Tripping breaker on 2007 Winnebago Vectra

[Wintercamper]

We have a 2007 Winnebago Vectra and we are full timing. We are hooked up to 50 amp power. Sometimes when we have the heaters going and turn on the microwave it trips the breaker. (It’s only when we forget to shut something off) at that point the only way that I have found to get the power restored is to start the engine on the motorhome. Yesterday it was 4° And the motorhome barely able to start. 🫣 I would imagine there’s another way to flip the breaker and get power restored, any info is greatly appreciated!!

[Morich]

Vital info missing as we need to know which model 07 Vectra to look at drawings.
Second point is which breaker is tripping? Is it the breaker at the post that feeds all AC power to RV, Main 50 Amp breaker at the load center or one of the smaller breakers which feeds power to each circuit in the RV? Or is it one of the breakers at the inverter panel?

There may be some confusion on the engine starting as that should not have any connection to the 110AC power except in one case which should not be involved.
Under normal situation power from the cord should do all the work for the 110outlets, etc.
But if you were not plugged into power and had the AC inverter doing the work, the engine battery "might" be providing power to the inverter through the batteries but that should not be involved when plugged to power!

A point to know that may save some trouble?
Often there is no setup to power or charge the start battery, just as in our cars. Some have added items called Trik-l-start or similar but often many do not.
So when camping in cold weather and not starting the engine very often, it can be worthwhile to make some arrangement to keep the start battery charged over the long term. Maybe something like a trickle charger plugged into an Rv outlet to keep the start battery from being down when cold?
However, if not staying long term to make connecting/disconnecting the charger is worthwhile, there is a second way to get more power tot he start if needed. There is often a "boost" or "aux" switch to push on the dash? May be different names on different RV!
This switch connects both start and chassis batteries together while we try to start the engine. Handy if the coach batteries are fully charged due to being plugged in but the start is a bit weak? You get a "jump start" without getting out the cables!
Try that next time if concerned about the start battery not being well charged?
Give us more info and we can chase the questions further? STAY WARM!

[Wintercamper]

You are so right Definitely need some more info!
Model wks40td
The engine has been starting with no issues until the really cold weather. (I know it had nothing to do with the power being off (because of the microwave) as this is happened multiple times already) Thank you I did not know about the boost button I do have one.
Also I did not realize I had an engine heater until yesterday it is now on.
So I have never actually had to flip a breaker. Starting the motorhome always does the trick it restores the power. I was hoping there is another way to restore the power maybe by flipping a breaker on and off.
Thank you so much for your fast response

[Wintercamper]

When the lights shut off because of the microwaves this panel loses power. Only way that I know to restore it is to start the motorhome hoping there is another way

[Morich]

OH my! Sounds like the gremlins are doing tricky things to confuse us!! Logic says the engine starting should not have anything to do with the microwave and not much to do with the 110AC stuff.
But RV are tricky and they can do weird stuff, so maybe it's a case of the big old engine rocking the boat around just enough to make something get good contact at the right time to make them seem connected? Big guess there, until we find what's really happening!
So maybe we need to look at some things that I do know should happen and then let you look closer if this happens again?
Not knowing what you know about the operation, it can cut some time if we talk about the basics first. If you already know it, then ignore the parts you don't need but sometimes it is good just to go back and look at things?
You have a big rig with loots of options and features that can get too confusing to follow if we look at the whole ball at once, so I like to break it down in smaller parts.

RV have three electrical sections that are separate at times and tie together at other times. The chassis starting and things we find on the normal truck but sometimes tie together to the coach.
The RV stuff like inside lights, fans and water pump are on the coach section but sometimes tie to the chassis group.
And then there is the 110AC that comes from cord or generator but feeds the converter to make 12VDC to charge the coach batteries. Generally it doesn't do much for the chassis and starting---except it runs the engine heater! It runs lots of 110AC stuff like microwave, air cond. and outlets but pretty much separated from the engine otherwise!
I don't think of any way the 110 Ac and the engine starting connect except through the coach batteries, back to the chassis batteries to start the engine.

My thought is that starting the engine may be "bumping" something to get it going again so you need to go along the path and find what might be loose?
When speaking of lights going out? I assume you mean the RV interior lights? Those would be working off the coach batteries and those batteries should be charged off the shore power cord, while the microwave is straight off the shore power and 110AC!

That seems to say there is more than one problem? When things light inside lights and microwave are working right, can you check to see what the "house battery" voltage says with the cord plugged in and then turn off or unplug to look again at the house battery voltage shows? About mid way up on the monitor panel picture!
The cord is feeding a converter, which should be keeping the coach batteries charged and when plugged, I would expect to see 12.8 or more, possibly as high as 14 volts at the connection to them. That would be what the converter is putting out.
But if that reading drops way off, down below 12volts, when you unplug and the converter stops, it may mean the coach batteries are not being charged and are near dead?
Trying to start sorting if it is a 110AC problem, like the cord or something along that path that makes the microwave dead and also kills the charger!
Not something as simple as the plug just loose in the outlet?

That's really wishing for luck!! I'm thinking the engine starting is kind of like stomping your foot and it's fooling you!

[Wintercamper]

Originally Posted by Morich

OH my! Sounds like the gremlins are doing tricky things to confuse us!! Logic says the engine starting should not have anything to do with the microwave and not much to do with the 110AC stuff.
But RV are tricky and they can do weird stuff, so maybe it's a case of the big old engine rocking the boat around just enough to make something get good contact at the right time to make them seem connected? Big guess there, until we find what's really happening!
So maybe we need to look at some things that I do know should happen and then let you look closer if this happens again?
Not knowing what you know about the operation, it can cut some time if we talk about the basics first. If you already know it, then ignore the parts you don't need but sometimes it is good just to go back and look at things?
You have a big rig with loots of options and features that can get too confusing to follow if we look at the whole ball at once, so I like to break it down in smaller parts.

RV have three electrical sections that are separate at times and tie together at other times. The chassis starting and things we find on the normal truck but sometimes tie together to the coach.
The RV stuff like inside lights, fans and water pump are on the coach section but sometimes tie to the chassis group.
And then there is the 110AC that comes from cord or generator but feeds the converter to make 12VDC to charge the coach batteries. Generally it doesn't do much for the chassis and starting---except it runs the engine heater! It runs lots of 110AC stuff like microwave, air cond. and outlets but pretty much separated from the engine otherwise!
I don't think of any way the 110 Ac and the engine starting connect except through the coach batteries, back to the chassis batteries to start the engine.

My thought is that starting the engine may be "bumping" something to get it going again so you need to go along the path and find what might be loose?
When speaking of lights going out? I assume you mean the RV interior lights? Those would be working off the coach batteries and those batteries should be charged off the shore power cord, while the microwave is straight off the shore power and 110AC!

That seems to say there is more than one problem? When things light inside lights and microwave are working right, can you check to see what the "house battery" voltage says with the cord plugged in and then turn off or unplug to look again at the house battery voltage shows? About mid way up on the monitor panel picture!
The cord is feeding a converter, which should be keeping the coach batteries charged and when plugged, I would expect to see 12.8 or more, possibly as high as 14 volts at the connection to them. That would be what the converter is putting out.
But if that reading drops way off, down below 12volts, when you unplug and the converter stops, it may mean the coach batteries are not being charged and are near dead?
Trying to start sorting if it is a 110AC problem, like the cord or something along that path that makes the microwave dead and also kills the charger!
Not something as simple as the plug just loose in the outlet?

That's really wishing for luck!! I'm thinking the engine starting is kind of like stomping your foot and it's fooling you!

When everything is working normally the house batteries are about 13.2.
When it seems like I use too much power and the lights go out the stuff in the outlets is still working, If I flip the switch for the house batteries it will not read anything (no numbers appear at all) Engine battery will still read 12.7-13.2

When the lights shut down I don’t even think I’m pulling 30 Amps I have been watching my inverter display i’ve never seen it hit 25amps
Not sure what a microwave coffee pot toaster Pull but If I have lights on and two heaters then turn One of those three on lights go out 🤯


I have not tried unplugging the shore power I might try it tomorrow depending on how warm it gets

Question Usually when a person uses way too much power And it shuts the circuit down. What is the procedure I’m supposed to do to get everything turned back on (Please don’t say turn the engine on)🙏

[Morich]

Lots of different questions that need lots of different answers!
1. When everything is working normally the house batteries are about 13.2.

This can be explained by one of the confusing things we have in RV.
I made this drawing to show what should happen.
Not full details but just the big idea?

When we have 110AC power from the plug or generator, it comes to the converter which then "makes" 12VDC to go to the 12V fuses and the batteries to charge them. From the fuses, the 12VDC goes to most of the RV things that use it.
Mostly smaller stuff like lights, vent fans, water pump and the controls for the bigger stuff like air cond., furnace, and some of the monitor panel.
NOT the outlets where you plug things like heaters, hair driers, TV!

The converter should put out 12VDC to power most of this stuff and also charge the coach batteries. BUT this only works if the disconnect switch is closed/engaged to turn the power on! Lights won't work and often the power from converter doesn't go to the batteries. They are cut off!

When plugged in power goes from the cord all the way through to the lights, etc. But when we unplug, the power should come from the batteries to the fuses and to all those things!

But, at the same time there is another set of wires that come from the cord and feed things that need higher power from 110AC! Air conditioners, outlets where we plug hair driers and heaters are big power users. The electric heating for water is a big user, too.

So we get something like this when we add the 110AC part to the drawing.


When plugged in and all running right with disconnect switch closed, power comes in, the converter makes 12v and passes it to RV stuff and also stores extra in the batteries. At same time110AC comes in and powers things that need it!

Then when we unplug, power from the cord to 110AC things is cut off and the converter stops making 12Volt for inside stuff like where I put the red marks.
BUT we expect the battery to have stored power and it then feeds the power out to the inside RV things!


So when something stops, we need to decide which system it is supposed to get power from, chassis stuff like the normal truck has a different set of fuses or breakers and we have to get that info from the chassis builder.
RV stuff has both AC and dc fuses or breakers, so we need to figure which set to check. I drew the lines like the air and outlets are on one set of wires but they are all on different wiring from the breakers out.

What I "think" might be happening is that the coach batteries are not getting charged from the converter OR they are not in good shape to store that charge. When the disconnect switch is off, they won't charge, so that needs to stay on until you have reason to turn it off, like while stored!

What I think is happening is the coach batteries are down, either not getting the charge to them or not storing it.
When you unplug, the power from the converter stops but the power from the batteries is not good enough to keep 12 Volt things working!

Explanation of why the monitor says the coach batteries are good is because the converter is working at that time. The monitor is really seeing the power from the converter but there may/may not be any stored in the batteries!
It can be as simple as the batteries are worn out and dead or as hard to find as dirty cables keeping the power from getting from the converter to the batteries!
Dirty cables are cheaper but harder to find because we have so many places to look. Where the negative cable from the batteries goes down and connect to the frame behind the batteries is one that is often overlooked. Out of sight, out of mind?

For running the heater and avoid tripping breakers, try to look at how to put them on different sets of wires and different breakers. Try to look at this chart of the 110AC for your RV to see which outlets are on different breakers!
https://www.winnebago.com/Files/File...ire_158650.pdf

Try to spread the load out on different breakers when using high power things. you will have to try a few places that look right but the idea is not to put the hair drier and heater both on the same time or turn one off while using the other? The galley can be fine but turn the heater off before using the toaster?
If you go too close to the max, trace that wire back to find which breaker may trip! No harm done but not something you should do every day as they can get worn out!