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TrailerFool · 04-29-2014, 08:41 PM

Here is what is going on in the electrical system of my brand new coach:

1) If I plug my shoreline into the 15A GFCI outlet on the side of my house I hear a clunk from the motorhome (probably the solenoid transfer switch operating) and at the same time the GFCI instantly trips. If I plug my shoreline into a 15A non-GFCI outlet in my garage the circuit stays energized and the coach is successfully connected to shore power.

2) The coach batteries won’t fully charge.I’ve turned the coach disconnect switch to off and attempted to charge them with two different 3-stage portable chargers and they never get to the fully charged “float” stage (they seem to stick in the “absorption” stage until the charger either times-out or just stays stuck in that stage and causes the battery to start audibly “gassing”)

3) A note on battery charging via the converter while connected to shore power: This also causes audible “gassing” of the coach batteries

4) Oddly, after an attempted charging and with the external charger and shore power disconnected, the coach’s voltmeter reads 13.8 volts (with a load of a few 12V lights on in the coach) which seems like a HIGH voltage reading.However, even with the disconnect switch left on off (i.e. on “storage mode”) the voltage decays pretty rapidly (went from 13.8V to 12.1V in less than a week).

5) On coach battery power the 1000W inverter will not operate correctly, but instead with no 120VAC load on it reads-out “OL” (which I assume means overload) and also error code “E05” (which indicates “Overload Shutdown” or “Short-circuit”)

Does anybody have insight into these problems that they can share with a bewildered new owner? Are these problems likely interrelated? Or likely to be multiple separate problems?

CJBROWN · 04-29-2014, 10:36 PM

Hmmm...new coach is under warranty...right? Maybe it's time for a trip to a qualified repair facility. I know, you're probly like me and would just as soon fix it yourself, right?

Here are my thoughts on your issues based on my experience:
1. Does the garage gfi trip on anything else? Seems to me a gfi senses a short and trips, so that tells me there may be something up with your wiring or solonoid. I can't say what exactly though.
2. Batteries are supposed to bubble but not a lot and not for a long time. If they got run dead between the factory and the dealer and then charged up and delivered to you it is possible they have been ruined and need to be replaced. I would remove them from the coach and charge them seperately, or have them charged and load tested by a qualified repair facility. You can also do this yourself with a proper charger and hydrometer. All of the cells should match. It is quite possible you have one or more bad cells in one of the batteries and that's why the bank won't fully charge.
3. Same issue as #2.
4. Charge voltage for 12v deep cycles is 14.4 volts. For 6v golf-cart batts it is 14.8 (per Trojan). So it is entirely possible to have that kind of voltage reading soon after removing the charge source. A 'normal' full charge voltage of 12.7 to 12.8 should show after resting overnight. If there's a dead cell that battery will discharge the whole bank as you describe. That's why pulling them out and seperating them will help you troubleshoot.
5. It certainly sounds to me like this item is related to #1. That's why it trips the gfi. I'm guessing there's an issue with your inverter. May even be causing the battery issue. You have to isolate everything so you can properly test.

Not enough information to ascertain if all issues are related, but it does begin to seem that way. When you turn on your inverter and it won't operate that's pretty clear there's a wiring issue or failed component. I'm betting on the latter, likely the inverter. If it's shorted it would cause the gfi trip and drain the batteries. I would isolate the inverter out of the picture and see if that fixes one or more issues. And certainly check out the batteries as well.

Good luck. Can't wait to hear how this shakes out.

KIX · 04-29-2014, 10:51 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by TrailerFool

Here is what is going on in the electrical system of my brand new coach:

1) If I plug my shoreline into the 15A GFCI outlet on the side of my house I hear a clunk from the motorhome (probably the solenoid transfer switch operating) and at the same time the GFCI instantly trips. If I plug my shoreline into a 15A non-GFCI outlet in my garage the circuit stays energized and the coach is successfully connected to shore power.
I'm not an electrician but....your coach is not designed to connect to a GFCI circuit. When you connect in a RV park you conect to the 30 or 50 amp receptacle which is not a GFCI circuit. I imagine the clunk you hear is the transfer switch as you have surmised also.

2) The coach batteries won’t fully charge.I’ve turned the coach disconnect switch to off and attempted to charge them with two different 3-stage portable chargers and they never get to the fully charged “float” stage (they seem to stick in the “absorption” stage until the charger either times-out or just stays stuck in that stage and causes the battery to start audibly “gassing”)

3) A note on battery charging via the converter while connected to shore power: This also causes audible “gassing” of the coach batteries

4) Oddly, after an attempted charging and with the external charger and shore power disconnected, the coach’s voltmeter reads 13.8 volts (with a load of a few 12V lights on in the coach) which seems like a HIGH voltage reading.However, even with the disconnect switch left on off (i.e. on “storage mode”) the voltage decays pretty rapidly (went from 13.8V to 12.1V in less than a week).

5) On coach battery power the 1000W inverter will not operate correctly, but instead with no 120VAC load on it reads-out “OL” (which I assume means overload) and also error code “E05” (which indicates “Overload Shutdown” or “Short-circuit”)
I think the readings you describe on the inverter panel MAY be caused by a bad battery.

Does anybody have insight into these problems that they can share with a bewildered new owner? Are these problems likely interrelated? Or likely to be multiple separate problems?

If you do follow others advice to remove the batteries tae a picture of and label every wire before you disconnect anything. Hope you get it all worked out.