Skip to main content ↑ ↓
Topic: New England States (Read 1266 times) previous topic - next topic
0 Members and 1 Guest are viewing this topic.

New England States

Yahoo Message Number: 80432
We will travel July and August the New England States. Want to ask this wunderful group for nice RV-Resorts with elbow room for our 4 slides in that area.

Bert

08 Magna 6909

Re: New England States

Reply #1 –
Yahoo Message Number: 80437
Can you be more specific about your route and what states you will be visiting? For example, we skirted DC because of the traffic and because we had been there before.

Lonny & Diane Livingston
'04 Allure #31065

Re: New England States

Reply #2 –
Yahoo Message Number: 80459
Lonny and Diane, we plan to go to from Niagara Falls through New York State to Mass and RI, than Mass again, up the coast NH and ME.

Bert

08 Magna 6909

Re: New England States

Reply #3 –
Yahoo Message Number: 80464
Bert,

We stayed in a Mohegan Sun Casino in CT it was dry camping but free, several good restaurants in the casino. We stayed in one in PA also. Google then and if they are close to your route a good place to stay.

Vick Welsh

99 Intrigue 10714

Re: New England States

Reply #4 –
Yahoo Message Number: 80466
Crazy Horse Campground, Littletown, NH - fine place. Great access to fine New England bluegrass music. In D.C., Cherry Hill RV Park, College Park, MD (only RV park in the DC area with close proximity to DC sights & sounds). EASY access to the metro DC area via sub & bus and/or driving if you prefer.
Bill, #11881 Intrigue

Re: New England States

Reply #5 –
Yahoo Message Number: 80467
If you find yourself on the Maine coast try a small CG called Greenlaws family CG in Stonington onDeer Isle. Its the only place in that area. Yo can go right down to the docks to pick out your lobster. A clamming liceince for $2

Steve & Jane

1998 Intrigue

#10557

______

Re: New England States

Reply #6 –
Yahoo Message Number: 80468
We stayed at Pumpkin Patch RV park in Bangor ME and then The Narrows Too Campground in Bar Harbor. The LLBean Shuttle picks up at the Narrows.

We stayed at Aces High RV Park in East Lyme, CT.
In New Hampshire, Quechee Pine Valley KOA ask for longest pull thru in the newer, lower section.
In Vermont, in your toad, go to Cabot Cheese factory (a bit of a drive but worth it) and Ben & Jerry's Ice Cream! Yum!

Enjoy your trip!

Lonny & Diane
'04 Allure #31065

Batteries are not getting Charged

Reply #7 –
Yahoo Message Number: 80475
I have been boondocking for a couple of weeks and tonight, the inverter has quit charging my house batteries. I have full power to all outlets, etc. with the generator and on inverter before I got a LO DC notice on the fridge. When I turned on the genset the panel indicates the battery state is in the red and instead of showing 14.5 volts indicating it is charging it stays at 12.0 volts. I do not have a voltmeter to check the batteries. I have checked the following: at the inverter the green light is on and it sounds like it is running, I pushed on the breaker/fuse (?) on the inverter and nothing happened, the breaker on the genset is ok, the echo charger is blinking green, all breakers are not tripped, the charge light is on on the panel.

I have a charger and am wondering if I can run the genset, hook up the charger to the house batteries and get them up until I can get help. Is there anything I need to do to protect anything like turning off the house battery switch by the entry door?

FYI I have 4 AGM batteries that are going on their third year.
Of course this had to happen at 10:00 at night and I am out of cell phone range. Luckily I have internet satellite to communicate.

Would appreciate any insight on this situation.

Judy,

with dimming lights in Duck Creek Village, UT 2006 Inspire
57160 (I think)

Re: Batteries are not getting Charged

Reply #8 –
Yahoo Message Number: 80477
Hook up your charger. Hope it is a big output not a 10 amp. Run as needed. Morning will bring on line those more familiar with your unit.

Leonard.
97 magna

Re: Batteries are not getting Charged

Reply #10 –
Yahoo Message Number: 80479
I can't help on the no charge problem from your converter, but I can't see why you can't plug the portable battery charger into an AC outlet when the gen is running. On my coach, the generator is started from the house batteries. In a pinch, you might be able to charge with engine alternator?

Larry, 03 Allure, 30856

- In Country-Coach-Owners@yahoogroups.com, "Judy" wrote:

Re: Batteries are not getting Charged

Reply #11 –
Yahoo Message Number: 80484
I had the same problem a few months ago.
Our inverter has a temperature sensor that will shut down the charger if the batteries get too hot. If the sensor fails the inverter will quit charging.
I just disconnected the sensor from where it plugs into the inverter. Our inverter has two RJ11 jacks (phone jacks) next to the on/off switch. One is the sensor and the other is the remote panel.
After disconnecting the sensor I reset the inverter by turning it off and back on.
Hope this helps.
Norm

2004 Intrigue #11773

Re: Batteries are not getting Charged

Reply #12 –
Yahoo Message Number: 80488
Your echo charger is working properly. It is protecting your engine start battery as it should. When the Echocharger sees a voltage less than 13.0vdc the echo charger turns off and blinks green. It confirms your house batteries are discharged. Just putting an external charger on the batteries may not resolve anything if you have a bad battery amongst you house batteries. I would first verify that the charger/inverter has any output at the batteries. You will need a voltmeter to check that. If you decide to put an external charger on the house batteries, for safety, make sure they are isolated from the system and the charger is setup to charger AGM batteries.

Jim Hughes

2000 Allure #30511

Re: Batteries are not getting Charged

Reply #13 –
Yahoo Message Number: 80490
Jim, thanks for the response. Where do I put the voltmeter, at the inverter or batteries or both? I don't have a voltmeter but will get one today.
Assuming I check at the inverter, does the inverter have to be on, generator on? This is something I have never dealt with before so would like to go into this project with some semblance of confidence. Is there a chance the 300 amp fuse could be bad?

Judy

2006 Inspire 51760

Xantrex Freedom 458 Inverter/charger

--------------

Re: Batteries are not getting Charged

Reply #14 –
Yahoo Message Number: 80491
Hooking the battery charger to the house batteries and using a generator to power the battery charger is fine, no need to disconnect any of your 12 volt circuits. The battery charger will put out same voltage as other charging sources. I know someone who recently had an alternator failure so nothing was being charged while going down the road, I advised them to start their generator and hook their battery charger to the chassis battery so they could continue to their destination. They did this and arrived safe and sound where they then had the alternator replaced, had it been their house batteries giving them problems I would have advised the same as a temporary emergency procedure to get them to a service facility.

Ray

2000 Intrigue 11040

Re: Batteries are not getting Charged

Reply #15 –
Yahoo Message Number: 80500
Judy,

I am not sure what control panel you have for your 458 inverter/charger, but is it possible that during your using the inverter and making changes at the control panel, you have actually turned off the charger portion of the 458?

If not let's try this......

The 458 is both an inverter and a charger. Make sure the charger is turned off at your control panel. Check the house battery voltage at any of the battery terminals that have the red and black cables from the inverter/charger. Checking there will give you the overall voltage of the entire bank of house batteries. Red lead on red and black lead on black. At rest, if your batteries are less than 12.6vdc your batteries are not fully charged. Here is and rough table of charge levels:

Voltage=State of Charge
12.6+ =100%
12.5 =90%
12.42 =80%
12.32 =70%
12.20 =60%
12.06 =50%
11.9 =40%
11.75 =30%
11.58 =20%
11.31 =10%

Now, turn on your charger at your control panel and check the voltage again with the meter as you did above. If your inverter/charger is charging, you should get a higher voltage of somewhere between 13.0 to 14.2vdc depending on what mode the charger is in. Even if it is in the "Float" mode, you should see about 13.2vdc.

I hope this helps.

Jim Hughes

2000 Allure #30511

Re: Batteries are not getting Charged

Reply #16 –
Yahoo Message Number: 80504
Jim, with the charger off, I get 11.7. I also checked the voltage at the 300 amp fuse both incoming and outgoing and get 11.7 both ways with the charger on. With the genset on I get 12.0 on the batteries and the 300 amp fuse. I also checked each battery and get 6.3 volts with the charger off.
This tells me the 300 amp fuse is okay which was a concern. It also tells me that I am getting a small charge from the inverter to the batteries with the genset on. Right now I have a 25 amp charger hooked up, the charge on the inverter panel off. I will check in a couple of hours to see if anything is happening.

Having never used a voltmeter before I feel like I just graduated to some upper level of knowledge..........heck, I didn't even know where to put the batteries for the voltmeter!

And yes, the first thing I checked when I noticed the problem was if the charge light was on on the panel.

Chris Snyder had the circuit board fixed around December but the symptoms were totally different, no power to any of the outlets the inverter provides power to. I have full power of everything when the inverter is on and when the genset is on.

I also pressed the button on the inverter that has 25 on it, no luck.
Figured this is a reset button..........

Judy

2006 Inspire 51760

Xantrex Freedom 458 with the el cheapo panel inside the rig

--------------

Re: Batteries are not getting Charged

Reply #17 –
Yahoo Message Number: 80508
Check transfer switch by making sure you have voltage at meters in coach with gen running. Then make sure you have voltage into the inverter. Voltage in nothing out of inverter maybe inverter gone bad.

Leonard

97 magna 5418

Re: Batteries are not getting Charged

Reply #18 –
Yahoo Message Number: 80511
Leonard, I definitely have power to the coach whether on inverter or generator. In other words, when I turn the genset on, I can hear the transfer case click in, then everything powers up like it normally does, Microwave comes on, computer modem, etc. The same thing happens when I turn on the inverter, I get full power to all outlets, etc. that are connected through the inverter.
I'm not sure what you mean "make sure you have voltage into the inverter." Where do I test this? If I test it at those big connections at the outside of the inverter, do I use AC or DC to test? This is a real learning curve for me and I don't want to screw anything else up!! Thanks for any help.

Judy

2006 Inspire 51760

Xantrex Freedom 458 inverter/charger

From:Leonard Kerns
Sent: Monday, June 25, 2012 5:30 PM To:Country-Coach-Owners@yahoogroups.com Subject: Re: [Country-Coach-Owners] Re: Batteries are not getting Charged

Check transfer switch by making sure you have voltage at meters in coach with gen running. Then make sure you have voltage into the inverter. Voltage in nothing out of inverter maybe inverter gone bad.

Leonard

97 magna 5418

Re: Batteries are not getting Charged

Reply #19 –
Yahoo Message Number: 80514
Then everything works but the batteries are not charging. Suspect there is a relay not closing. Look in same bay as inverter is in. Look for round thing with batt cables on both sides. Small wire on small studs. Check voltage both sides on batt cables. Batt cables should go to inverter on one side.

Leonard

Re: Batteries are not getting Charged

Reply #20 –
Yahoo Message Number: 80519
Leonard if you mean the 300 amp fuse that is in the inverter compartment, I got the same voltage on both sides, 11.7 with the inverter on, 12.0 or so with the genset on.

Judy

2006 Inspire 51760
Xantrex Freedom 458

From:Leonard Kerns
Sent: Monday, June 25, 2012 6:14 PM To:Country-Coach-Owners@yahoogroups.com Subject: Re: [Country-Coach-Owners] Re: Batteries are not getting Charged

Then everything works but the batteries are not charging. Suspect there is a relay not closing. Look in same bay as inverter is in. Look for round thing with batt cables on both sides. Small wire on small studs. Check voltage both sides on batt cables. Batt cables should go to inverter on one side.

Leonard

Re: Batteries are not getting Charged

Reply #21 –
Yahoo Message Number: 80521
Not the fuse, a solenoid. The cable from the fuse should go to it. I have no first hand experience with your year coach, so this is guess work. Hoped some with more knowledge would jump in. This is what I understand. All systems work but the battery charger. It is part of the inverter. Do you have the manuel for the inverter, check the troubleshooting part and look for your problem. If the inverter is putting out then it is lost before batteries. There are several solenoids in the system to act as switch for the battery loads. Suspect one is not closing. Do you have the CC manuel with the wiring diagrams? Look for one that shows the batteries and the wiring from them to the inverter and look at what else is in the system. Assume you have done a visual check of all the 12 volt fuse panels and made sure all the leds are green.

Follow the battery cable from the 300 amp fuse, the 12.0 volt side and see where it goes, maybe to a solenoid? These problems are general very simple, just hard to find.

Leonard

97' Magna 5418

Re: Batteries are not getting Charged

Reply #22 –
Yahoo Message Number: 80522
Have the batteries come up at all with the 25 amp charger on them? If not, possible you have a dead battery. You can use your volt meter to check the battery bank and each battery. See if all are the same voltage, just over 6 are over 12 for each one. Any thing under 6 or 12 is suspect.

Another thing you can try, run the diesel and let the engine alt charge for awhile and see what the batteries do in voltage. Watch the dash amp meter and see what output it has. Place engine on high idle for a hr at least and watch the amp gauge. Will start very low and should go up.

Leonard

Re: Batteries are not getting Charged

Reply #23 –
Yahoo Message Number: 80532
Yes the batteries are slowly coming up. I am going to put a call into xantrex today then make an appointment in Gunnison to have it looked at when we leave Utah. Thanks for your help, will report back when it is fixed. BTW saw the solenoid you are talking about. Don't want to go there!

Re: Batteries are not getting Charged

Reply #24 –
Yahoo Message Number: 80537
First thing is to make sure all the batteries are indeed taking a charge and do not have bad cell(s). The charger on the inverter drops out at a certain low voltage. The solenoid looks intimadating but really are not bad, just dealing with 12 v. It could so easy be the solenoid or the circuit to it. You have done will with your trouble shooting. You will be better informed to deal with the shop checking it out. Good luck. Will be looking forward to your report.

Leonard