Fried inverter!

Papatom · 10-01-2019, 07:30 AM

I bought this Itasca Navion 24 J with 10,000 miles on it and never tried to use the inverter. Recently I tried it and it didn’t work so I had a repair guy replace it. As soon as he plugged it in, it began to smoke. He checked the wiring connection from the battery and found that the black and white wires were reversed. He wired them in the correct configuration, plugged in a new inverter, and it worked fine. We then plugged in shore power and it not only fried the 2nd new inverter, but blew a fuse in my barn. Both times the entire circuit board was fried. It seems something was wired wrong from the factory ( my guess since we already found one polarity issue that was factory wired). Can anyone shed any light on this problem? The repairman is baffled and I thought I would reach out to you.

Kayak73 · 10-01-2019, 07:45 AM

This post identifies the rig as a Navion J - year?

OK, first the small inverter would be around 1000watt and have an external transfer switch. That would be normal. If you plug into shore the inverter AC function bypasses the board, ie., it does not "invert" DC to AC power, just passes it through. My guess is someone has hosed the wiring completely. With your year and model in hand go pull the wiring diagrams from the WGO site and peruse, then do some checking.

As far as the wiring from the battery to the inverter that should be fairly obvious, observe marked polarity.

Papatom · 10-01-2019, 08:00 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kayak73

This post identifies the rig as a Navion J - year?

OK, first the small inverter would be around 1000watt and have an external transfer switch. That would be normal. If you plug into shore the inverter AC function bypasses the board, ie., it does not "invert" DC to AC power, just passes it through. My guess is someone has hosed the wiring completely. With your year and model in hand go pull the wiring diagrams from the WGO site and peruse, then do some checking.

As far as the wiring from the battery to the inverter that should be fairly obvious, observe marked polarity.

Thanks Kayak, It’s a 2014 24J. I have downloaded the schematics but my electrician skills are limited. I will pass this on to my repair guy but I think he gave up!

Kayak73 · 10-01-2019, 08:23 AM

There are really only a few things possible here. One is the transfer switch is hosed, broken. It is a small transfer switch and could be right on top of the inverter or under a cabinet etc. I didn't pull your year wiring diagram. If you are plugged into shore the transfer switch powers the circuit from shore power. If not on shore and the inverter is turned on then the inverter powers the circuit. Normally this is a very small transfer switch around 15amps and for one dedicated circuit. In my rig the TV and a few outlets at the bed and that's all the inverter can power. If this small thing has scared off your tech then it may be time to find a better tech - just saying.

Good luck, you can and will get it fixed.

Do this as well. Look at the Load Center drawing and find that transfer switch circuit. Does the TV run on shore power? Do the other outlets on that branch work?

Normally you would never turn on the inverter while plugged into shore power. That would simply trip a breaker on the inverter or could. In our DP I always left the inverter on to prevent line power fluctuations from burping the TV and satellite so it is not harmful or should not be to have the inverter on while on shore because the transfer switch is bypassing it until the power burps.

Papatom · 10-01-2019, 08:42 AM

Thanks for the reply, Looking at the schematic, I don’t see a transfer switch. Could it be labeled as something else?

Kayak73 · 10-01-2019, 08:08 PM

The drawing for your rig is slightly different from our '18V24D of course! It appears the transfer function is internal by the GFI/RCP connections on your inverter. The inverter shows 110 input, throw in wire #4, and 110 output, throw in wire #5.

https://www.winnebagoind.com/diagram...ire_186430.pdf