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Inverter / Generator Questions…
Finally signed up. Im a member on the Facebook Bus Nuts. Great sight but Im sure they do not want to treat the site as a clearing house as to fixing buses – so here I am.
I purchasd my 1990 Country Coach back in 2008 and have 240,000 miles on it.
This is my issue:
In the past when I would turn on my generator I would always have “full power” , roof a/c , micorwave, lights- etc.
I loaned my bus to a close friend to go camping last weekend. He connected up to Shore Power and called me and said that everything was working but the interior lights? Well I know the lights are 12 volt and work off the house batteries/inverter but also worked off the genny as well.. So, the only way the lights will come on now is if the inverter is turned on with my domestic battery switched in the on position…. Lights “will not” come on when the generator is running?
So we know there is power coming from the genny as the a/c and tv and all work. Shold I not have full power to everything on the bus including lights with the generator running?
(Side note- I did notice my two voltage gauges showing “0” volts with no power at one point with the genny running. No power in the bus. I turned the genny off and re-started it. One gauge show “0” volts and the other was pegged at “150”. I shut the genny down at once. Re-started and it went back to noral at “120” volts on both gauges. So that is not normal- what could it be?)
I have a Freedom 2500 inverter. The lights appear to be in proper order. On solid green light showing the unit is on and the next light flashing showing the unit charging.
Where do I even begin to look?
Tully
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30 Replies
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Does everything function properly when on shore power?
What does not work when on gen power?
Interior lighting is all 12volt power and should be functioning with or without gen/shore power as long as the house batteries DC voltage is good.
Are you reading voltage that has dropped out and came back with a voltmeter anywhere or only off the meters installed in the coach? If you are loosing power on gen power (AC) then you need to look at power out of gen and verify is power getting to the transfer relays? Use caution anytime testing circuits if you are not familiar with AC and DC voltage-testing….
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Welcome Tully, you found the right place and Jon and I decided to give you free dues for the first year.:)
As Jeff pointed out, the interior lights are 12v so sounds like your light problem is DC related and the AC voltage problem may be a coincident. Does your 90 CC have the electronic cabinet in the 1st bay?
4:38 am, Jeff must be going early to the doughnut shop for his customers!
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1) When connected to shore power- everything works but the interior 12 volt lights.
2) When on genny power- the only thing that does not work is the 12 volts in the coach / lighting.
3) The house voltage is showing 10.5 to 11 volts on the coach dashboard gauge. So obviously this is an issue. I have been slow charging the batteries and will be back to the coach today to see where I am at on voltage. I will also check the batteries to make certain they are not low on acid.
So my question is this now:
Question A) If voltage on “house batteries” is less than 12 volts then this will throw everything off and the interior lights will not come on with genny or shore power correctly?
I did notice that even at 10.5 volts I could manually swtich the domestic house batteries on and turn on interior lights- they do come on.
Question B) I did fire up the genny and put the inverter on. Ran the genny for 2 hours thinking that should help charge the “house batteries” ? (Did no see any difference / very little on battery from 10 volts to 10.5 volts in that charging time)
I may shoot a little I-phone video today and then post a Youtube link to show additional details.
Thanks for the replies so far and input.
Tully
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I believe you have one or more shorted cells in your house batteries. Dead battery…
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I hope the batteries are not bad…
The batteries were just bought in October. I have kept them on a trickle charger at all times.
I think I am going to buy a voltage meter. What kind should I get?Tully
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Any $10 digital volt meter will do. You are just looking for basic DC, AC and continuity/resistance modes.
Wildly asymmetric AC measurements in a 240V split phase system point to a bad neutral wire.
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I did notice that even at 10.5 volts I could manually swtich the domestic house batteries on and turn on interior lights- they do come on. ” Is this manually switching the transfer switch or what switch? Sounds like your batteries are toast, you need to check the voltage coming out of your trickle charger. You could have over charged your batts.
Tully I have a 1992 Beaver and my transfer switches with not function if I have no house batt power. Your 1990 country coach could be the same. In those day there was a lot of ideas that showed up in both Oregon companies. In fact Beaver started doing conversion because CC was doing them.
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will pickup up a meter today. Am I just putting the possitive prong on the meter to the possitive on the battery and black to black and taking a voltage reading on each house battery?
Tully
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Tully,
Your vintage coach likely only has 120 volt and 12 volt systems, but unless you are comfortable with electric and are sure of what you are doing, in this instance I would suggest you enlist the aid of a friend who has some knowledge.
I think the problem you are dealing with might be battery related and as such you don’t need a meter you have to buy because the coach probably has meters built in.
You should have a meter for the house system or systems that shows voltage on the DC systems. What you want to do is note what voltage is shown with the coach on shore or generator power. Then turn off the generator or shore power and look at the gauge again. It should show around 13.4 to 14.2 with shore power or generator power on. It will drop back to around 12.7 ro 12.8 with both off. Wait a while and see if the voltages hold or if they drop significantly in a short period of time. If they do then you may have a bad battery or set of batteries. If the voltages hold for hours, I think you can rule batteries out as the source of the problem.
Everyone that owns a coach should own a multi-tester or device that can measure voltage, amperes, or resistance. Then they need to get a good understanding of how to use it for the various types of readings. It is not hard, but the time to learn is not when you are trying to chase a problem.
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Tully, I used to own an identical bus. Instead of inverter/chargers as are currently used, that bus was originally equiped with an inverter and two converters. Unless your system has been upgraded, the converters charge your house batteries and convert a/c from shore power or generator to 12 volt for your interior lights and systems. Each converter has a separate circuit breaker located in the bedroom breaker box. Check those breakers. It’s not intuitive that 120 volt breakers affect your 12v system, but they do. Also, those converters do wear out. I had to replace two during the time I owned my bus. They have fans in them and if the fan stops working they overheat and get fried. Once I had one short out because of wear on the supply wire due to the way it was installed. Replacement converters are not expensive and can be bought online, and if I can do the job, anyone can. The converters are physically located on the backside of the box that contains your house batteries. I can’t recall perfectly, but I believe there may be a reset or circuit breaker on the converter itself.
If you need to replace one, spend the extra $15 or so that is necessary to get multi-stage charging. Your house batteries will last longer.
I can send you the Country Coach manual for your bus if you need it.
Good Luck!
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Im sick to my stomach over this…. batteries are toast. With genny runing for 5-6 hour and inverter on charge mode I was never able to get batteries up over 11 volts. In that time they went from 10 volts to 10.5. Maxed out at 11.
I did buy a voltage reader. I put the red to possitive and black to negative and it show sames voltage. So batteries are no good.
Here is what stinks- they are Interstate batteries and I just bought them 8/6//13. Im certain the warranty if any is only 12 months. Does anyone else know?
So, I go in the morning to pickup another set of batteries.
I sure wish there was a way to by-pass the batteries and run straight genny.
I never dry-camp and always run my genny.
Is this possible?
On my second bottle of TUMs antacid…
Tully
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Indivually–could be one bad cell pulling down rest..Either way if you pull them ck them out indivually before trading in or replacing a good battery that is the victum of a bad one Bob
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Maybe I missed it, but what caused the batteries to go bad? Is the charger not working, or worse, is it overcharging and ruining the batteries? Or like Bob said culd be just 1 bad abttery. If it is the charger causing the problem, it will ruin the new batteries also. I would be carefull with the new batteries and make sure they are being charged correctly.
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Thanks for all the great responses – I really do appreciate it.
I am going to pull the batteries and take them back to Interstate and they can bench test them.
I was always under the impression to replace “all batteries” at once – regardless?
I just do not know the inverter well enough to know if it is charging or not charging.
Just for a test I had the genny running and decided to turn on all the lights. Within 30 minutes the batteries were completly dead… The inverter lights were off and all I heard was a clicking sound. Will the inverter not work if the house batteries are dead? I thought the inverter would not only charges house batteries but also converts 12v & 120v into the coach. Should the inverter not of stayed on since the genny was running…?
Tully
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Is there a way to by-pass the batteries 100% and just use the genny and the inverter?
Tully
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