AlanC2

The Trace Engineering RV2012 has been "SOLD" AlanC2 2002 Windsor PST

Gary, Sent you a PM about the Free Inverter/Charger w/remote.

Priced to move quickly!!!! FREE! Will not Ship. Must Pick up in BWI area. I had been looking for an excuse to replace this inverter/charger that came in our 2002 Windsor with a pure sine wave unit. When the inverter side started having issues with AC voltage dropping offline, then coming back, I ordered a new pure sine wave inverter with remote and AGS. When I went to pull the Trace unit out, I found that one of the "AC Hot Out" wires had worked completely loose in its connector and was the apparent cause of the problem. Also included are the manuals for the two units. It's a package deal, and I don't have the time, to bother with shipping, so don't even ask. I'm within 25 miles of BWI airport. IT"S FREE!!!!! Price not negotiable. Act quickly before it all goes to the dump. AlanC2 2002 Windsor PST

Thanks again to everyone for your suggestions. I finally had the time and the weather to do the install of the Magnum MS2012 inverter/charger, the remote, and the AGS module. When I was removing the Trace RV2012, I discovered the apparent source of my problems with the old inverter. One of the HOT OUT wires was loose enough in the connection to come right out and was apparently making an intermittent contact. I wanted to switch to a pure sine wave inverter anyway, so finding my problems were caused by a loose wire did not change my desire to make the swap. It went pretty smoothly, but I do want to mention that my wire colors for the AGS did not match any description I've seen in any of the posts on the subject. I had red, green, brown and my generator sense wire (Blue) was right in the old Trace as part of the wire bundle. Thanks Jim J for mentioning that possibility. Also thanks to Vito for the tip about the jumper between the two pins on the AGS plug rather than using a separate ground wire. It makes a difference. Everything tested out okay and works well. No sparks, no glowing cables, or smoke. AlanC2 2002 Windsor PST

Steveg, Thanks for the response, but this does not address my two questions, and I don't have an answer for you. AlanC2 2002 Windsor PST

Vito, The Trace was actually a great unit. It had the shunt and the AGS built in, whereas Magnum Energy makes you ad on everything separately. The shunt is the reason for the battery negative connection and the chassis ground on the side of the trace, and I realize that without that, there is no ground. I installed a Victron BMV 712 battery monitor when I installed solar 2 years ago and it is great. What did you use for a power source for the ME-AGS-N? Thanks. AlanC2 2002 Windsor PST

Jim J, Thanks for responding. I'll look for the blue wires. I've been thinking about switching to a PSW inverter for a while now so I don't have to worry about whether I'll be frying an electrical device. Last time we were out dry camping, out of the blue, the inverter remote just locked up and started beeping. Had to turn off battery power and back on after a delay to get it to stop. It worked fine for the rest of the trip (8 more days). On an earlier trip, the Samsung RF 197 fridge dropped off line a few times one day. Flipped fridge (110v) circuit breaker off and on and it came back. That has not happened since. Put in 680 watts of solar 2 years ago, and until these two incidents, everything has worked fine. I've got all the new stuff ready to go in. Just need a temperature break in the weather. AlanC2 2002 Windsor PST

I have a 2002 Windsor 40 PST and am replacing the Trace Engineering RV 2012 (w/remote/w/auto genstart) with the Magnum Energy MS-2012 Inverter/Charger, the ME-ARC50 remote, and the ME-AGS-N (remote start). This question is directed at those WINDSOR owners who have swapped out the Trace Engineering RV2012 unit for a Magnum combination that includes the AGS. Did you use the two posts on the front of the MS-2012 where the battery negative, the main chassis ground, and the battery positive cables attach as the power source for the AGS module? If not, where did you connect? Were you able to locate a "generator run sense wire" in one of the wiring harness bundles in the bay where the inverter/charger is located? If not, what did you do to access the 12 volt generator run "signal"? Thanks in advance! AlanC2 2002 Windsor PST

Thanks to those who responded! I've decided to go with a copper split bolt to extend the grounds. AlanC2 02 Windsor PST

Mark, Thanks for the reply. Unfortunately, the ESCO has you run all the grounds over to one side of the box where the terminal block is. AlanC2 02 Windsor PST

I'm in the process of switching over from the IOTA Transfer Switch to the ESCO LPT50BRD in our 02 Windsor PST, and while the process has been fairly easy so far, I've run into a problem. In the old IOTA, the ground wires for the Shore Power, Generator, and Panel each had terminals next to the HOT 1, HOT 2, and Neutral connections. The ESCO has a terminal block mounted on the side for the for the chassis ground and other grounds to connect to. Unfortunately, the ground wires for the generator and the electrical panel connections are too short to reach. There is not enough wire to pull more into the box. Is there a "safe" way to extend these wires (using the same size solid copper wire and some kind of connectors) to reach the terminal, or does the ground have to be one continuous wire? Thanks in advance. AlanC2 02 Windsor PST

Just want to follow up on my original post. I still don't know what caused the problem, but all appears to be functioning normally now. I purchased a True RMS voltmeter and measured the voltage at an outlet powered by the inverter while the Samsung RF 197 was putting a load on the system - Result - 117.5 volts. I then ran the fridge for 48 hours straight (with the motorhome unplugged from shore power) powered by the batteries/inverter, and charged only by solar, and there were no issues. I had the Auto Gen Start set at 50% just in case but it was not needed. The minimum battery voltage shown during the "test" period was 12.14. We're headed back to the beach for two weeks soon, and hopefully, all will continue to function normally. AlanC2 2002 Windsor PST

Sorry to take so long to respond. After experimenting with different things related to this issue, last evening we decided to bail out this morning as the Weather service is calling for miserable weather over the next few days which is to include heavy rain, 35mph winds with gusts to 50, and finally snow. We headed out this morning as in the past, we have spent one night in the Windsor with 3 cats and all of the slides in and definitely did not want to spend two more nights like that. Vito, we have 4- 235 amp 6 volt batteries wired in series/parallel that are 23 months old. I brought the motorhome back to the house 3 weeks before our trip to get it ready for the season and cleaning terminals is on the list. Two weeks before we left I turned the fridge on as we were connected to 110 volt power. The fridge worked fine. We were set up in the campsite with fully charged batteries by 2, Tuesday afternoon and switched from generator to inverter power. Later that day was the first time the fridge stopped working. I flipped the breaker off, then back on, even though there was no indication that it tripped, and the fridge came back on. Yesterday, we did have an overcast, but the solar was still able to generate over 1KW of power, of which the majority of charging time was absorption/float mode. Furnaces and other 12 volt accessories worked just fine and over the two nights we were there, the readout from the Victron battery monitor (BMV 712) showed that the voltage never dropped below 12.4 either night. The second time the fridge quit was yesterday and that time, I turned the master battery switches off, and reset all breakers having to do with the inverter/charger and the fridge. After that, it did not shut off again. Today, while we were on the road, I had it powered by the generator, and no hiccups. Bob, Today as we were driving home, I thought about the voltmeter not being able to get a good output reading from a MSW inverter as a possibility. Thanks for verifying that. As I said above, the Victron monitors I have showed that the DC voltage never dropped below 12.4 I'm still wondering why all of a sudden, while on inverter power, the fridge would shut off twice when we've never had that happen before in the 5 years we've owned this coach. We did run the generator some this trip. I know the automatic transfer switch is involved in switching from shore power to generator power, but is it involved in switching from generator power to inverter power? If so, could it be going up? I have gotten in the habit of turning all off the heat pumps, and breakers for other 110v circuits off, (except for the fridge breaker) when switching from shore to generator power to reduce arcing at the relays. Ed, thanks for that info. Once the weather clears up, I'll turn the inverter back on and crawl into the belly and check it out. When you put in the Xantrex, did you put in a remote with auto generator start, and were you able to use the same wiring harness from the trace for that? Thanks again to all who responded! AlanC2 2002 Windsor PST

We're dry camping at the ocean on our first outing of the year in our 02 Windsor and fear we may have an inverter problem. We're keeping the batteries charged with 680 watts of solar power and primarily are using the inverter to power our Samsung 197 fridge. We've owned the coach 5 years now and have done plenty of dry camping and have not had this problem before. In the last two days, the Samsung has stopped working twice on inverter power. While the breaker was not tripped, I turned it off and back on again and the fridge started working again. After the second time, I noticed that the "charge" light on my laptop was not on while I had it plugged in to charge. I checked the voltage at several of the 110V outlets and am only showing 95-96 volts!!!!! I reset all of the inverter breakers on the electrical panels, shut off main battery switches and turned back on, and turned off the switch on the Trace inverter and turned it back on as well as hit the "reset" button. With the genset on, I'm showing 122 volts at the outlets. The Victron BMV 712 shows the batteries charged 100%. We have the original Trace charger/inverter/RC& GS that came with the coach as well as a hard wired Progressive Surge Protector. I'm worried about low voltage damage to the fridge and looking for some ideas as to what may be wrong. Bad inverter? Thanks in advance!! AlanC2 02 WIndsor PST Alan

The used Dynasty that we bought in 2002 had the Norcold 3 way fridge (683 I think), that we loved. It was reliable and would keep frozen stuff frozen, but was small. It was good for us as we do a fair amount of dry camping and I don't like running the generator a lot. When we started looking for a Windsor in 2013, a 3 way was high on our list of wants and a residential fridge was not an option. When Don Smith put his 2002 Windsor on the Monacoers forum for sale in early 2016, it had already been converted to the Samsung RF 197. At the time, that was a compromise for us, but I installed 680 watts of solar and now feel residential fridge is the only way to go. AlanC2 2002 Windsor PST

Thanks to the two of you for your input! AlanC2 2002 Windsor PST

Like others here on the forum, I discovered a few years ago that our heated mattress pad controllers didn't like MSW power. Now, I'm thinking about replacing our mattress with a Sleep Number Mattress but am hesitant because of the MSW issue that may exist. We do a fair amount of camping off grid so it's a valid concern. I've seen numerous conversations about over inflation due to altitude change, but nothing about power supply issues. Thanks in advance. AlanC2 2002 Windsor PST

We were also locked in our coach while we were on the way to the Maintenance Session a few years ago. The door was working fine when we got in departing Maryland, and when we got to a campground in Ohio we could not get out. The roads on the way west were awful, and it turned out that the top striker bolt had vibrated loose and unscrewed from the frame and into the door, enough so that it keep it from opening. As I recall, the latches released, but it would not open. I had to use a pair of needle nose pliers squeezed between the door and the frame to screw it back in (destroying a section of seal) so we could get out. I put loc-tite on the threads and now check the bolts often so that doesn't happen again. AlanC2 2002 Windsor PST

You might also consider just cutting the damaged section out and replacing it. All the parts are available on line, including steps. You just have to measure 4 times before you cut to make sure you aren't making a mistake. It's a lot cheaper, and if you take your time, it will be hard to tell. AlanC2 2002 Windsor PST