and forth about all of the electrical what ifs before anyone even mentioned having the batteries checked. In all of this the easiest thing to have done was to take the batteries to a battery retailer and have them professionally charged and load checked. Just like your wife, if the batteries are not happy no one is happy.
Click to expand...
The batteries were suspect from the beginning:

Windebrook said:
Hi everyone.  Must say again how much I appreciate all the input.  Seems Winnebago was correct.  We replaced dead batteries and everything is up and running.  ..
Click to expand...
 
The primary reason why so many people think that 6V in series are much better than 12v in parallel is simply the batteries themselves. The 12v's typically used are rarely quality deep cycles (usually the so-called marine/RV type) whereas the 6V are invariable GC2 golf cart batteries, which are among the best deep cycle batteries made. When quality 12v deep cycles are used, e.g. a Trojan 27TMX, the life cycle is about the same.

There is a small difference in the series vs parallel electrical flow, which I think is the "balance" that Don referred to, but that is rarely a significant issue. The symptoms of an unbalanced load on the batteries would be one discharging or recharging sooner than the other.
 
Have been reading alot about 6v being a  better set up, especially for amp hours.  Anyone else doing that? 
Click to expand...

Many RVers think there is something magical about 6v vs 12v, but it's not the voltage that makes a difference. GC2 golf cart batteries happen to be 6v (there is also an 8v model) and these are among the best quality deep cycle batteries available. Specialty battery companies like Trojan and Concorde make similar quality 12v deep cycles that will perform just as well, but few people are willing to pay the price. The golf cart batteries are manufactured and sold in higher volumes, so tend to be priced lower.


If you have three batteries in the house bank, there is no reasonable way to use 6v golf cart batteries because they must be installed in pairs to get 12v. You can use 2 or 4, but not 3.

Please read my article on RV batteries. It's not long or excessively technical: Choose battery
 
Hi Harry,
John said it all - if one cell goes dead the system overcharges.

That is my beef with batteries wired in parallel.

In My Winnebago Rialta (just sold it!) the batteries are 12V wired in parallel and it was a royal pain to keep them balanced.
There was no room in the battery box for the taller 6V batteries so I was left with the chore of balancing the batteries.

The final solution was to separate the 2 batteries while in storage and use a dual charger so that each battery could get exactly the correct charge. If you leave them in parallel in storage the weaker battery will get under charged and the stronger battery will be over charged by a small amount.

That leads to premature battery death. Using the dual charger and separating the batteries in storage I get 4-5 years life instead of only 1-2 years like I used to.

In my Winnebago View, the battery box is taller so I hope to switch out to Duracell GC2AGM at Sam's Club ($180 each)
Then I will not have to worry about balancing the batteries.
That will take me from 140 Amp Hours to 225 Amp hours.
Also the GC2AGM is absorptive glass mat  (AGM) so there is 0 maintenance .
 
Windebrook said:
Hi all, Brand new here: having found i need some help I thought it was time to join. We are owners of a 2005 Itasca Horizon (40 ft., diesel) and even after 5 years we are still learning as we go (when we can actually "go"). We make lots of mistakes and I think this may be another. We hadn't used our "home" in about 6 months but had left it hooked up to shoreline the entire time, with a trickle start from house to chassis batteries. We would start it (and generator) up every few weeks, and generally check everything over, run a few components, check things , etc. Tuesday my husband checked everything over and had no problems. That same night we had torrential rains and a sudden power outage lasting about 4 hours. The next day we had these problems: 1) no lights - or anything 12v related; 2)110 appliances still worked; 3) all 3 house batteries were dead; 4) Fan on inverter/charger not kicking in (which i thought always did); 5) We ARE able to get 12v power from generator and from engine running but not from shoreline (or dead batteries of course). It appears that something is interfering with the flow of 110 to the 12v system and battery charger. We have a Dimension inverter/charger which i am beginning to suspect but wanted to see what everyone else thought. After much researching online I am wondering also about inline fuses and transfer cases/switches, and if batteries are dead because we left them on a constant charge by being plugged in to shoreline for so long and once no shore charging, they just drained down to nothing. I have checked the breakers under bed and even reset the inverter one (clicking was heard from inverter like normal) but do not know where or what to look for with inline fuses. Any ideas or suggestions will be much appreciated. Even if this involves pro tech repair, I would like to be knowledgeable about what they come up with for repairs. We are attempting to charge batteries externally but not looking good so far. Thank you again. Harry & Bev in MA
Click to expand...
Did you ever solve the problem with the dimensions inverter. We are new and have the same 2005 Winnebago Itasca Horizon 40 kd with the Dimensions inverter. Power surged, heard a loud pop. House batteries will not charge. Have not located and inline fuse or reset button.
 
Welcome!

Replace the Dimented (sic) inverter with a Magnum pure sine wave model. If you go to the link in my signature, I have a project write-up replacing the Dimented with a Xantrex (and then replaced the Xantrex with a Magnum.)
 
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