inverter problems on 2022 View

[James47]

We are new owners of a 2022 View and have problems with charging the batteries and operating the refrigerator. We have had the View into the dealer and so far no repairs have been made with evidence that they don't know what to do. The shore power does not charge the battery, and when hooked up the refrigerator draws the battery down excessively. I'm new to this type of unit, so the limited information available in the materials from Winnebago are not helpful. Has anyone else had similar problems? The display of the inverter is not operational, but there seems to be some "sound" coming from the inverter, even if it is does not appear to be operaional.
Thanks,
Jim

[Morich]

That is an example of a problem in the RV industry!
There are lots of "mechanics" who do repairs on RV but the mechanics don't understand electronics! And that puts us in a really bad place as almost every industry is becoming more and more elctronics involved!

Then there is also a second problem making life difficult as Winnebago has stopped putting the real electrical schematics online from the 2010 models to current, so we have more trouble with dealer repair and less info to do it ourself!

You did not tell us which model 22 view ,so this is for the 524D and may not be exact for your RV if you have something different!

This is a good spot to find where and what parts we have:
https://catalog3d.winnebagoind.com/menu/Parts.htm

This is the sketchy electrical info we get and we can kind of guess at some troubles:
https://www.winnebago.com/Files/File...ram/Wiring.htm

My suggestions?
One point to check is the inverter as there is a small popout breaker shown on the rear, and that might be something to check if it has popped out? Push in and see if it will stay and fix anything, as an easy one to try?

Location looks to be in outside compartment next to door?



Turning the view around to look at the back, this appears to be a breaker and I might guess it is an output breaker but we get no info on that, so a guess!



Then if that doesn't help, my second thought would be that the "electronic charge relay" would be a place to start. On older RV there is a mode solenoid which connects the start and coach battery systems together at different times. While we drive to get the engine alternator to do some charge for the coach batteries or when we need to use a dash switch (boost or aux? switch) to give a weak start battery a "jump start" from the coach system.

But we no longer find a mode solenoid as it appears to have been replaced by a solid state "box" of electronics!

So I " think" this should have 12 volt from the start battery on one side and 12volt from the coach on the other side. That would be something to check to make sure it is not just a dirty cable at some point that is keeping the two power groups from tying together at the right time.

Under the passenger seat?


But if this is a shop item and certainly if it is warrenty work, they really need to check the magic in this box as it may have gone away!

Also while there, make sure the battery cut off relay (next to the charge realy!) is moving when you hit the switch to disconnect the batteries. It will not move if the coach battery is too run down and that will keep lots of things from working right!

[Ontario Don]

Hi Jim - Based on what you have described, I'm wondering if the View was given to you with the Xantrex Inverter / Charger rotary knob selected to OFF? Immediately to the left upon entering the coach, down on the floor, just outboard of where the battery master and controls for the awning are, is a large black rotary knob. It is not labeled, and not explained very well in the manual - but this rotary knob will de-activate both inverter output, and charger output.


I just went outside and plugged our '21 View in to shore power, and with this knob selected to OFF, things kinda line up with what you have described. My inverter / charger was powered up, but not providing power to the remote inverter panel or charging the battery.



So, for starters, what is the selection on that knob?


Cheers,

[James47]

Originally Posted by Morich

That is an example of a problem in the RV industry!
There are lots of "mechanics" who do repairs on RV but the mechanics don't understand electronics! And that puts us in a really bad place as almost every industry is becoming more and more elctronics involved!

Then there is also a second problem making life difficult as Winnebago has stopped putting the real electrical schematics online from the 2010 models to current, so we have more trouble with dealer repair and less info to do it ourself!

You did not tell us which model 22 view ,so this is for the 524D and may not be exact for your RV if you have something different!

This is a good spot to find where and what parts we have:
https://catalog3d.winnebagoind.com/menu/Parts.htm

This is the sketchy electrical info we get and we can kind of guess at some troubles:
https://www.winnebago.com/Files/File...ram/Wiring.htm

My suggestions?
One point to check is the inverter as there is a small popout breaker shown on the rear, and that might be something to check if it has popped out? Push in and see if it will stay and fix anything, as an easy one to try?

Location looks to be in outside compartment next to door?

Attachment 184169

Turning the view around to look at the back, this appears to be a breaker and I might guess it is an output breaker but we get no info on that, so a guess!

Attachment 184170

Then if that doesn't help, my second thought would be that the "electronic charge relay" would be a place to start. On older RV there is a mode solenoid which connects the start and coach battery systems together at different times. While we drive to get the engine alternator to do some charge for the coach batteries or when we need to use a dash switch (boost or aux? switch) to give a weak start battery a "jump start" from the coach system.

But we no longer find a mode solenoid as it appears to have been replaced by a solid state "box" of electronics!

So I " think" this should have 12 volt from the start battery on one side and 12volt from the coach on the other side. That would be something to check to make sure it is not just a dirty cable at some point that is keeping the two power groups from tying together at the right time.

Under the passenger seat?
Attachment 184171

But if this is a shop item and certainly if it is warrenty work, they really need to check the magic in this box as it may have gone away!

Also while there, make sure the battery cut off relay (next to the charge realy!) is moving when you hit the switch to disconnect the batteries. It will not move if the coach battery is too run down and that will keep lots of things from working right!

Thanks for the information. I printed out your post and the details that you supplied which I will take to the dealer tomorrow. Hopefully I can get in to get them to check to see if the reset button is needing to be set. I was to the dealer last Wednesday to have a couple of other things looked, including the concern that the inverter was not working. The reply was that the inverter was no good and would need to be replaced and an effort would be made to have Winnebago send one. Not one mention was made of how this conclusion was reached, or what steps were taken to determine it. We had / have a trip planned where shore power is available so felt that as long as we could plug in, we could go. The current condition of not being able to charge the battery with shore power makes it impossible to use our new 24D view because of the draw by the refrigerator exhausts the battery. I have a trickle charger connected to the battery at this time, which is restoring the charge to a level that will allow me to close the slide out and drive to the dealer. One question about the battery level, the gauge indicated that it went down quite low, should I be concerned about damage to it?
Thanks again for your assistance,
Jim

[Morich]

Damage to batteries is kind of hard to put a number on but the idea is that the lower they go and the longer they stay there, the more damage might be done. Somewhat a thing that compounds over time to gradually reduce how much charge they will hold.

Please don't get too heavy with showing them what is wrong because we really don't get much info on how the newer things work! That leaves me doing more guessing than I like but this is the way my thinking went.

You hear noise from the inverter. I'm thinking you are hearing a fan , meaning power is getting to the inverter and it has a charging section as well as inverting batttery to make AC for the inverter part. There has to be some form of Converter/ battery charger to let it use AC to make DC for all the coach items as well as charge the battery.
All that led me to think it might be as simple as resetting the little breaker.
I assume there is no handy way to reach in around or over the box to feel the button to push back in??

The part under the seat looks like this if we get closer.



There is a cable going from the magic box under the passenger seat to in front of the driver's seat where I know they put the start or chassis battery!

Then if we look closer at the box, we can see that cable marked in black with another cable going from a second connection marked in blue that goes to the coach batteries. We know that has to be where the two get connected together. We used to have a boost or AUX dash button but I suspect they may have dropped the buttons and made it automatic??

Then next to that, I marked in yellow the cable that goes to the battery disconnect relay where it passes through (if the relay is closed) and goes on to the Coach!

There are supposed to be tape markers put on the cable ends to help ID them
Like this.


I wonder if you have tested/tried starting the RV engine to see if that begins to charge the coach batteries? That would seem to indicate this box is connecting them at the time?

See if that gets you anything good !