Xantrex display

[Flyinhy]

Hi guys, 

I'm gonna try and give the short version of this because it's not my motorhome (brothers) but it's parked at my house and plugged into shore power at the garage until he gets his parking pad finished. 

1999 executive 42' cummins 450 with brand new res fridge and xantrex inverter.  I work out of town in my motorhome about 362 days a year, I came home this weekend to find his motorhome pretty much dead. The surge protector on the wall had red lights indicating a fault. One of the legs had melted on the wall plug itself. I replaced that from ACE and then put the batteries on charge.I finally charged the batteries good enough to get her cranked and then proceeded to look for what else happened. I let her run for a good 3 hours until I felt comfortable enough to cut it off. At first the inverter would not come on. I had no ac power inside. After reseting the inverter several times she finally booted up and ac power came back. I go to the xantrex display and I've never seen it not display battery usage or ac in and amp usage. You can scroll through a few screens but not that particular screen. It will also not let you turn on inverter from the screen. The air conditioners will only work if I crank the generator. Something screwy is definitely going on that I can't figure out. The fridge is running and the rear tv comes on.......I've run out of time to work on it this weekend because I have to get back to mine for work this week, but he's definitely gonna need some help. The house batteries are @12.4 and the  chassis batteries 12.8 after leaving on for about 3 hours only on shore power with lights on , fridge running and TV on. 

[BradHend]

Have you thoroughly checked for a dodgy neutral connection? Coach side and supply side. 

Have you thoroughly checked for a dodgy neutral connection? Coach side and supply side. 

Did this all happen since the replacement of the inverter and what not?

[1nolaguy]

This may or may not help but just a few suggestions to check out:

1) It is likely your chassis batteries are not charged when you are plugged in. In our 2005, also with a Xantrex I/C the chassis batteries are completely seperate from the house batteries. Even though there is a momentary switch to assist the coach batteries with the house batteries if there is an issue starting the engine the only charge to the chassis batteries is an external charger or the alternator (when the engine is running). As a result you may need an external trickle charger.

2) If residential fridge is connected through circuit connected to the I/C it may go through the GFCI and that is tripping.

3) As noted above - check your neutrals and connections including circuit panel and auto transfer switch to make sure connections are solid.

[Ray Davis]

Isn't that the neutral that's burned?  I believe the first thing to do is determine why it burned.   An open neutral can be really bad news,  In addition, I would inspect the neutral wires to see if any have been overheated.  If that's not a real 2-leg 50 amp receptacle, it could account for an overloaded & overheated neutral. 

If your brother doesn't have a Progressive HW50C encourage him to install one.   BTW, you should have one as well.  It can protect from many elect problems.

[Flyinhy]

You're right Ray. That's the white wire . Definitely grounded inside the main electrical panel and inside coach. I'll have to come back next weekend if I'm not working to thoroughly go through the coach electrical. It's a 50 amp plug with 4 wires, black and red on opposite sides white on bottom and ground/green on top. That pic is turned with ground to the right. I feel bad for him  because that's a brand new inverter. Maybe 2 months old? What would cause it to burn like that? It did not trip the breaker inside the house. But 3 breakers inside the coach were tripped. 

[Dr4Film]

Since the neutral lug looks like something serious happened to the power, I hope that it did not fry a variety of stuff inside the coach.

Didn't he have a Progressive Industries EMS-HW-50C installed to protect his coaches electrical system for this type of problem? If not, then I would strongly suggest that he purchase one and get it installed soon.

[jacwjames]

Do you know what was running in the coach?

Besides a bad connection in the plug if the coach was pulling a lot of amps not sure what could have caused this.

[Flyinhy]

Maybe the a/cs and a light or two? I'm just guessing.....the inverter got zapped, which is the worst case scenario. 

Richard, the coach has a progressive surge protector at the house plug. Not the one you have a link to. Could the shore cable short out internally and cause this? 

If the inverter fried ....I guess I'll replace it for him because he just paid a chunk to install a parking pad at his house. Ugh, .......things I get for being the "good" brother.

[Dr4Film]

A surge protector is NOT the same as an EMS system whether it be a portable or hardwired unit. A surge protector will NOT protect a coach from errant power conditions whereas an EMS system would severe power in a nanosecond if any power condition was out of spec such as losing a neutral lug.

[Flyinhy]

Just wanted to give an update on what happened. Apparently the shore cord shorted out and caused the problem. I ordered a new inverter, ATS , the ems richard suggested and a new shore cord. After replacing the shore cord and installing the EMS , the ATS ... the inverter came back to life. I also noticed when I replaced the ATS the built in surge protector (one with the two green lights) was also blown.