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Old 04-29-2019, 07:59 PM   #1
Travbob
Junior Member
 
Brand: Thor Motor Coach
Model: Vegas 25.2
State: British Columbia
Posts: 22
THOR #11108
One more BIRD / Trombetta issue

2016 Vegas 25.2 with a very intermittent issue (has happened 3 times in two years). It has the potted Intellitec BIRD and Trombetta solenoid. Each time the symptoms have been identical. When parked with switch in store position and not plugged in, both coach and chassis batteries have gone dead. The coach batteries are around 11 volts but the chassis battery is at 2-2.5v. I know it takes about a week for the batteries to go dead but always the chassis is completely dead and the coach not so much (I could start the gen-set the last time, but barely).

The only theory I can come up with is that the BIRD is not taking power off the Trombetta closing coil. Thus when I shut down the engine the Trombetta remains closed linking the coach and chassis batteries. This is made worse by the fact that Thor wired the ignition feed to the BIRD from the main lug on the Trombetta so it is powered even with the key off. And the lug connected to the coach batteries is always live (the use/store switch does not affect it). I am not sure where the coach battery sensing line to the BIRD comes from but it is supposed to be isolated by the use/store switch.
So when I park the unit the voltage on the batteries is high enough for the BIRD to keep putting power to the Trombetta (as it should with this wiring arrangement). However "sometimes" the BIRD is not dropping out the power to the Trombetta when the voltage drops to 12.7v as it should. The drain on the system is the Trombetta's closing coil which pulls about .75amps. From information about the Tombretta at around 10v the coil is not strong enough to hold in the main contacts so it drops out and thus isolates the coach and chassis battery (this would explain why the coach batteries are around 11v). However since the BIRD is connected directly to the chassis battery if it did not drop out the coil it would continue to draw current from the chassis battery until it is completely dead. At that point the BIRD resets and everything is back to normal when I look for parasitic load (on both sides it is milliamps which would take months to drain the batteries)

So has anyone else ever seen a BIRD fail this way? Anyone got a different theory or ideas? Everything points to the BIRD but it is so infrequent I am not sure. Is the fact that there is power to the BIRD always (Intellitec installation instructions say to wire it to the downstream side of the Ford solenoind so when the key is turned off, sensing power to the BIRD is off) have any impact? By the way most times the unit sits for a month or more and all batteries stay at full charge so it is not batteries or a constant parasitic load.
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