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Electrical problem

Yahoo Message Number: 7555
We were driving home from a trip yesterday when I noticed my computer had shut off. I started looking around to find the plugs and microwave were not working. I checked the GFCI plug and it was "tripped". I reset it but the plugs still didn't work. I checked the breaker box and batteries, they were fine. When we stopped Rick looked at the inverter. He said nothing looked tripped but reset them anyway. Then the microwave came back on.
I started the generator still no plugs. Made some cookies in the oven, toward the end of cooking the lights on the microwave were flickering. A little while later it when off again (plugs are still not working).

We got home, plugged in and everything works on shore power.

Help!

Tammy

'96 Intrigue

Re: Electrical problem

Reply #1 –
Yahoo Message Number: 7563
Hi Tammy,

As your MH is older by 4 years than mine I can only suggest what the porblem is. There is two circuit breakers on the inverter - one for the microwave and one for the electrical outlets. Reseting the CBs on the inverter gave partial results. Shore power is a pass through in the inverter. So the highly suspect is the inverter. There has been many posts on this subject mostly faulty circuit board connections.
Inverters are relatively cheap. Consider a pure sine wave replacement.
Fred Kovol

Re: Electrical problem

Reply #2 –
Yahoo Message Number: 7571
Tammy: If you can't find the posts concerning Inverter problems, let me know and I will send you an E-mail with instructions that may help. On my 99 model, I had a few similar problems.
There is a quick way to check the inverterr for corrosion that may be causing your problem.

larry.hanson@...

Re: Electrical problem

Reply #3 –
Yahoo Message Number: 7572
A GFCI plug will often be "daisy chained" to other outlets to provide power to the circuits it feeds. Sometimes the GFCI plug will "make" part of the circuit but not the other. You may need to replace the GFCI plug.

Steve

--- Tammy tammyt@...> wrote:

Quote
We were driving home from a trip yesterday when I noticed my computer >

had shut off. I started looking around to find the plugs and > microwave were not working. I checked the GFCI plug and it > was "tripped". I reset it but the plugs still didn't work. I > checked the breaker box and batteries, they were fine. When we > stopped Rick looked at the inverter. He said nothing looked tripped > but reset them anyway. Then the microwave came back on.
I started the generator still no plugs. Made some cookies in the > oven, toward the end of cooking the lights on the microwave were > flickering. A little while later it when off again (plugs are still > not working).

We got home, plugged in and everything works on shore power.

Help!

Tammy

'96 Intrigue
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Re: Electrical problem

Reply #4 –
Yahoo Message Number: 7582
Fred:

Interesting, and timely that this subject came up...just as we had a similar problem.

We've been plugged into 50A service for the past 4 days and decided to give the heat

pumps a break and get a 1500W space heater which we plugged into the outlet by the

kitchen range. It worked fine for a couple days, and when all the circuits went down

this morning, I just assumed we overloaded a breaker. This was the case as the RV

park service breaker had tripped. Resetting this didn't remedy the situation, but

having just read your response to Tammy, I checked the inverter breaker. Sure

enough, it had tripped and a reset of this fixed everything...until I turned on the

space heater again. After shutting down competing loads (TV, coffee maker, etc) the

inverter breaker stopped tripping and all is OK. I took an additonal precaution and

turned off the Inverter at the panel over the entry door. Now adding the loads back

seems to have things back to normal.
Question: How much additional load, if any, does the inverter add to the system?

Should it be disconnected when on 'shore power'? I've never thought about it before

as It's always been handy not having to go through any kind of disconnect

sequence...just unplug and go.

Thanks for being our unelected-electrical guru,

Dick

Allure 2000 #30519

Quote from: fredkovol"\[br\
\[br\]] > Hi Tammy,

As your MH is older by 4 years than mine I can only suggest what

the

Quote
porblem is. There is two circuit breakers on the inverter - one for > the microwave and one for the electrical outlets. Reseting the CBs

on

Quote
the inverter gave partial results. Shore power is a pass through in > the inverter. So the highly suspect is the inverter. There has been > many posts on this subject mostly faulty circuit board connections.
Inverters are relatively cheap. Consider a pure sine wave

replacement.

Solar Panel Installation

Reply #5 –
Yahoo Message Number: 7584
I'm sure there's a wealth of information in this group regarding this subject.
When our travels take us back through Eugene, in addtion to having CC take care of some small issues, we'd like to have a solar panel & controller installed. Has anyone had any experience doing this? I'm thinking the biggest challenge is in fishing an 8 or 10 gage wire from the roof to the batteries, but maybe CC has already prewired their basic units. A cursory review of the schematics doesn't tell me anything, however. Anyone out there care to make suggestions? Which solar panel vendor would you suggest?

Thanks in advance,
Dick

Allure 2000 #30519

Re: Electrical problem

Reply #6 –
Yahoo Message Number: 7585
Hi Dick,

Depends on the inverter but all should take much less than one amp when not in use. The inverter switches itself out of the loop when on shore or generator power. I will measure mine in the next few days but it will be the dc current coming from the battery bank, i.e., no shore or generator power. I do keep the inverter off when on shore power or generator. Side note - some coach manfacturers wire (maybe even CCI in their ligher lines) the inverter in the loop to keep the ac voltage up when shore power is delivering a low voltage.
Fred Kovol

Re: Solar Panel Installation

Reply #7 –
Yahoo Message Number: 7587
Dick,

We had Greg Holder in Oregon install a solar system with 3 panels and sealed batteries. His web site: http://www.amsolar.com/
We've really enjoyed the system and it's been completely trouble free. They are very nice people to work with.

Rob

02 Intrigue 11379

Re: Solar Panel Installation

Reply #8 –
Yahoo Message Number: 7588
Dick -

Never installed them on a CC, but did on a Dolphin. Pretty simple actually, the wire fishes down the fridge chimney. in my case the breakers were below the fridge so it was a simple matter of mounting the controller on the side of a cabinet and then hooking the panel into the main buss on the panel. Make sure you put a disconnect switch in or you will always have "live" cables at the batteries.

Dave

Re: Solar Panel Installation

Reply #10 –
Yahoo Message Number: 7590
I just read the post inquiring about solar panels. Last spring I installed SOLAR FORCE panels on my Affinity. The amazing thing about these panels is that they are peel and stick. I liked that concept because I did not have to drill any holes in the top of the coach (less chance for leaks over the long haul), just drop the wires down thru the refrig vent, mount a trace controller (came with the package) and you're good to go. The one caution I would make is not to expose the panels to the sun for very long prior to sticking them on the coach as they get VERY sticky and hard to work with if they get too hot. I would recommend installing them in a shaded area. These panels have either a 15 or 20 year warranty, can be walked on (that is a good thing!). If one cell or part of the panel doesn't work, the rest of the panel does. If for some reason the panel became defective, you just peel and stick another one over the top of it. The glue on these panels is so strong that you can never take them off. I checked with CC before I installed them to make sure there would not be an issue by sticking them to the roof and they said no problem. I have been very happy with these panels. Once in awhile, if it hasn't rained, I have to get on top of the coach and hose the panels down. But I am up there to wax so it is no big deal. Here is the website: www.solarforce.com The phone number has changed just recently (they haven't updated the new number on the site yet) it is (800) 843-3892 ext 2537 and ask for Wendy Woodhouse.
Good Luck, Dale 2002 Affinity 6129

Re: Electrical problem

Reply #11 –
Yahoo Message Number: 7591
For my Allure, a #10 (30 amp) circuit feeds the inverter. #12 (20 amp) and #14 (15 amp) circuit leaves the inverter for ALL the 120V outlets (except microwave) and the Microwave respectively. This 30A circult shares one leg of the 50A park service with rear air conditioner/heat pump and one other item (think refrig, maybe washer). The other 50A leg is for the front air conditioner/heat pump and one or two other items (think washer, maybe refrig).
I changed from the Invertrix to a Prosine. Power off consumption is in the milliamps of 12V battery power. When connected to shore power, besides the 120V recepticle and microwave loads, it could also be drawing up to 14 amps (out of the 30A breaker limit) to charge the batteries.

Trivia question: What is the difference between 30A and 50A park service.

Answer: Up to 70 amps, not 20 amps. 30A is just one 120V leg of a park circuit shared with both legs of the RV circuit. 50A service is TWO 120V park circuits each feeding their respective leg of the RV. If you could maximize the load on both circuits to 50A you would be drawing 100A at 120V.
Herb

2002 Allure #30690

Re: Solar Panel Installation

Reply #12 –
Yahoo Message Number: 7613
Thanks Rob, Dave, Dale and Fred. Your suggestions are most helpful. Dale, those Solar Force panels are particularly interesting. Stick on- walk on yet! Too good to be true! I'll certainly check this company out.

Dick

Allure 2000 #30519

Re: Solar Panel Installation

Reply #13 –
Yahoo Message Number: 7709
We just had a four panel system installed by Greg's company (A M Solar) too. We'd highly recommend them. Greg has done solar power classes at "Life on Wheels" conferences at the Univ. of Idaho (Moscow, ID) for several years - that's where we met him.

Check out the info on his web site (www.amsolar.com) before you buy any system. Lots of good info.

re: stick-on film panels - this time of the year you may want to tilt panels toward the sun. But, maybe if you paste enough stick-on panels on the roof it won't be an issue.

There was no pre-wiring in our coach (2002 Allure). We considered running wires through the vent openings, but eventually decided it was better to drill through the roof just above where the controller would be mounted (in the bedroom wall near the washer/dryer cabinet. That minimized the cable lengths.

A M Solar uses some kind of 3M adhesive to mount the panels to the roof - the only hole needed was for the cable feed.
Be sure to invest in a good controller - consider Maximum Power Point Tracking (MPPT) technology, at least. With an MPPT controller we get at least a 30% increase in amperage from our (44 cell) panels.
--

Tom Harsch 2002 Allure #30791/36'
 

Electrical problem Update

Reply #14 –
Yahoo Message Number: 7940
My mechanic came back to work today and he found the problem with our strange electrical problems. The 30 amp circuit breaker went out on the inverter. He suspects that that was at least partially caused by the house batteries going bad. They still work for short periods but don't work hold a charge very long and this all started after a cold snap in December.

Anyway I learned something today....Leave the inverter off when you don't really need it.
Thanks for all the help.

Tammy

Quote from: Tammy
We were driving home from a trip yesterday when I noticed my

computer

Quote
had shut off. I started looking around to find the plugs and > microwave were not working. I checked the GFCI plug and it > was "tripped". I reset it but the plugs still didn't work. I > checked the breaker box and batteries, they were fine. When we > stopped Rick looked at the inverter. He said nothing looked

tripped

Quote
but reset them anyway. Then the microwave came back on.
I started the generator still no plugs. Made some cookies in the > oven, toward the end of cooking the lights on the microwave were > flickering. A little while later it when off again (plugs are

still