Trombetta clicking often

[ipburnout]

I purchased a used 2017 Thor Windsport 34J. The previous owner removed the house connection from the Trombetta, taped it up, and stashed it away. He had lithium batteries in there, so I assume he didn't want to deal with burnt out alternators.

I found the wire and reconnected to newly installed lead acid house batteries. The coach battery is also new. The relay/Trombetta is clicking every few seconds. With every other click, I can see it draw current from the house batteries.

There is also a BIRD installed and I assume all wires from the bird are correctly connected to the Trombetta.

A Trombetta clicking every few seconds does not seem normal to me. Any thoughts? No shore power, motorhome is store mode, and no trickle charger on any batteries.

 

[16ACE27]

The BIRD thinks the lithium batteries are being charged and connecting to the chassis battery to charge it. The draw on the lithium batteries drops their voltage to the point the BIRD disconnects them. This should not happen if you are connected to SP.

 

[ipburnout]

That makes sense for Lithium because of the higher voltage, but there are no lithium batteries installed anymore. They are all lead acid.

 

[16ACE27]

That makes sense for Lithium because of the higher voltage, but there are no lithium batteries installed anymore. They are all lead acid.

OK, I missed the new LA house batteries.

Is the clicking while connected to SP? Or not connected?

Did you switch the converter back to FLA batteries from lithium?

Is Solar involved?

 

[ipburnout]

OK, I missed the new LA house batteries.

Is the clicking while connected to SP? Or not connected?

Did you switch the converter back to FLA batteries from lithium?

Is Solar involved?

No problem .
Yes, the converter is set for FLA. No, not connected to anything at the moment. It is definitely the Trombetta clicking too. I currently have it disconnected again. Both house and chassis batteries have similar voltage around 12.7V.

 

[16ACE27]

No problem .
Yes, the converter is set for FLA. No, not connected to anything at the moment. It is definitely the Trombetta clicking too. I currently have it disconnected again. Both house and chassis batteries have similar voltage around 12.7V.

Yeah, that's not normal. If you're not connect to SP the trombetta should never energize. Your BIRD may be bad. Since it's a potted circuit board, nothing to do but fire the parts cannon and replace it.

But if you pull one of the large leads off the trombetta and the clicking stops - that doesn't make any sense unless you are also pulling the control power lead.

 

[ipburnout]

Yeah, that's not normal. If you're not connect to SP the trombetta should never energize. Your BIRD may be bad. Since it's a potted circuit board, nothing to do but fire the parts cannon and replace it.

But if you pull one of the large leads off the trombetta and the clicking stops - that doesn't make any sense unless you are also pulling the control power lead.

Thank you. I have no idea what the previous owner did, so I guess I am going to have to trace all the wires... And then consider replacing components. At least they are relatively inexpensive.

 

[OldWEB]

I purchased a used 2017 Thor Windsport 34J. The previous owner removed the house connection from the Trombetta, taped it up, and stashed it away. He had lithium batteries in there, so I assume he didn't want to deal with burnt out alternators.

I found the wire and reconnected to newly installed lead acid house batteries. The coach battery is also new. The relay/Trombetta is clicking every few seconds. With every other click, I can see it draw current from the house batteries.

There is also a BIRD installed and I assume all wires from the bird are correctly connected to the Trombetta.

A Trombetta clicking every few seconds does not seem normal to me. Any thoughts? No shore power, motorhome is store mode, and no trickle charger on any batteries.

You mention it draws current from the house battery, but then say it is in 'store mode'?

I like pictures of the offending components... and make/model info.

 

[16ACE27]

You mention it draws current from the house battery, but then say it is in 'store mode'?

I like pictures of the offending components... and make/model info.

The BIRD/Trombetta have nothing to do with the house battery disconnect latching relay. And no, the disconnect does not disconnect the BIRD/Trombetta.

 

[OldWEB]

The BIRD/Trombetta have nothing to do with the house battery disconnect latching relay. And no, the disconnect does not disconnect the BIRD/Trombetta.

Odd....

 

[ipburnout]

The BIRD/Trombetta have nothing to do with the house battery disconnect latching relay. And no, the disconnect does not disconnect the BIRD/Trombetta.

The way I understand it is that "store mode" is suppose to turn off chassis battery charging. Is that not the case?
I am new to this, so it's a question for education!

Here is pictures of the parts. It's really tight in there. This is the best I can do without taking things apart.

The bottom wire, when connected to the house batteries, starts causing the Trombetta to click every so often. With a current meter, I can see with every other click, that current flows on that wire.

 

[16ACE27]

The way I understand it is that "store mode" is suppose to turn off chassis battery charging. Is that not the case?
I am new to this, so it's a question for education!

Here is pictures of the parts. It's really tight in there. This is the best I can do without taking things apart.

The bottom wire, when connected to the house batteries, starts causing the Trombetta to click every so often. With a current meter, I can see with every other click, that current flows on that wire.

Store mode disconnects the house batteries from the house DC buss which is connected to house loads and the converter. The cross-connect to the chassis battery is on the house battery side of the STORE/USE latching relay/disconnect.

 

[OldWEB]

Odd....

Well I have looked at my BCC diagram on my Hurricane hundreds of times and never noticed before that the 'interconnection' relay (emergency start or similar to Trombetta) is connected directly to both sets of batteries.
Thanks ACE for opening my eyes to that fact!

 

[16ACE27]

Well I have looked at my BCC diagram on my Hurricane hundreds of times and never noticed before that the 'interconnection' relay (emergency start or similar to Trombetta) is connected directly to both sets of batteries.
Thanks ACE for opening my eyes to that fact!

Well, I can't speak for all BCCs, but here's a simple post BCC DC schematics

 

[ipburnout]

My setup looks similar. I don't have an single stud bus bar, instead everything goes to the battery. I also have Jack's on the same breaker as the generator.

I think all things point to the BIRD probably being faulty then.

 

[galOnTheGo]

in my experience - when installing lithium batteries, YOU MUST change the BIM*** that came with the rig to a LITHIUM BIM. ALSO - when i did this, I discovered the connections were put ion improperly, that is to say the house batteries were connected to the chassis side of the BIM and the chassis battery was wired to the house side of the BIM. I had a very hard time believing this, so I triple checked it. it was wired backwards. with lead all around there was no problem, but when the lithium was installed, IT WAS A problem.

*** note that I dont know about a Trombetta vs BIM

 

[craigd853]

I purchased a used 2017 Thor Windsport 34J. The previous owner removed the house connection from the Trombetta, taped it up, and stashed it away. He had lithium batteries in there, so I assume he didn't want to deal with burnt out alternators.

I found the wire and reconnected to newly installed lead acid house batteries. The coach battery is also new. The relay/Trombetta is clicking every few seconds. With every other click, I can see it draw current from the house batteries.

There is also a BIRD installed and I assume all wires from the bird are correctly connected to the Trombetta.

A Trombetta clicking every few seconds does not seem normal to me. Any thoughts? No shore power, motorhome is store mode, and no trickle charger on any batteries.

Hello sorry about your issues. Did you make sure the inverter is set p for the battery swap you did. Should have a switch on it for lithium and lead acid. Also the previous owner may have fried the trombetta, they are not that expensive to replace but I would look at your inverter first. Good Luck

 

[16ACE27]

Hello sorry about your issues. Did you make sure the inverter is set p for the battery swap you did. Should have a switch on it for lithium and lead acid. Also the previous owner may have fried the trombetta, they are not that expensive to replace but I would look at your inverter first. Good Luck

Do you mean CONVERTER? An inverter would have nothing to do with the issue.

 

[galOnTheGo]

inverter - converter - charger - -- I added an inverter / charger (3000w renogy), and it has a setting for lithium. BUT, the built in converter / charger that comes with motorhome is set for 12v lead (or whatever was delivered from manufacturer) and does not (usually) support lithium. with that said, it will charge lithium to the volts of a lead battery, which is less than lithium volts, so that is something. unless you change out the converter / charger, that is what you have. it is rather complex to change that out as just about every wire is routed through that system. I didn't go to that effort. I let the solar controller do the job, it has a setting for lithium.
the ( inverter - converter - charger ) does not affect the BIM. the BIM goes nuts trying to balance the house and chassis battery when converting to lithium. Mine was flashing lights in the middle of the night, clicking. I figured out the BIM needed to be changed to lithium BIM. problem solved for me.