No power to power distribution panel

[SoCal]

Hello everyone. I'm new here, as a matter of fact this is my first post, ever. Anyway, here's my problem. We follow our Grandson who is into motocross racing. We drive the RV to his races and generally have to 'dry camp'. No hookups.

This past week we 'dry camped' at Fox Raceway in So Cal. There are no hookups, so we ran the generator when necessary and everything was fine. At about 1 am, I was awaken by a beeping noise, which I couldn't figure out. (It turned out to be the inverter warning of a low battery.) I started the coach, (no generators after 10pm) ran the engine for about 15min, checked the battery level and it showed full. Turned off the engine, and went back to bed. I got woke up with the same beeping, and did the same thing. It happened 3 times that night, and every night after that for a total of three nights.

On Sat, the day before the last day, I pulled the house batteries and took them to a local Auto Zone, where they checked ok, just needed to be charged. I ran the generator most of the evening trying to charge the batteries. Same scenario occurred that night as the previous. Drove the RV home and tried to trouble shoot the problem. Here's where I'm totally confused. I hooked up a multi meter to the batteries and they show 12.5 w/o a load. Checked all of the fuses, circuit breakers etc, and all appeared to be good. Then I checked the power coming from the batteries into the power distribution panel. Nothing. Looked for fuses, thinking something inline is blown. I can't find anything along those lines.

Am I off base, or is it something really simple. Does anyone have any suggestions.

Hope I did this right.

John
2018 Winnebago Intent 26'

[powercat_ras]

You might find your AC to DC Converter Charger and see if the DC fuse in the end of it has blown.
If your Intent has a WFCO AC Breaker Box the converter charger is likely off the full size 15 amp breaker in the bottom position, and if it's a separate Converter Charger that breaker is wired to a dedicated single grounded outlet on the back side of the Box that the power cord for the Converter Charger is plugged into. Or, it may have an integrated converter charger in a compartment in the bottom part of the WFCO box. Don't know what Winnebago used on the Intents.

You can also put a meter set to DC volts onto the output terminals of the converter charge. Right after cycling the AC power with the circuit breaker it should start up in bulk charge mode for at least a minute or so and be outputting 13.8 to 14.4 volts. It may quickly drop down if it senses batteries are charged or can't see the batteries.

At least on a Vista the WFCO DC fuse panel is fed from a 55 amp circuit breaker in the chassis electrical box, and then the converter/charger DC leads connect into the WFCO. There are a couple of protection fuses in the WFCO DC panel as well that can open up in particular if there is a battery polarity reversal.

I think you are pretty much on your own as they stopped publishing wiring diagrams after 2013. However, you can call Winnebago customer service and if you get the right rep on the right day they may look at the internal drawings and answer questions. One person on IRV2 even got a drawing that is not on the web sent to them to help them fix their RV themselves.

Good luck.

[Morich]

I suspect you are not familiar with the term "surface charge" and how long it takes to actually charge a battery. A voltmeter will show the charge in the first cell and lookk okay but it takes all six cells to really be charged to get the full effect.
It is sometimes explained if you were pouring black ink into white paint. When first pouring it in and looking things look really black but if you wait a couple hours and let that black mix in all the cells, it won't hardly show!
So the reason you kept getting the alarm that the battery was nearing flat was because you were only getting the first cell bumped up a bit and it was going down just as quick as it went up. Specs tell us it may take like 48 hours to fully get a lead acid battery back in shape after a deep discharge.
Does that seem to match what you found? The no power to the distribution panel sounds like a different problem that may have gotten in during a bit of confusion??
Suggest putting a charger on the battery for a day or so and then see if all is well again.
Come back again if still problems but I'm thinking it will be clear.

[SoCal]

Thanks everyone. Looks like I have some more things to check. Appreciate the feedback and advise.

[Morich]

As an added thought that was not mentioned, do you know about the battery disconnect switch? That being off will take the battery voltage off the panel. There are also times when turning it on does not move the connection as it requires a charged battery. There is a latching relay that has to have power to move but then is held by a magnet if I remember correctly without looking!
Perhaps check it after assured there is good battery?
Looks like it is located above and left of the batteries?