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DDL · 04-20-2019, 03:17 PM

I know these are often the hardest to troubleshoot, but I’m hoping someone might have an idea what happened. We have a 2000 Holiday Rambler Navigator 43PBD coach.

We stopped in Vegas on our way home from wintering in AZ and the main slide on our motorhome wouldn’t retract the next morning. Bedroom slide came in with no problems. Checked the power, wiggled the slide as best we could and even followed the owners manual on retracting the slide manually by turning the valves on the hydraulic pumps. Nothing. Waited a couple of hours for a mobile RV tech who then poked and prodded through the entire electrical system, checking fuses, relays, grounds, etc. In the end, there was no power getting to the slide switch. Tried to source that back and he couldn’t determine a cause, so he decided to borrow power from another source.

The closest source was our inverter control panel area and the generator start switch on that panel. He removed the inverter panel, cut the power line to the generator switch, pigtailed a power wire to the slide switch, hooked everything back up and all was great. Slide came right in and the generator still fired right up.

Made it to Salt Lake and decided to stop at a truck stop for the night. Turned on the AquaHot to warm things up and about 10 minutes later, the fridge gave a warning of low DC power. Checked the inverter control panel and the house batteries showed a very low percentage. Quickly fired up the generator and nothing seemed to work as it should. Lights were dim and flickering, the 120V lights didn’t work at all and the fridge now quit working altogether. Started the coach and everything seemed to return to normal. Lights were fine, fridge (on 12V propane mode) worked great and the house batteries on the inverter control panel read 100%. The only thing I didn’t check was running the generator at the same time the coach was running. Left the coach running for a bit and then shut it off. I watched the inverter panel and saw the battery power drop from 100% to 50% in a matter of minutes. Shut everything down and went outside to turn off the house and start battery master switches. It was a very dark and cold evening and that continued for the remainder of the three travel days home - only it got colder.

When we got home, I ran the generator with and without the coach engine running. Starting checking lights and appliances and things looked OK. However, now only the front A/C powers up. The middle and rear air do not come on and I went through all the modes.

Any idea on what happened? Everything worked great all winter and before the slide issue in Vegas. I did remove that pigtail to the slide switch and nothing changed. Is this an inverter problem, generator problem, inverter remote problem or all of the above?

I really value your thoughts before starting to poke around, calling a local Mobile RV Repair tech or trying to get into an RV shop as everyone is getting their rigs out of hibernation.

Thanks

cavie · 04-20-2019, 03:25 PM

Your slide motor's are 12 volts. Gen supplies 120 volts and also charges your batteries. You need a tech to look it over.

Outbound · 04-20-2019, 03:39 PM

I think after powering in the slide in Vegas I would have had tech return all wiring to as was, would have been easier to now trouble shoot if I understand your sequence of events.

DDL · 04-20-2019, 07:22 PM

Thanks cavie and Outbound. I wondered about the crossing of systems. Even as he was working on it, he originally spliced in a line and the slide didn’t come in. He messed around a bit more and then said “I’m such an idiot. There’s two power sources here at the generator - a 12v and 120v”. He then cut another wire leading to the slide switch and combined all of them together. Probably the two wires were a 12v and a 120v and now they were all wrapped together (just guessing).

I disconnected the splice mess today and just hooked the generator power line back up. That didn’t rectify any of the new issues, so I’m thinking I’ll need another service call.

YC1 · 04-23-2019, 04:15 PM

You have/had more than one problem which is very normal.

You lost 110 volts to the converter/inverter which supplies your lights and charges your batteries. Sometimes both banks if built or modified that way.

Starting your engine supplied 12 volts from the alternator to charge the house batteries but it would take a few hours of running to get them close to full.

Since you have lost some AC units AND your inverter is not working you may have lost one leg of your transfer switch.

It is NOT likely a load shedding device because the inverter would not be on one of those circuits.

When you messed with the generator, shoreline, and running the engine you confused yourself because you don't understand the systems well enough yet. However you are in the right place and can come up to speed.

These systems are complex and the interaction of the 12 volt systems with the 110 volt systems can really confuse people. For example, the refer needs the 12 volts to operate the circuits and turn the propane on. Your air conditioners need 12 volts in many cases to run circuits as well.

So, you need to eat this elephant one bite at a time and fix one thing at a time.

I would leave the fix the tech did for the slide alone. He just substituted another 12 volt source. I am surprised he didn't use a signal tracer to chase the problem but this could have added a couple of hours of labor and some folks don't want to spend that kind of money.

Is there any chance the tech left a breaker off? Double check your breaker panel and turn the breakers off solidly before turning them back on. A tripped breaker might not feel tripped.

DDL · 04-24-2019, 07:48 AM

Thanks YC1, that is very helpful and I appreciate you taking the time to explain the system and potential problem. Electrical and wiring is certainly not in my wheel house. I’m sure someone with a volt meter and time could trace this back. I wish the mobile tech would have taken that time in Vegas. It would may have saved me all this grief and I would have been happy to pay. He was very busy and had other customers waiting. Maybe what happened had nothing to do with what he did and it was just a coincidence. I did check all the breakers and all were turned solidly on and off. I had my fingers crossed on that fix. I also checked every fuse in the coach and all were good. I’m running it out to an RV repair shop today. I’ll let you know what the final problem ended up being. Thanks again.