Total Power loss no 120V no 12V, Help!

[Bruce Sieloff]

DW smelled something organic burning this morning and 30 minutes later I noticed we had no 120V power and then no 12V. Entire Coach is dead. I have shore power coming through the transfer switch but no life showing on the Trace 2500 Inverter. No lights on the display. How do I check for inverter function?

[Keith Moffett]

Better answeres are sure to be coming.  Meanwhile I believe the power from the transfer switch goes on a direct pass through inthe inverter.  Before you call the inverter dead,
1)  are there lights on the inverter?  Is yes then check the power going out of the inverter.
  If no lights......
2)  are there breakers on the inverter unit itself?  Our Xantrex had two breakers on the unit and when they tripped there was no power at all like you describe.
3)  Are all the breakers inthe main panel set properly (none kicked off)?  Main breaker?

Good luck and perhaps call BCS and try to talk to Ken.  Be patient though becaause they are very busy today!

[Gerald Farris]

Bruce,
Are all 120 volt outlets dead, or is just the ones that pass through the inverter dead if you are on shore power, and if so what is the voltage at the post? Do you have 120 volts with the generator running?     

What is the voltage at the house batteries, both sides of the high amperage fuse in the battery bay, and both sides of the "salesman switch" solenoid?

Gerald

[Bruce Sieloff]

Sorry for the delay, been trying to get this sorted out.
I did call BCS and talked through the problem with Ken, although we are stumped at this point. Situation is:
1. Total loss of power except the radio which is hot wired to the starter batteries.
2. The 20 amp breaker on the outside bay panel won't stay on most of the time, it will reset and then flip off within a few seconds.
3. The inverter isn't dead. As a workaround Ken suggested looking at the BD Relay and finding voltage on the input side. He also suggested jumping the relay using battery cables from the main coach positive terminal to the output side of the BD relay, apparently bypassing the relay. This brought up the inverter and we had 12 V power and 120V power to all but the fridge circuit.
This might indicate a dead BD relay. He also suggested jumping to the input side which had no effect, no power. He then suggested starting the generator. The jumpers were still attached to the input side of the relay. Lots of smoke and it burned the paint off the battery cable clamp. Too much power. We blew the 250 amp fuse at the coach side. Ken seemed to think there was a power short somewhere in the power lead to the BD relay. He was stumped at this point we halted the conversation as it was his lunch time.
4. In trying to replicate what we did earlier I attempted to bypass the relay again by jumping the coach batteries to the output side of the BD relay to give us 12v and limited 120V. Blew the 250 amp fuse I just replaced. DW is now on a 3 hour RT to get new fuses. No more jumping.
5. House batteries are down to 12.9V, I have the charger on the starter batteries. Generator running has had no effect, no life to the inverter or any effect on the electrical system. I haven't checked to see if the transfer switch on the generator side is working, it was last time I checked. Concentrating on shore power.
Not sure where the salesman switch solenoid is, unless it is the one in the battery bay. At last check there was 12v on the input side but nothing on the other. I assume this is correct if the switch is off.

[Bruce Sieloff]

Just checked the solenoid in the battery bay and I have 14.1V coming through, this is touching the big terminals on each side of the solenoid.

[Bruce Sieloff]

On a side note, I'm trying to salvage what I can in the fridge but cannot find where the thing plugs in, no access on the back side of the fridge on the outside of the coach. Are the fridges hardwired in or did beaver just supply a hidden outlet to plug into?

[Keith Moffett]

Bruce, where are you?  Are you in a safe place?
Did you look in the outside access to the fridge and back to the side with a flashlight to find the plug in?

[Bruce Sieloff]

Keith, we are safe in a campground and have access to 110V shore power but will probably have a very uncomfortable night. I'm going to have to empty the freezer into a cooler and get some ice to save the high value items. There is absolutely no sign of a plug in for the fridge. I will be swapping out the salesman solenoid shortly, as soon as DW gets back, but have little confidence this is it. I don't understand why every bit of power is out other than there has to be a main shutoff switch that has malfunctioned, and that would be the salesman switch I guess.

[Bruce Sieloff]

I replaced the salesman solenoid and installed a new 300 amp fuse on the coach side. When I turned on the coach switch we had 12V power and the inverter display was active. As soon as I switched the inverter from OFF, the default, to ON the 300 amp fuse blew and we now have no power again. I am thinking about putting the remaining 250 amp fuse in and running the system with the inverter OFF and trying to limp through the night with 12V.  Not sure if I should try to turn shorepower back on or if it would do any good, as I understand it everything runs through the inverter. It sounds like the inverter has an internal short. Can I jump the 300 amp coach fuse block and not turn on the Inverter and not fry something?

[Steve Huber Co-Admin]

Bruce,
No need to use a separate cooler. Put 1 slab of dry ice in refrig  and 2 in freezer and you'll be fine for a day or 2 at least
Steve

[Bruce Sieloff]

Trying to find a qualified RV tech who services Skagit county in NW Washington, naturally we are 50 miles from anything resembling services.

[Keith Moffett]

Goldmer rv repair in Concrete.  360 826 3303

Bruce, I spoke with Bill Sprague and between us this is the best we could come up with in your area.
Is your coach running or is the chassis dead too?
If you can drive  I would send you to a shop we know in Centralia.  This is a problem you want to be sure is fixed right so BrazelsRV.com if you can get there.
Do you have a surge protector?  I would try to verify the shore power is good.  Our surge protector plugs in first then we plug into it.  Indicators tell me the power is good before I connect the coach.
We are at BCS so I will see if I can get info for you there.
You are not in the member directory so I dont have a phone number for you.  If you would like you can call me, my number is in the member directory if you scroll down to 'private '  below.

[Bill Sprague]

Keith Moffett types faster than I do. 

He called me on the phone minutes ago to see if I knew of any RV repair service near concrete.  I have no experience with anybody in the area.  My Beaver didn't break north of Seattle!

A google for RV Repair in Concrete turned up Goldner RV Repair. (360) 826-3303 .  I have no idea who it is or the qualifications.

Another search found RVServiceReviews.com  Suggestions from that site are Camping World in Burlington.  In Mount Vernon there is Poulsbo RV and Valley Freightliner.  In Marysville is Roy Robinson.   According to RVServiceReviews all are "good" or better. 

[Bruce Sieloff]

Thanks gentlemen, right now I have contacted a gentleman named Les at Action RV in Burlington, about 20 miles away. They have a mobile operation but are booked out naturally. He suggested that I charge up the batteries and bring the system up with all 110v circuits off and the inverter OFF and try to bring the coach to them; they are willing to juggle their schedule and get it up and running. I am planning to do just that, hopefully there will be enough 12v operational to bring the slides in and the jacks up, we had 12v before we tried to turn the inverter on so hopefully my repair efforts haven't screwed that up. I have two new 300 AMP fuses and a 30Amp battery charger to apply so I think I have what I need to give it a go.
We were getting shorepower just fine, the Progressive surge protector read voltage on both legs and no error messages present so we didn't have a spike from the pedestal.
Today is just about shot and this is something I don't want to be doing in the dark so we will be getting up at 0:dark30 to give it a try tomorrow morning. I will let you know the results.
Thanks for the help.

[Keith Moffett]

If you are unplugged from shore power does running the generator charge the batteries?

Is the alternator putting out?
If your chassis batteries are getting juice from the alternator you should be fine.  If you need you can run the gen set and jump across the solonoid that ties the house and chassis batteries together.  This will put power in the chassis batteries to run the engine.

Good luck, God bless