[Archived]

Do you have one or two inverters?

Does the inverter show shore power input?

Number one it sounds like your batteries are dead….Does any of your lighting work?

If you start the gen do you have the same power issue?

[Les]

One thing that helps a lot is getting a basic understanding of how the coach system is set up, and specifically what is not working.

In your case when you say something is not working such as the lights are these 12 or 24V lights or 120V? Is the problem just lighting or is it all devices?

Typically when shore power is disconnected the 12 or 24V circuits draw directly from batteries and they are charged when the bus engine is running and have nothing to do with the inverter(s). How is your house system set up? How many inverters, batteries and do you have power at the batteries? If the batteries have power do you have power getting into the house such as past whole system circuit breakers?

Good answers need a lot of good information first otherwise everything is just a guess.

[Jim/Chris]

Thanks, Jeff and Jon, for the reply. I have never dropped the front bumper to look at what I see as “one” Xantrex inverter, or to look at the batteries, that are located adjacent to the inverter. It is my 33rd anniversary today and I have taken the day to be with my bride, but I do intend to drop the bumper to take a look inside. The Inverter panel located inside the coach shows absolutely nothing. By nothing I mean that none of the indicators that I would normally see green are lighted.

When I turn on my master panel switch all ligthing which is ceiling rope lights, floor rope lights, kitchen, bathroom and bedroom lights, flicker. I checked the refrigerator when I first got in the coach and it was not on. Normally I connect to shore power and all of these lights, the fridge, the A/C roof units, all will turn on.

I should have brought the manuals home with me last night to look at and be more specific as to the model of the inverter. As for the batteries, I can open the side panels on the drivers side and see Exide batteries adjacent to the Inverter. How many, I cannot tell, but I will fins out this afternoon.

I agree that sometimes a good slap in the head should serve as a wake up call. Specificity is important for getting input from all of you. Recognize that I am still a novice owner and I am sure that plenty of others reading the forum are in the same “youthful” owner group.

[DON]

How old are the batteries?

[Archived]

Ron, it sounds like your house batteries are dead because your inverter/charger is off or has failed?

[Archived]

What makes this confusing is if the bus engine was running, unless it has two alternators it should be charging the house batteries. But if the house batteries are dead a dedicated alternator will not do any charging because the field is not excited.

If that is the case then this issue can go in several directions ranging from a master circuit breaker tripped to bad inverter to bad batteries or maybe more than one of the above just for starters.

The starting point is to get some life in the batteries and then go from there.

[Archived]

I am going to reply to previous three responses.

I do not know the age of the batteries, but I will as soon as I can get the bumper dropped and I get a clean look.

I will check to see if there are two alternators.

Dependent upon the age of the batteries, should they jsut be replaced? I have no way to give them a good charge. If I need to new batteries, what advice can be provided on type and where to purchase?

I can drive the coach, correct? I live a few miles from the enclosed storage. At the home I moved into two months ago I have a coach garage that I have had a 50amp service and receptacle installed to provide shore power while not in use.

When I bring the coach to my home I am going to run the generator, but I could tool around in it for a bit, if that will help. It is hot and humid here and the A/C is a must have.

Any of you can feel free to telephone me if you would rather speak about this instead of doing through the forum. PM me and I will provide my cell number.

Ron

[Dick]

Ron,

Here are some huge assumptions and my comments are based on them.

If your house batteries were being maintained by your inverter(s) and they are dead you may have both battery and inverter problems. If the reason you get nothing when you try to turn on any house circuits is an open circuit breaker it is possible but if that is the case then my concern goes up a little because something caused it to trip, and worse, if inverters are functioning as chargers because shore power is available to them and there are no batteries to charge (due to an open circuit) the inverters could be damaged.

If all that has happened is the inverter failed or went off line it is still likely the batteries may have been damaged. If the batteries are old, three years or more it might just make sense to replace them, but if the problem is a failed inverter that needs to be fixed or replaced so the new batteries are not damaged or discharged.

If you have a house dedicated alternator and you get even a small charge in the batteries it should charge the house batteries but they may lose thier charge quickly if this event has damaged them. But I would still try to see if they can have some life because batteries are expensive.

Throwing parts at this problem before checking for open circuits, battery voltage, and seeing if the batteries will take a charge may eventually lead to the fix, but methodically checking the system first should help isolate the problem and allow you to determine the correct repair.

There should be no problem driving the coach.

You do need to get more familiar with your coach and especially how to monitor what is going on because the best thing you can do is recognize issues before they get expensive.

[Per]

Agree on all points. I presume those of new to this lifestyle and not visiting/using our coach more than once per month, may be in the same position. Thanks for the advice.

I am heading to the coach in the next 30 minutes to see what I can find out.

[Roger]

Ron,

If you need batteries I can help you out.

What concerns me is you say the batteries and inverter are behind the bumper, there isn’t a worse place for those components. I’ve seen that on an early entertainer XL and the batteries had actually exploded. Hope yours are in a weather proof box because that compartment gets soaked when driving in the rain.

[John]

My XL has the inverters nd the hoouse batts in the spare tire well. Granted I have not rolled down the bumper just after driving in the rain. But I have been in the bay enough to know it stays clean. I don’t see water spots or other indications of water even with a 6″x6″ screened opening in the bottom center near the front edge of the bay for air flow. Remeber the airflow is such that the under side of the bus is at a lower pressure so air is pushed out the bottom of the screen, not drawn in with the road dirt.

I don’t have any forced air in the bay so it does stay warm down there especially when parked in my unconditioned bus barn in July. The fan in my inverters runs often. I lost a fan a couple of years ago and my inverter faulted. If that is what you find, check with inverter service an advertiser on this site. Good service.

Tom is the must see guy for Limelines and if you need to pick them up, one of his distribution points is in Lumberton, NC not far from you. He arranged for me me to pick up rather than having to deal with a freight truck and no fork lift for receiving them.

[Archived]

Tom, and Joe,

In response to my posting, I did not make it to the coach on Friday the 14th afterall. That was 33rd anniversary and by the time I could get there I did not believe I would ahve enough time to do a thorough investigation. As a result, I waited until this past Sunday to return to the coach.

I was surprised by what I found. Everything was fine. I could celary see from the Xantrex panel batteries charged and all was oeprating fine. Now, my speculation is that the sotrage facility has lost power for an extended period. When I left the coach previously I made certain that I had a good land line connection.

I hope to get a look a the inverter and the batteries this weekend on Saturday or Sunday. I have driven this coach many times in rain and have when I have checked this area it has always been dry. Warm, but dry.

I will follow up as soon as I can. As usual, I appreciate all the responses resceived from the forum. Being a newbie is not the easiest of things on this forum, but it easy to see all Prevost owners care each other and that what is important.