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Tom Williams · 04-01-2008, 01:20 PM

I have a 03 Journey with a Freedom 1500 Inverter. On our last trip I noticed that my house batteries were only 11.8 volts, I then checked the remote panel for the inverter and there are no lights. Normally the AC input and voltage lamps are on, but not now. I checked the 30 amp AC breaker under the bed and it is not tripped, I then removed the plate for the AC input at the inverter and measured the AC voltage there and it is good. The AC input pop out fuse on the front of the inverter is not popped out. I tried pushing the invert button on the remote panel and it worked fine. I searched on this site and somebody said to try a reset by unplugging the phone line on the back of the remote panel and that should cause a reset. After doing that now when I push the invert button nothing happens when I push any button on the remote panel. I think the Inverter may have gone out. Is there a fuse on the inside of the inverter? Is there any further testing I can do? If i cannot repair the inverter where is the best place to have this rebuilt or buy a new inverter? Thanks for your help.

Tom Williams · 04-01-2008, 01:20 PM

I have a 03 Journey with a Freedom 1500 Inverter. On our last trip I noticed that my house batteries were only 11.8 volts, I then checked the remote panel for the inverter and there are no lights. Normally the AC input and voltage lamps are on, but not now. I checked the 30 amp AC breaker under the bed and it is not tripped, I then removed the plate for the AC input at the inverter and measured the AC voltage there and it is good. The AC input pop out fuse on the front of the inverter is not popped out. I tried pushing the invert button on the remote panel and it worked fine. I searched on this site and somebody said to try a reset by unplugging the phone line on the back of the remote panel and that should cause a reset. After doing that now when I push the invert button nothing happens when I push any button on the remote panel. I think the Inverter may have gone out. Is there a fuse on the inside of the inverter? Is there any further testing I can do? If i cannot repair the inverter where is the best place to have this rebuilt or buy a new inverter? Thanks for your help.

John_Canfield · 04-01-2008, 05:35 PM

Tom - call Xantrex - they have excellent tech support.

Ptribbey · 04-02-2008, 04:15 AM

Had trouble with this type of inverter/charger. There is a control board in the unit that is plugged into an edgeconnector and the board can come loose.

Look at the side of the unit (same side the c/b' are on), near the top you will see a couple of either screws or rivets. These screws/rivets secure the control board edge connector. Press in on the case at this point, press hard, and you should be able to reseat the board into the edge connector.

Not saying this "is" the problem, but this is a known issue with this inverter/charger.

edziu · 04-02-2008, 08:13 PM

Tom, had same problem in our 02 horizon with same invertor couple years ago. poked around at it and found phone line crossed under one of the heavy battery leads to the invertor. well with the exhaust running just under the subfloor in that area, the phone line completely melted under the weight of the battery cable, shorting as well as grounding all wires going to the panel. only function left in convertor was the cooling fan, however remote panel was fine. talked to xantrex, offered me a customer loyalty discount on a new invertor. if i remember correctly, about 40 percent. so i now have a 2000 invertor with higher charging rate and all is good. just one more thing for you to look for. just fyi, the invertor does NOT need the remote panel to function, so try unplugging phone line, and use function buttons on invertor to test. good luck.

Tom Williams · 04-03-2008, 12:44 PM

Problem resolved. I found the same thing as ZDIU. The phone line was run behind the inverter on a metal shelf above the engine and the phone cable melted onto it. I pulled the phone cable out and rerouted it off the metal shelf and had enough slack to cut out the bad section and put on a new end. Everything is working great.
This maybe a common problem, because i got the same response from another fellow on the Yahoo group forum. He also had a 03 Journey DL. What coach do you have?