Inverter/charger not charging

[RayChez1]

I noticed yesterday on my panel that the LED lights where it shows the state of the house batteries was red. So I think that the converter on my coach might have burnt up. Now here is where I need help. what does a converter for charging the batteries look like on these coaches and where would I look for it. I have a feeling it is in the compartment where you turn the switches off to winterize the coach. But I am not sure. I am not an electrician so I need some advice.


The batteries show 12.5 volts, but I can tell that they are not getting charged either by the inverter/charger or the Onan diesel generator because I started the generator to see if the LED lights would go up to at least 14.3 volts and they did not. It kept giving a reading of 12.5 which it was just reading the state of the batteries. So I think it might be the converter. I read all the time here in this forum about replacing converters, but I never had looked on my Gulf Stream Scenic Cruiser to see where it was located incase mine ever went bad.
RayChez

[Arthur Hayes]

I had to replace mine a few years ago. On this unit it is located under the bed close to the transfer switch. It is about the size of a CB radio, it has a fan that runs 24-7. Easy to remove and replace. Just pay attention to how the wires are connected. I called the manufacture and they offered a rebuilt one, that is what I ordered. You can find them on many web sites as well.
Good Luck

[RayChez1]

Arthur Hayes,
I was looking at my manual and it shows a picture of a converter and it seems like all it has inside are like four fuses and a circuit breaker. Is that the way yours was? I called an RV center today and asked if they had converters in stock. He said they had, but that I would have to tell them what voltage it was. The more volts, the higher the price. He said they would run from $180. to $300. each plus one hour labor to install if that was the problem.

So that is when I opened up the Freightliner manual and the picture it shows are fuses and circuit breaker. So I was wondering if maybe all it might be is a tripped circuit breaker or a blown fuse.
What do you think?

Ray

[RayChez1]

OK, I lifted the bed up and in the bed box there is a box about the size of a CB radio with some pretty big wires going into it. But it does not say converter any where. What it says is Automatic Transfer switch. Is that the same as a converter?

I started the generator and run both air conditioning units while I was inside working on it. The LED lights in the panel maintained 12.5 volts so apparently it is still allowing some voltage in because the two air conditioners would never work with just battery power through the inverter.

[Arthur Hayes]

You are confusing me a little. You said that you started the genny and turned on the ac. Then you mentioned the batteries. The generator is running the ac. The batteries run the 12 volt items in your motor home. The house batteries suppys 12 volts to your inverter to produce 120 volts when not connected to shore power. Under the bed you found the transfer switch which does exectly that. It trannsfers power from the shore line or from the generator to the motor home. A coenverter gets its power from the line voltage, 120 V. It is connected to an outlet and convertes 120 ac to 12 dc to charge the coach batteries. The converters come in different wattage outputs depending on the size of the batteries you have and how fast you need to regharge them. When you find yours, note the output.

On the Tour Master we have 8 batteries.

4 - 6 volt house batteries
2 - 12 volt deep cycle coach batteries
2 - 12 volt engine starting batteries

Now I probably have you confused.

[RayChez1]

I realize that the air conditioners were running off the generator. My purpose of starting the generator was to see if I could get the LED lights on the panel to rise up higher then 12.5 volts which is what I was getting with the shore power.

My main concern is the house batteries are showing red or low voltage on the panel, yet when I disconnect the shore power and turn the inverter on, the LED lights all turn green showing they are fully charged. When I turn the inverter off the light goes back to red. So I am confused as to what is happening.

I got another post on RV.NET and JohnnyT the moderator says that the converter on my coach should be integral with the inverter. So I guess the converter is inside the inverter on my coach.

I tried to call Gulf Stream but nobody answers the phone.

[RayChez1]

OK, here is the latest update.
I called Xantrex this morning and I described my problem. He told me he thought it was the AC board inside the inverter . I asked him about the converter and where was it located on my coach because I could not find it. And the only box inside the bed box said Automatic Transfer Switch. He told me that on my coach I had an inverter/charger with a built in converter inside the inverter. Has a three stage charger and inverter, converter unit.
So I took it off and sent it UPS to Portland, Oregon to the service dept. I will get it back probably around Tuesday of next week according to the tech.

[Arthur Hayes]

Sounds like a plan to me. I bellieve you are on the right track. Good Luck

[RayChez1]

UPDATE!
I got my invertor/charger back today from the service center. It took me about twenty minutes to reinstall the Xantrex 458 back on. Turned the power on and it works perfect. So the problem was a bad AC board on the charger.