Community Forums

madisher · 06-09-2022, 01:50 PM

Greetings,

We have a 2008 Damon Tuscany 4076 floor plan that I suspect was the victim of a lighting strike that took out a bunch of equipment at the house. It was plugged into our barn at the time (50A service).

It was set up and had AC units running, I went on a 3 day business trip came back to find it had no power to the house, and all house batteries were drained.

I have recharged the house bats (actually have 4 brand new ones ready to go but don't want to install those until my problem is addressed)

Symptoms are:

I have 120v house power with the Inverter on. NOTHING with the inverter off while plugged into shore power or with the generator running.

I have validated that the transfer switch works, I have 2 legs of 120v going to the house on both shore power and generator power.

I have 110v going into the Inverter (ME2012). It buzzes quite loud though when it's inverting, worse than I ever remember it.

Initially, the inverter showed an ALARM on the remote panel. I pulled all power to the coach and factory reset it per the manual. The inverter works now, the alarm is clear, but it will not engage the charger. I think, it thinks it doesn't have 120v AC.

So my questions for anyone that might know. Should the house have power, on shore power or generator w/o a working inverter? I have checked all fuses I can find (only one inline in the Inverter compartment). I don't see any switches, breakers or fuses in the battery compartment and it works off batteries now that they are re-charged.

- Anywhere else I should look?
- Does anyone have schematics for this coach? 2008 Damon Tuscany 4076 on a Freightliner XC Chassis

I tried Thor customer service and they say they have nothing for Damon prior to 2013 so I'm SOL in that regard.

Any help appreciated. Thanks!

Lastly, I'm in the Cincy/Dayton area. Willing to pay for assistance, but as usually the number of good services folks are few and far between and if they are any good are already booked through the summer.

HarryStone · 06-09-2022, 09:24 PM

What does your inverter power? How big is it? (Watts). Have you pulled the cover off the AC breaker box and checked for power on the 2 mains breakers? Then check downstream on the other breakers. You’re losing power somewhere.

madisher · 06-10-2022, 06:29 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by HarryStone

What does your inverter power? How big is it? (Watts). Have you pulled the cover off the AC breaker box and checked for power on the 2 mains breakers? Then check downstream on the other breakers. You’re losing power somewhere.

2000 Watt Magnum Inverter.

I have not taken the breaker pannel apart because I have power to most 110v appliances when the inverter is running. Which I'm assuming runs through that pannel.

The Microwave as an example. While on inverter power, the Microwave powers on and works.

Stop the inverter, the microwave is dead even though I'm connected to shore power or on Generator.

I've triple-checked the transfer switch, and I'm happy to pull the cover off the breaker panel but I'm fairly certain it's fine as evidenced by the things that work (Microwave and Refriderator) on the inverter.

-=MD

HarryStone · 06-10-2022, 09:09 AM

Are you sure your inverter isn’t doing it’s job and inverting battery power to run those devices? If that’s the case, then you have no 120 volts to it either.

madisher · 06-10-2022, 11:23 AM

So I took your advice and pulled the breaker panel off and did some testing.

Circuit Breaker Panel
- Actually a Split Panel

House/Power from Shore/Generator Transfer Switch:

50A Main Red Has Power
50A Main Black Has Power
Feeds:
20A Front AC Has Power
20A Water Heater Has Power
15A Washer Dryer Has Power
20A Rear AC Has Power
30A Sub-1 Has Power (Not sure where this sub panel is)
15A Block Heater Has Power
30A Sub-3 Has Power (Not sure where this sub panel is)
15A Vacuum Has Power

Bottom Half Of Panel - Sourced from Inverter

15A Bedroom Has Power ONLY when Inverter is ON
15A TV Has Power ONLY when Inverter is ON
15A GFIs Has Power ONLY when Inverter is ON
20A Microwave Has Power ONLY when Inverter is ON
Fed By:
30A Main Red Has Power ONLY when Inverter is ON
30A Main Black Has Power ONLY when Inverter is ON

Prior to the Event, I had power to the bottom half of the panel when on Shore/Generator w/o inverter running.

So it feels like the Inverter relay or solenoid is bad when not inverting.
It's not clear to me if that's inside the inverter itself or not. I can't seem to find any other connectors, breakers, or fuses but admit I haven't been under the couch because I simply don't fit and have no way to raise it safely.

I can post images if need be.

Thoughts?

madisher · 06-10-2022, 11:33 AM

Breaker Panel:

Bottom Two Double breakers at the probe and below have no power, nor do the mains at the bottom unless the Inverter is running.

Also, I have verified that I DO have 120v going INTO the Inverter, but the Charger function of the Inverter doesn't work or won't show up on the panel. So I'm highly skeptical the Inverter is bad and lost it's ability to pass through the 120v Shore/Gen Power.

-MD

madisher · 06-10-2022, 11:48 AM

I'm slowly piecing this together, looks like my Inverter is installed like this:

I'm just not clear on why I wouldn't have power to those bottom breakers UNLESS it flowed through the Inverter. The diagram feels like it doesn't but, there's no power there unless the inverter is ON.

madisher · 06-10-2022, 12:25 PM

Closing the loop on this, did some troubleshooting with Magnum / Sensata and my Inverter is smoked. At least the AC Board is resulting in:

- No Charging
- No AC Passthrough.

They gave me a list of places that can allegedly repair them but I pushed the button on a new one via Amazon. Will replace and then repair the old one as a spare.

-=MD

HarryStone · 06-10-2022, 01:40 PM

That’s where I was heading next. Glad you got there. You lost pass thru capability, and with it, the converter. Time for a new inverter.

HarryStone · 06-10-2022, 01:46 PM

When you said this “I have 120v house power with the Inverter on. NOTHING with the inverter off while plugged into shore power or with the generator running.” You threw me off. Indicating that nothing inside was working with the inverter off.

madisher · 06-11-2022, 08:37 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by HarryStone

When you said this “I have 120v house power with the Inverter on. NOTHING with the inverter off while plugged into shore power or with the generator running.” You threw me off. Indicating that nothing inside was working with the inverter off.

That's what I initially thought. Then I realized I had *some* power but not all :/

Inverter is ordered, then I'll get the one I have repaired and have a spare so I'll never need another one as long as I live