House current failure

[watson8841]

After returning home this weekend, we moved our Sportscoach DP into the garage and hooked up to shore power as usual. Went about cutting grass that was out of control since we left. When I finished, I noticed that the A/C was not running on the coach. The "slow flash" indicates that a float charge is occurring but the remote control inside the coach is not on showing the usual 30 Amp service. There is no current to the house. When I start the generator, it does not register on the inverter remote control.

 

A similar situation occurred about a year ago requiring a 3 week stint to Camping World only to tell me that the technician found a "secret fuse" tripped on the inverter.

 

Anyone's help to avoid another trip to the service center would be greatly appreciated!

 

Thanks, Dan

[Kirk W]

It would help to know what brand/model of inverter you have.

[watson8841]

Thanks, Kirk.

 

We purchased a 2008 Coachmen Sportscoach Elite DP a couple of years ago. I have to assume that the inverter is original for the coach. It is a Magnum Energy Inverter/Charger ME Series....

[Pat & Pete]

If yours is like others I've seen , there is a slow burn or slow blow fuse mounted on the inverter circuit board .

[GeorgiaHybrid]

There are 1 to 3 circuit breakers located on the left rear of the case depending on the model. They will be at the bottom of the case at the rear if you are looking at the panel with the faults lights. Push them in the re-set. Have had to do that a few times before a wiring issue with the AC units was fixed on our trailer.

[Yarome]

To be of any help we would need to know which remote you have (or at least what led indicators you have on your remote) and exactly which led you are referring to that is flashing. Also need to confirm you are getting a "slow flash"... 8-10 seconds between flashes.

 

IF your "chg" led is slow flashing (or on the rear of your mag) and you have an "inv" and/or "fault" led on your remote that are either both off or "inv" is off and "fault" is illuminated then you are probably correct... you are getting a float charge (indicating shore power) but either one of the external breakers has been tripped.. or... if it's indeed an about 2008 ME series.. you may have a slow blow fuse (or multiple) mounted on the control board located on the output side of the internal transfer switch (pass through circuit).

 

The older ME series are fairly simple units and fairly easy to diagnose depending on the led indicators you have available on your remote.

 

The first step I would take would be to shut everything down (turning off the charger and/or inverter at the remote before switching off the main power switch located on your mag), disconnect your mag from any power source, ensure that all externally accessible fuses (including any in-line fuses) are reset/checked, then power back up and make a careful note of any led indicators.

 

Report back your findings and we'll see if we can't save you from having to call in a tech.

[watson8841]

Awesome, will do this afternoon. Thx

[jferri]

1) Why did it blow in the first place? Did you check the line voltage "after" the Air kicked on. If the voltage if low the cost is high. Stuff burns up. The easy way is to have a quality volt meter you can leave plugged into an ac current outlet. That way you always know if you can even turn the Air on. Of course if one doesn't look at it..... This is especially important at many campground. The automatic shutout usually only works with low amps and is not sensitive to low voltage ( some may have low voltage shutoff features )

2) Alternative theory is the switch (110 ac transfer switch) which determines your input source ( gen, 30amp, 50amp) is gone. A problem common enough that the primary supplier of these went bankrupt. I replaced mine but have to rewire the switch as the coachside wires did not reach the right connectors. Works great now. This is usally the box your cord connects to on the coachside. Mine burnt up do to low voltage which I was away for the coach when parked a friends house.

 

 

PdWms

[Kirk W]

The automatic shutout usually only works with low amps and is not sensitive to low voltage ( some may have low voltage shutoff features )

I am wondering what automatic shutoff you are referring to? I'm not aware of any device that turns off based upon low current draw. Both the Surge Guard & the Progressive line monitoring devices do have low voltage protection, as does the Hughes Autoformer.....

[Barbaraok]

When you say A/C, do you mean air conditioner or AC power? If air conditioner, is it being fed off the inverter? I ask because that seems very strange. IF you mean AC power, do you have a circuit that doesn't go through the inverter you can check?

 

Barb

[Kirk W]

While I'm not familiar with the particular unit that you have, the ME series owner's manual is available from this link and it has a trouble shooting section that may be helpful. Should you also have one of the remote units, that too is available from the internet via this link. If you download the first link, on page 33 it has a trouble shooting section for a loss of ac power out. If I were there I might be more help but this would be a good place to start.

 

In looking online for a service manual to tell us more than the owner's manual, I did find these trouble shooting tips for the ME at Manuals-lib but I didn't download the documents because of limited internet capability here, but I suggest that you probably should do so.

[watson8841]

Thanks for ALL the helpful info! Back in service without a trip to "tech central" for 3 weeks and many lost dollars.

 

Thanks again, Dan

[GeorgiaHybrid]

Dan, what was the issue that you fixed?

[Pat & Pete]

Thanks for ALL the helpful info! Back in service without a trip to "tech central" for 3 weeks and many lost dollars.

 

Thanks again, Dan

 

You just leave us hangin' ? How , exactly , did it get back in service ?

[watson8841]

I honestly don't know for sure. I have to assume that I have a ground fault problem that allowed a trickle charge to get to the transfer switch. I pulled the coach out of the garage and reset the circuit breakers in the inverter, flipped the battery disconnect switch a couple of times and reset the house breaker for the a/c. Then I started the generator and all things were healed. It was a miracle!!!

 

I turned the generator off, backed into garage and hooked up shore power. Everything has been running since!

 

Now I have to figure out how to correct the ground problem.

 

Thanks again for the support!! Dan

[Yarome]

Most likely.. you don't have a ground fault issue, but just tripped your mags breaker. I'm basing that assumption on the fact you were not getting inverter, shore or genny power to register. A transfer switch issue will generally allow one or the other (locking into a single position), but won't switch between sources. None at all would indicate a tripped breaker or a complete shutdown due to an internal fault condition.

 

Since it reset properly and is now functional potentially rules out a ground fault.. unless it's intermittent.

 

I don't know the particulars (conditions, inverter size, etc), but off hand.. if you're A/C was running on shore power and there was any interruption or low voltage situation on your shore power side.. where your mag's inverter might have attempted to take over the load off your battery bank... that would have most certainly have caused an internal shutdown and thrown the breaker.

 

The other condition that would cause it to react in the same way would be if your AC loads exceeded the 30amp capacity... or... if it had been maintaining a heavy load over a very extended time which can cause enough heat to trip the break as well.

 

If that's the case.. no harm done. It a safety feature and did just exactly what it was supposed to.

 

There may certainly be other conditions that may have contributed to the shutdown. The above are just the most "likely" issues to be aware of. It's also always a good idea to shut down any heavy loads before switching power sources. Especially on an older unit.

 

Glad your back up! Roll on...

 

On edit: Just to make note for others with Magnum units and a "fault" led.. Don't expect it to always illuminate. It will for conditions that fall outside of the programmed setting parameters, but when it goes into self preservation mode and does a shutdown it won't. I will simply appear "dead".