1993 Safari Serengeti Electrical Configuration

[canucklehead]

new to me 1993 Safari Serengeti. I have owned approx 10 different campers and travel trailers, first Motorhome. Wow, can't believe how much I'm struggling to figure out plumbing, electrical, fuse locations, etc... Safari made an owner's manual, I believe to use as fire paper because it is shockingly lacking important info and vague.

Shore power has a 50A cord that plugs into a transfer switch on driver's side. I can hear it click when i connect shore, assume click is relay being activated.

In rear passenger side area I have set of 6V batteries plus inverter and then someone wired in a NoCo trickle charger that is plugged into a recptacle. If i turn on inverter while plugged into shore it seems to knock out everything. I think inverter function is for when I am disconnected from shore, it will invert the 12v to power up a couple of designated 120V plugs inside. So I should only ever have inverter on when disconnected from shore and I want to power up designated interior plug.

I was plugged into shore and checked my 120v plug for my fridge, plug worked fine, fridge would not come on. After a lot of messing around I discovered the switch in stairwell area must also be flipped on. Not sure why it needs to detect 12v power from that coach switch being on, but it worked great when i flipped that on.

When I am plugged in and inverter is off, and I flip the stairwell switch on...should a converter make the 120v become 12v to power things like 12v lights, water pump etc..?

thanks for any info, i think i'm slowly figuring out some functions. Gonna post a couple more topics to keep things separate.

[wolfe10]

If you have an absorption refrigerator, the PC board that runs it is 12 VDC. This is irrespective of "heat" source (propane or 120 VAC).

[chuckster]

To this end on fridge running off of inverter…should it? Were the Safari’s wired at the fridge to run off the inverter? I think one of our regular members here posted some time back that they had to wire their fridge to the inverter when they replaced their Dometic electric/propane fridge with a residential fridge.

[wolfe10]

To this end on fridge running off of inverter…should it? Were the Safari’s wired at the fridge to run off the inverter? I think one of our regular members here posted some time back that they had to wire their fridge to the inverter when they replaced their Dometic electric/propane fridge with a residential fridge.

Certainly if changing from absorption refrigerator to residential refrigerator, you will want the refrigerator wired so that it can be powered by an inverter. Several ways to wire that depending on whether the inverter you choose has a built in ATS= pass through feature.

If still an absorption refrigerator, I would not wire it through an inverter, as propane is an excellent heat source and see no reason to work the alternator harder when driving or depleting the house batteries when dry camping when you already have the propane heat source.

[TDJohn]

When I am plugged in and inverter is off, and I flip the stairwell switch on...should a converter make the 120v become 12v to power things like 12v lights, water pump etc..?

I don't know your current setup on your coach, what inverter brand and model you have, but in general, most Safaris came with an inverter charger combination unit, and that is what would charge the house batteries, meaning it also acted as a converter does on travel trailer, but with strong charging ability. Those type of inverters also had an internal transfer switch, that would allow shore power to pass through the inverter, feeding shore power to the inverter outlets.
You state that when you turn the inverter on, all power goes off. Can you elaborate? Does the circuit breaker at the pedestal trip, when that happens?
Does the 120v power go off only on certain outlets or the whole coach? When you turn the inverter back off, the 120v power return automatically or do you have to reset breakers?

[canucklehead]

TDJohn, I moved the Mohome to my sons but as I recall, when plugged into shore, if turn on the inverter Trace U2512SB (pic below) AND flip the stair switch, it seems to trip the Transfer switch to somehow disconnect and I have no 120. I had been told same as you: the inverter should charge my AUX batteries when plugged in, and also act as converter. I have an after-market, external NOCO charger also plugged in and that is what is charging the batteries when using shore. It does not seems to throw any breakers or blow fuses just cuts out the power from transfer switch when all turned on at same time. Maybe the transfer switch has a built in circuit breaker that re-sets itself when problem is corrected?

inverter.jpg (470.15 KiB) Viewed 11698 times

[canucklehead]

here are pics of transfer switch and the battery compartment overview:

rv transfer switch.jpg (547.12 KiB) Viewed 11696 times

inverter2.jpg (642.42 KiB) Viewed 11696 times

[TDJohn]

Sorry for the slow reply, been off line for close to a week...

It looks like someone has been doing some shade tree rewiring.

If you could take a photo of the other side of the two circuit breaker box and also remove the front panel and take a picture of the box with the panel off.

If you could also take a picture of the transfer switch, with the cover removed.

Check you inbox, I will send you a PM shortly.