Inverter question

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john777
Posts: 42
Joined: Thu May 06, 2021 9:38 pm

Inverter question

Post by john777 »

Spending the nite in the Coach to get a feel for how many things are not working. I have a 30A hookup for my old trailer and I was plugged into that earlier. I just unplugged (BTW both A/C were working on low with just 30A shore power). I went to the inverter to see if it would work and I think the answer is no. When I press the inverter on/off button, the green inverter lite comes on for about 3 secs as well as the red fault lite for about 4 seconds. I get the "overcurrent" message on the screen as shown in the photo.

The batteries are working, as I have essential lighting etc, but the microwave and other high demand electronics are not working.

I would like to have the outlets working etc to charge phones etc.

This will be the first of many questions, any help appreciated.

Thanks
Inverter Fault.JPG
Inverter Fault.JPG (1.57 MiB) Viewed 2725 times
John in Sonoma CA
'00 Safari Serengeti Ivory 3706 Front Door
Cat 3126 330HP / Allison MD3060
Magnum Air Ride chassis
Owner since 5/2021
stuplich@ymail.com
Posts: 1146
Joined: Mon Oct 28, 2019 8:51 am

Re: Inverter question

Post by stuplich@ymail.com »

John
What year/model Safari do you have?
What Inverter do you have?
Do you have an Owner's Manual for that inverter?

If not one should be available online.
Mel
'96 Sahara 3530, mine since '01
250 hp 3126 Cat, MD3060 Allison
TDJohn
Posts: 552
Joined: Sun Oct 27, 2019 11:34 pm

Re: Inverter question

Post by TDJohn »

John,

As it mentions in the article that Leydog posted, try and reset your 30 amp breaker on the inverter, and reboot the inverter if needed. If you have them, the two 15 or 20 amp breakers on the inverter should also be checked reset just in case. Reboot the inverter if the fault does not want to clear after resetting the 30 amp breaker. Read bellow if the overload fault is persisting.

I don't know how your inverter is wired. The way many of the units were wired originally, it would run two circuits. The 120V house lights, microwave, ice maker, and a few outlets. If that is the way it is set up, make sure your ice maker is off and if you have an electric element for the hot water heater, make sure that is off too (on my coach the HWH was on the inverter circuit too). Also, there should be an outlet in the basement on that same inverter circuit, that could have something connected to it that is overloading the inverter on first startup. This should take enough loads off to not trip the overload.

Since you have the newer style Magnum Inverter, it is unlikely that it is original with the coach, and it is possible that the inverter might be set up to power up the whole coach (with moderation and load management). IF this is the case, then make sure both of your a/c units are off, and that your refrigerator is set on propane only, and the ice maker and the HWH electric element is off. Try doing these things and see if the inverter powers up.

Once you are able to power up the inverter, one way to tell if the inverter is powering up the whole coach, is to test things like the refrigerator electric mode, if it works on inverter only operation. You can also try and see if one or both of the a/c fans go on. Make sure it is fan only, not the a/c compressor, and check one item at a time, not to overload the inverter. One last thing, if your inverter is wired in such a way that it powers up the whole coach, it is very important to make sure that the ice maker, HWH electric element, a/c units are all off, or otherwise it will drain your house batteries really fast when boondocking. It is also very important to have the refrigerator set on propane only when on inverter power, because the electric element that heats the cooling unit boiler will also drain the batteries very quickly.
Having the inverter run the whole coach while boondocking is very convenient, but it does require one to take precautions knowing that power from the batteries is limited and also the output of the inverter is limited. Conservative load management is key, one heavy load item at a time will usually prevent overloading issues.

Let us know how you make out.
Last edited by TDJohn on Wed May 12, 2021 1:37 am, edited 2 times in total.
John
'95 Serengeti, Cummins C8.3-300
Allison 6spd.
leydog
Posts: 3
Joined: Sun Jan 03, 2021 11:31 am

Re: Inverter question

Post by leydog »

Kerry, Kimberly, Peeta, & Simba
2007 Safari Trek 29RBD
8.1, W20
Owners since 9/20
TDJohn
Posts: 552
Joined: Sun Oct 27, 2019 11:34 pm

Re: Inverter question

Post by TDJohn »

leydog wrote: Wed May 12, 2021 12:46 am I found this on a blog:
https://rvcastaways.com/2019/12/17/rese ... -inverter/
Leydog,

Great info! If the fellow in that article found and reset the 30 amp breaker, he likely would not have needed to reboot the inverter. I know when mine tripped off on overload (air compressor startup when very cold), it would trip off on overload after a while, but never tripped the breaker.
John
'95 Serengeti, Cummins C8.3-300
Allison 6spd.
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