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Liberty Classic – electrical overview
I’m having a 99 Liberty Classic inspected this week, was hoping to locate a good overview of the electrical system. Did a couple of searches, nothing jumped out at me but maybe my search string was wrong. Just looking for basic info like.
1. Does the classic have any 24v?
2. Do all loads run through the inverters?
3. I’m assuming the DN50 (12v) charges the house batteries?
4. Is the small alternator in front of the mitre box for the chassis batteries?Clint & Tammy Summers
2000 XL 45 Country Coach (rivets)
1977 FC31 Bluebird Wanderlodge (more rivets)
Vonore TN -
13 Replies
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1. Does the classic have any 24v?Yes, the Prevost chassis is 24vdc. The OTR ac clutch and fans, dash lights, etc are 24vdc.2. Do all loads run through the inverters?No, in the electical cabinet next to the frig. The lower left row has 8 switches/breakers. The bottom 4 operate off inverter #2, and the 4 above them operate off inverter #1.
3. I’m assuming the DN50 (12v) charges the house batteries?No, the 50 DN is 24v and charges the chassis batteries.
4. Is the small alternator in front of the mitre box for the chassis batteries?No, it is a 12v alternator that charges the house and gen batteries.I sent you an email.Clint & Tammy Summers
2000 XL 45 Country Coach (rivets)
1977 FC31 Bluebird Wanderlodge (more rivets)
Vonore TN -
Don, thanks for the reply and email.
Are any AC loads dual-fed through the use of contactors? For instance, the refrigerator powered from Inverter #1, If you turn that breaker off is there any other way for the refrigerator to get power?
Coming from the Wanderlodge world there are several AC loads that are dual-fed which can lead to challenges when trouble-shooting and some potentially dangerous situations if one isn’t familiar with electrical system.
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Are any AC loads dual-fed through the use of contactors? For instance, the refrigerator powered from Inverter #1, If you turn that breaker off is there any other way for the refrigerator to get power?
No. If that inverter fails, or its not turned on, you loose everything on it.
It would be nice to have a flip-flop switch. Its on my list 🙂
I was on the road for a 1 day trip and inverter #2 failed. I had the windshield blinds down and couldn’t get them up (FWD OUTLETS) when I went to head home. I had to wire tie them up for the drive home. Had I been able to temporarily flip flop inverter #1 to #2 I could have raised them and not wasted 4 wire ties 🙂
I replaced the ole Freedom inverter/chargers/remotes shortly thereafter (5+ yrs ago) for a pair MagnumEnergy MS2812.
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What would serve a Liberty Coach better is an Inverter Bypass switch which to this day are not installed on new Liberty’s.
Not pickin just saying.
Later
bv
Clint & Tammy Summers
2000 XL 45 Country Coach (rivets)
1977 FC31 Bluebird Wanderlodge (more rivets)
Vonore TN -
Wanderlodge did it a little different, all 50A goes to a main panel, select loads were dual fed by the main panel and a inverter sub-panel utilizing a contactor which was biased towards the main-panel.
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My 97 Liberty did not have an inverter bypass so I designed a circuit and installed it on my coach. I did not retain the wiring diagram, but it was not complex.
As I recall if my inverter(s) failed I could get shore or generator power direct to the inverter circuits by throwing a heavy duty switch that joined incoming power to the inverter output(s).
On that coach the inverters were installed under the bed so the wiring and by-pass switch was located there. Not all floor plans or inverter locations are the same so the locations have to be evaluated. Later model Liberty coaches have an inverter by-pass.
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I’m assuming the panel under the drivers window is for chassis based DC loads. For Liberty (late XL era) where is the DC panel for the 12v house loads?
Jeff and Lindsay
91 Marathon XL -
I did not have an inverter bypass in either of my Liberty coaches, a 2011 and 2016 H3 models. No batteries no power, no inverter, no power. Maybe earlier years did, I don’t know.
Jeff and Lindsay
91 Marathon XL -
Liberty house electrical system is second bay, driver’s side.
Chassis is under driver’s side window and above engine.
1999 XLV X-6872, liberty #440 -
We had an inverter fail on our 99 Liberty Elegant Lady 24volt coach, it was the inverter that powered the refrigerator so no refrigerator. I discovered this before it got warm and spoiled the contents. No inverter … no power from shore power and no power from generator. Jeff Rowe at ETLC talked me through wiring around the bad inverter and I had power to the refrigerator. It wasn’t difficult.
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So to summarize, on a Liberty not all AC loads go through the inverters, and no loads are dual-fed through a manual bypass or some other type of relay. And the only way to achieve that functionality is via a owner mod.
Did other converters provide a bypass functionality or a dual-src capability? I’m assuming Liberty has a engineering/safety driven reason for never having implemented this functionality.
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A by-pass or lack of one should not be a deal breaker because once you know the coach there are always means to get power to critical circuits.
A by-pass was rarely on early inverter equipped coaches. Most early coaches had limited inverter size so definitely not all circuits were inverter powered. What needs to be understood is you cannot supply 2 AC electric sources to the same device at the same time because of phase issues, so inverter circuits are separate from generator and shore power circuits.
It is simple to add a by-pass permanently if desired so in the event of an inverter failure all that is needed is to just flip a switch for the by-pass.
Some coaches run everything through inverters, some a few devices, some a lot of devices. It all depends on the vintage and converter. All designs are sound, all have their positives and negatives.
Joe Wilhelmi
1998 Country Coach
Dixon,IL -
My Country Coach has a transfer switch that automatically prioritizes. Priority 1 is the Generator, Priority 2 is the Shore connection and priority 3 are the 2 3000 watt inverters. The only items i cannot run on inverter power are the 3 rooftop AC units and the cook top.
2000 Featherlite H3-45
2024 Jeep Grand Cherokee
Leesburg, FL
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