Generator/electrical confusion

[carlsagan]

Thank you all again very much. It seems that double pull breaker on the generator may have been a lot of the issue. It is only one switch, and the switch part is broken off so it is difficult to use. It seems maybe it has 3 positions, off, leg 1, leg 2 and it was partially blown. Maybe I am crazy so correct me if this makes no sense please.

Andy, could you email those drawings to me? I saved them all but they come out a little hard to read. My email is Drew@escoremx.com

Does anyone know what the equalize function means? And what can be done in the set up of the inverter panel?

Thanks for info on the echo charger, what you said is what I was assuming but nice to be sure.

[andy29847]

I store my stuff online at: https://www.smugmug.com/gallery/n-4xhR4V


You are not the first to struggle with that breaker.

https://www.irv2.com/forums/f115/rep...sel-62206.html

[carlsagan]

I plan to take the cover off the gray box that the genset splices into tomorrow and look at it. But I noticed tonight when the generator was running, and then again when I plugged in shore power, my inverter panel was showing AC power, then dropping all lights, then all coming back, then dropping all. Not sure if this kept up because I had to go in the house, but I am wondering if something is loose or bad with the transfer switch now. Does anyone know where the switch is? I am hoping to locate it tomorrow and check it out also. Today on the way home the tach randomly quit, then came back after the next fuel stop. This thing is really working on my brian.

[andy29847]

Mine is in the large underneath storage area, on the ceiling, between the frame rails, at the rear of the compartment. Best access is through the 2nd storage door on the passenger side. It is shown on the diagram below.

Make sure the power is off before you play in there. Look first for burned wire or contacts. If everything looks OK, you can check and see if the wire lugs are tight.


It will look something like this inside:

[carlsagan]

Thats exactly where it was and what it looks like. Everything looks great, same with the junction box for the generator connections. I did untape all connections and confirm they are tight. Also made sure all bolt connections are snug. The issue has to be in my battery compartment, or the hookup to the inverter itself. Hopefully I can find it tomorrow and I intend to clean every battery connection and maybe hopefully replace the bus bars as the lugs are really too small. Id say they are 1/4 inch when they should be more like 5/16.

The issue is the inverter control keeps shutting off and kicking the charger off. Then the batteries never seem to charge properly. I guess the issue could also be the control board itself. Has anyone else ever seen this?

[andy29847]

Your inverter has a low voltage cutoff. It will not charge the batteries if they are below a certain level. I've been in that spot a couple of times and used a Everstart 15A charger from Walmart to charge my house batteries. After the batteries are charged, the inverter started working again.

The factory battery arrangement on the early Alpine Coaches was a Rube Goldberg design. Many of us here have used buss bars to modifiy that arrangement of the battery cables to where you will NOT have 5 or 6 cables on one post. There is a long thread regarding battery cables and battery compartment work. It is good reading for someone doing what you are planning on.

https://www.irv2.com/forums/f104/the...ml#post5673476

Like I said earlier, I had a little trouble with my house batteries while on the road. The Everstart charger got me home. I had a plan to fix the problem, but the plan kept growing. If I was going to replace the batteries, I needed to wire brush and paint the battery tray. If I was going to replace the batteries, I need to replace some of the battery cables. If I was going to replace battery cables, I need to install buss bars and get all those cables off one post. And so on and so on. I ended up just cleaning the battery post, replacing most of the battery cables (some of the grounds and some of the cables to the engine are still original), and putting in the buss bars. I also added a watering system to my house batteries. I still haven't replaced the batteries. They measure good and I've quit having low voltage trouble on the road.

Go slow when you start thinking about the inverter/charger. It's not that easy to tell when they are good or bad. The 12vDC power in your coach comes from the batteries. The inverter/charger does 3 things. 1. It charges the batteries. 2. It provides an internal transfer switch that passes through electric current to the sub-panel when you are using the generator or connected to shore power. 3. When there is no shore power or generator power, it changes 12vDC to 120vAC to power the components that are controlled by the sub-panel. Also, there are some 12vDV circuits that are powered form the batteries and fused in the battery compartment. IIRC, these are for the seats, the refrigerator, the steps, and the 12vDC fuse panel





Here is the final arrangement for my battery compartment remodel.

[carlsagan]

The previous owner did the bus bar install like you mentioned. I am going to just clean all of the connections up good and do a battery tender charger to get them up and go from there. Thank you for that advice I never would have figured that one out. Do these coaches come with a solar charger? I had no idea but I do have that same block you are circling in yellow and calling a solar charger.

[paul65k]

Originally Posted by carlsagan

The previous owner did the bus bar install like you mentioned. I am going to just clean all of the connections up good and do a battery tender charger to get them up and go from there. Thank you for that advice I never would have figured that one out. Do these coaches come with a solar charger? I had no idea but I do have that same block you are circling in yellow and calling a solar charger.

It was a factory option. in 2000 and 2001 mostly a 10W small panel was designed to be connected to the chassis batteries only

[Old Scout]

At least on my 03, there were 2 panels, [50 watts each I think]. The controller was under the sink in bathroom. In today's solar world, 100 watts would be of minimal value, and a 10-watt panel would be meaningless--doubt if a 10-watt panel even needs a controller. So, what/how many panel[s] do you actually have on your roof?

[andy29847]

Originally Posted by carlsagan

Do these coaches come with a solar charger? I had no idea but I do have that same block you are circling in yellow and calling a solar charger.

My coach has a small solar panel on the roof. It feed through a 2 wire arrangement to the battery compartment. One side goes to ground, the other goes to the isolator you see in my photo. From the isolator, a wire goes to each battery bank. I have mine disconnected. It did not run through a controller. Given the age, I doubted it was contributing any power to charge my batteries. I didn't bother to test it.

[carlsagan]

The roof is not easy to access. I don't know if one is up there. Probably not working anyway or worth investing much into. I cant figure out what is going on. I took the cover off to access the inverter directly. It seems once I turned the charger on at the inverter rather than the remote control it seems to stay on, despite the flashing of the lights on the panel. If I turn the inverter on while plugged into power it stays on a bit then kicks it and the battery charger off for a few seconds. Eventually the battery charger comes back but the inverter does not. I have no idea why the lights in that panel keep flashing or why the inverter does not seem to want to work. The batteries being too low was not the issue. I don't know what to think. The frustrating thing is that when I try to use the leveling jacks, or put the slide out it often seems to run out of battery power. I guess I will replace the bus bar with one that has bigger studs, and clean up every battery connection in that compartment and see where that gets me.

[andy29847]

Running out of power while operating the slide or jacks is an indicator of battery power issues. Either the batteries are low are the connection is bad.

[carlsagan]

Batteries (house not chassis) are brand new. But the nuts on all connections in that HWH compartment just in front of the door are very rusted. It looks like a nightmare to get them all off cleaned up and reinstalled but I am going to work on that next week and hope it cures it. Same with relays in the ceiling of the battery compartment. Its really frustrating to me that such a high end coach in its time they did not completely close the battery compartment. I like this coach for sure but there are some things that really surprise me for the cost of it.

[Jeep401]

Lead acid batteries need to vent. Never a good idea to put them in a sealed box.