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Thread: Bird testing?
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Old 08-18-2019, 07:10 PM   #28
TurnerFam
Senior Member
 
Brand: Thor Motor Coach
State: Georgia
Posts: 2,585
THOR #4735
I'll add to this discussion that I had a 'similar', but maybe different, problem with my coach last year - I was suddenly losing Inverter power, as the Inverter would suddenly just kick OFF, with no reasoning or explanation, after 4 years of no issues whatsoever.

I first saw this happen while parked overnight at a HD lot. Everything was fine, and I was watching satellite TV, while having a fan next to my bed provide some air flow, and the usually 'device charging' for the phone and laptop, etc. Suddenly, the TV went off. Or, to be precise, the RECEIVER went off, and I saw the 'turn on your receiver' error message on screen.
Very strange, as the TV was still on. But, then I also realized that the fan had stopped, and my phone was no longer charging. Hmmmmmmm..... but the TV was still on!?
Oh, o.k., I said to myself, I remember now that the TV is a Jensen 12v model, and is still powered by the batteries... but, o.k., then, WHY are my other items no longer working? Is the Inverter no longer ON??

Yep, I went to the remote Magnum Inverter panel, and sure enough, there was nothing. No readout, no power, nothing. Never seen this before.
So, like any good person, I pushed the Inverter's ON button, and 'voila, the Inverter was again ON. Great. I think.

A while later, it all happened again! What???! What is the world is going on!?!?!?

I know my House batteries were good, they had water, were watered regularly, were holding a 12.8v charge, and had never any issues with charging them, whether with my solar, or generator, shore power, or the alternator while driving. So..... what could it be?

Later the next morning, when I awoke and before I could crank the engine to leave, I realized again that the inverter was again now OFF, even though I had actually went to sleep the night before while it was still working. Here we go again!....

As I drove to my next destination, I racked my brain about what it could be. The Inverter had always performed flawlessly, so I didn't think that it would now be the real issue. The batteries had always held up well, even the Alaska and back, over 13,000 miles with a lot or dry-camping and overnights without anything other than Inverter power, and the charging systems had not given me any pause.

Could it be the Bird? The Trombetta? A Solenoid? The Alternator?....

The alternator was always showing a good readout, and the Inverter panel was continuing to show a charging to the House batteries while traveling, so, no problems there.
Not knowing much about the other systems, or even much about 'what' they were there for, I investigated what was in my 'Inverter bay' - the Magnum inverter, of course, but also a whole list of devices that, truthfully, I had never bothered to get to know.

A Whiterogers Solenoid, a Trombetta solenoid, a CustomRVProducts device, etc.
At first, I though it was probably not any of these, but maybe a simple issue of my 12v disconnect 'Use/Store' switch somehow going 'bad'...
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Long story, longer, I found that it was none of that....

it was, after all....

my batteries. Crazy, I know. ... or more specifically, several bad 'cells' in one of the 4 6v House batteries.

To cut this solution short - I simply removed the battery, drained it, filled it with distilled water, drained again, filled with new battery fluid, and took it through several full charge cycles, over several days.


In the end, the battery was the culprit. It's bad 'cells', although only TWO cells out of the total of 12 for the whole battery bank, was causing the battery bank's OUTPUT, when the Inverter called for power to a load, to fall, even just for an instance, below 12.0 volts, which the Inverter considered too low, and would 'fault', or turn itself OFF, thinking that it was without 12v power.

I found that while I 'thought' I was only enjoying watching TV when these things happened, the 'load' was the residential fridge's compressor kicking on, which requires a larger load on the Inverter, and the batteries.

The 'newly refurbished' battery solved the problem. Thank you. : ) a $10 'fix'.
__________________
the Turners...
two Campers, two Electric cars
former diesel pusher traveler
TurnerFam is offline   Reply With Quote
 
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