[Archived]

I am not sure of what you are asking. I suspect you are new to the coach and are not yet aware of how Liberty has set up your coach and if I am correct in interpreting the question it appears you are mixing apples with the oranges.

Let me start with some basics that I hope may help you clarify your concerns.

In your electrical panel the circuit breakers labeled battery charger #1 and #2 are providing shore or generator power to your inverters and when the indicator light next to them is lit they are seeing that power and functioning as house battery chargers and passing through incoming power, via the inverters to those dedicated circuits such as forward and aft outlets, microwave, refrigerator, TV, etc.

The inverters should have remote panels in the electric box that display house battery voltage and charging current.

I am not familiar with the Liberty layout of an H3 coach but I suspect your inverters are going to be side by side where ever they are located, and I also suspect they are not going to be located where they are exposed to the outside elements, such as near batteries because on all my Liberty coaches the batteries had nearby openings to the outside for venting.

Here is why I am confused. The photo appears to show a battery charger (converter) that is typically installed by Liberty to charge the chassis batteries. That is likely controlled by a CB in the electrical panel labeled “24 volt charger”.

Most new owners, once they realize they have such a device leave that charger powered up and then quickly find out the chassis batteries have been cooked and need replacement. The chassis battery chargers of that type are not intended for continuous use, but only to recharge batteries. They do not sense state of charge like inverters or “smart” three stage chargers and quickly overcharge batteries usually damaging them beyond repair.

I hope that may help you reframe the question.

[Archived]

BTW, just some additional thoughts. If your inverter remote is showing an over voltage condition such that the display is flashing you can turn the affected inverter off at the remote and the second inverter can carry the sole responsibility to maintain the battery charging for the house batteries.

However the question that remains is if that inverter has failed. Before drawing any conclusions on that question you as an owner can do some things to help isolate the problem. First, access the inverter and determine if it is getting proper cooling. An inverter generates heat and there is an internal fan but sometimes Liberty adds an external fan to deliver cool air to the inverter.

If the inverters have not been opened in a while, depending on location, they could be loaded with dust, pet hair, or other materials that trap heat. Vacuuming or blowing them out periodically helps prolong life.

Inverters and most electronics are very sensitive to having good connections. I once had an inverter going into an over current mode and after I retightened and cleaned all connections, including the chassis ground the problem went away and never returned.

If those simple tasks fail then the focus shifts to the inverters which can be repaired if in fact it is the inverters that are the issue. I am still not clear if you are talking about inverters or the converter shown in the photo.

[Archived]

Well when charger #2 breaker is on. The inverters go crazy and I have it plugged into shore power. I know the shore is correct I had it plugged in there for months. I can only have charger #1 on or the inverters flash overload. Any ideas ? I used to be able to have charger breaker 1&2 same time.

[Dick]

I agree with everything that Jon has said. The picture you show is a 24 volt DC battery charger that Liberty installed to charge the chassis batteries. It is 2000 technology, its a dumb charger, and when switched on just pounds the battery with 24 volts even when fully charged. Jeff Rowe has told me that these are being re-purposed as “boat anchors”. Recommend you get do what I did, it out of your coach (be careful if its hanging from the ceiling of a bay as its HEAVY), don’t short out any wiring or tools, and replace it with a smart charger like the Marinco/Guest 28222 which many of us have installed.

But … that isn’t your problem. I’m not familiar with a Liberty H, but you likely have an electrical bay that has two inverter/chargers for the house batteries. You indicate you have a 2000 H with 2016 upgrades. If I recall correctly, Liberty did the upgrades on your coach; correct? Did they upgrade the two inverter/chargers for the house? Do you have what were probably the original Magnum 2500s or maybe 4000 watt inverter/chargers.

What do you mean by they “freak out” and “act crazy”? A picture or two of your electrical panel will help us understand the remotes that you’re looking at. Picture of the electrical bay would be nice also, or tell us what kind of inverter/chargers you have.

Jon mentioned that Liberty wired the coaches so that 120volt power is passed through the inverter/chargers. This might be hard for someone to understand unless they see the wiring, have it demonstrated to them, or have had problems. If an inverter has failed, its likely that neither 120 volt shore power or generator power will pass through the inverter/charger to the electric panel. Hence some of the lights at the breakers will not light up when you turn on the respective breaker. If that’s the case, the inverter/charger could have problems (i.e. failed); I’m dealing with that right now with an older Magnum 2500.

If I were at your coach, I would try to figure out if both inverter/chargers are passing 120 volt shore/generator power through to the electrical panel and the breakers. If power isn’t being transferred, then you could one set of problems (which could be as basic as Jon outlined). If power is being transferred through both (now I’m guessing), it could be problem with the remote(s).

Have you tried unplugging the shore power? What happens? Have you tried unplugging the shore power and firing up the generator? What happens?

Keep us posted.

[Wade]

“Freak out” and “Act Crazy” are not technical terms.

I will assume this does not relate to the 24V battery charger for the chassis batteries. Everything I say below relates to inverters and house batteries.

First, try to understand both inverters are charging the same batteries at the same time. One becomes primary but the second is still working as a charger in the background. Typically when the batteries have a 100% charge the inverters go into float.

If something is wrong it could be an internal inverter failure and charging current or voltage is no longer regulated by the inverter, or it could be external. If it is external such as a corroded ground the inverter does not “see” the correct battery voltage and instead ramps up voltage because it reads the voltage as a depleted battery.

For us to go beyond that you have to provide a lot more information, such as inverter brand and model, actual battery voltage, charging current setting, age of batteries, etc. Apart from issues previously covered it is not beyond the realm of possibility to have a failed or failing battery creating issues. But without good information everything we say here is pure guesswork.

Just a note………..one of the most overlooked issues is bad batteries. A lot of guys convinced themselves their inverters had gone bad, replaced them with new ones only to find one battery in the set was bad and it was presenting issues folks believed were inverter problems. So before you go much further you may want to consider separating the batteries after they have gone to float and testing each one.

[Gerald]

Could it be because the batteries are old and need replaced? Inverter #2 the panel will start flashing over load when I flip on the charger #2 breaker. But charger #1 remains on with no issues. I will post pics of the panel and inverters.

[Archived]

I understand it’s not that charger now. I just thought charger on the breakers were actually chargers. I’m thinking this is an inverter issue. I just don’t know much about them.

[Archived]

It is hard to see, but it seems one inverter is charging at a high voltage and the other not so high. What is difficult to read is the volts indicated but if my eyes do not deceive me is I do not see a voltage excessive or dangerous. AGM batteries assuming a 24 volt coach are going to be about 28.4 to 28.8 in bulk / absorb and about 26.6 to 26.8 in float. What is needed is the actual voltages and the easiest place to get them is probably off the DC bus bars in the electric bay.

If you were showing voltages in excess of 29 or 30 I could agree with an over voltage situation so that is why I want to see actual voltages not from a display that might have an error.

If you measure the voltages with the both inverters on then what are the voltages with just the one not indicating an error on only. Wait a while to let things settle down a little.

I did notice you appear to have a large charging current. Almost the inverter max and I wonder why you have it set so high?

Before an inverter is deemed to have a problem however I still believe you need to make sure all the connections are clean, tight and free of corrosion and that is not a small job. The inverters should be checked for cleanliness, for fan operation and to verify they are in an area that has fresh cool air and if it has a fan that the fan is also working.

But also unless you know the batteries to be relatively new and not abused I would also separate and load test them. If connections have created some resistance you will see some evidence of corrosion or maybe heat and if that is the case your charging current and voltages could in fact have been high and your batteries damaged.

I am not ruling out inverters as defective, but if you put new inverters on a system with other issues you will back where you started.

[Archived]

Some of the batteries seem to be blooded and the tops some going bubble up and some going way down. That’s meaning the batteries are bad right just by looking at them? Anyone know good place to buy new ones with a good rate ? I have 5.

[Dan]

I’m the battery guy for Lifelines, contact me for a price. Also, you don’t have 5 house batteries unless the coach has been modified.

I don’t have a clue as to the bubble up bubble down and I assume you’re saying they are flooded batteries, which is what you don’t want.

[AL]

I can take a pic for you tomorrow to show. But I have 5 Long 8D gel extreme deep cycle batteries is what the sides say.

[Cody]

sound like you have house batteries that are the kind you add water to and with that converter/charger #1 still working you are boiling your batts. As stated above remove it or at least turn it off. Sometime when new technology is added the old technology was not completely removed.

I found in my coach that I have a transfer switch after the inverters, that dates back to the original conversion when converter/chargers were all you had available.

[Dan]

Codytodosijevic1989@gmail.com can you email me with your contact info TOM

[DON]

If you have gel cell batteries you should be aware they are sensitive to excess charging voltage. Most of us use Lifeline batteries because they are durable and last, they are not as adversely affected by heat like gel cell, and unlike lead acid batteries they require no maintenance. You cannot look at a battery and determine if it is good or bad. You need to test them with the proper battery tester. But the more you reveal the more extensive your problems might be.

Seeing your Freedom remote panels suggests you have a 24V Elegant Lady. If that is the case you do not have 5 house batteries. If you do then someone has messed with the coach in which case a lot of information you get in response to your questions may be wrong.

I think you need to do some detailed checking to see exactly what you are dealing with because you can throw a lot of money at your coach in the form of new inverters, batteries, etc and still have issues. I would urge you to get the coach to a qualified shop familiar with Liberty conversions and have your real problems isolated and identified. At that point you can make good decisions about what to do. I don’t know where you are located so that will influence who you select to deal with the problems but I would urge you to NOT take it to anyone that does not possess Liberty Coach specific expertise and that includes Prevost because their expertise is related to the chassis.

If you choose to dive in and work on this yourself be aware your coach has specific shut down procedures to protect systems and devices so before you even begin to separate batteries for testing or disconnecting terminals and grounds for cleaning you need to follow those steps. There should be detailed placards outlining the procedures but if they are not available or the systems have been changed from the original configuration you should seek help.