2015 Vista 27N Coach/House Batteries Not Charging on Shore Power

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Original Member Title: 2015 Vista 27N Coach/House Batteries Not Charging on Shore Power
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A member’s 2015 Winnebago Vista 27N house batteries stopped charging on shore power, remaining around 12.5 volts but reaching 14 volts with the engine running. After confirming that the Xantrex PRO XM1000 was not the battery charger, the member located the Intelli-Power 9200 converter under the bed, behind the electrical panel.

Troubleshooting suggestions focused on the converter’s AC supply, fuses, connections, and battery-voltage changes when plugging into shore power. The member...
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MarknDonna

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Hello All, looking for guidance as to correct operation of the coach/house battery charging system, particularly on shore power. 2015 Winnebago Vista 27N. The coach batteries do not charge on shore power, they used to. The batteries are AGM, one was installed this morning and one was installed about a year ago. Both coach batteries charge with the engine running, as does the chassis battery. Present voltage for the coach batts (and the chassis) is 12.5. I was under the impression that the Xantrex inverter provided charging 12VDC for the batteries, appears I was mistaken. The Vista is equipped with a Precision Circuits Battery Isolation Manager found in the cramped compartment aft of the drivers front wheel Both coach and chassis battery switches seem to operate normally; the coach switch is always on when shore power is connected. I do not see any issue with the hard-wired shore power isolator.
Am I missing something obvious? Where is the 120VAC/!2VDC convertor that charges the batteries? Is there a CB for that converter? - not seen on the120VAC Panel.
Thx, Mark
2015 Winnebago Vista 27N
2017 Ford Edge V6 Toad
 
What model is the Xantrex. Look up its capabilities. Some do not charge the batteries, some do. Most do not charge the chassis battery.
 
First to clear naming confusion as many do not use the correct names. An inverter uses AC to "make " DC. It doesn't charge anything!
A converter does the opposite and uses AC to make DC!
However there is a combined unit that is an inverter charger that does both and it is often gets called "inverter", even though it is not!
There is a point to know about your RV and what exactly you have as there is an early build as well as later year build. Early has a 1 as the 7th digit of the serial number! That is the SERIAL number on the tag next to the driver's left side. NOT the VIN that is used for license, etc.
A 2 there means later year build and may have some small points different, so it can be important to know which you have!
But if you have the inverter, you will not have an inverter charger! So expect to find a converter located on the floor behind the load center where the breakers and fuses are found!
Some tricks to sort the problem may help. If you have a meter to test voltage, put it on the coach batteries and watch what happens when you plug or unplug the RV. If the battery voltage jumps when you plug in, the converter voltage is what you see there and it is working. Maybe the converter is sendingthe charge to the batteries but they just won' hold it?
But it helps to know how it gets there as this drawing shows and there are things to trick us!
conver wiring.jpg


Some guessing on early or late build but I think your load center will look like this. with AC breakers on left and DC fuses on right, we can look at the left side for how the converter gets power.
Power in on the cord from campground plug or generastor gopes to main breaker and I think it feeds the whole load center but it may only go to the converter main. Not shown on drawings, so a bit of guess there? One or both those breakers should let AC go to the converter that is behind the load center. That converter makes the DC and feeds it out to both the batteries to charge then and also to the fuses for RV items.
A tricky trap to watch is where the battery disconnect switch is located as a trap!
That disconnect switch cuts off the batteries from charging but not from discharging!
It cuts the batteries off from charge but not from the fuses that can run them down!
Check/verify anything you read on the internet, so test this info before trusting?
With the RV plugged in and the converter working, turn the disconnect off and see if the lights still work? They should as they are fed by the converter. Now disconnect the cord and I think you will fidn the lights stay on as they are working off the battyeries!
Ugly trick that can kill your first set of batteries if you run them totally dead while stored with the RV plugged but the disconnect off!

But to sort the converter charge question, some suggestions. Maybe a first easy one if it is quite where you have the RV, is to listen for it to hum! With the RV plugged and all disocnenect and breakers on, you can often hear the converter hum when near the load center! Converter is a transformer if you know what they sound like? A 60 cycle hum? No hum, chase why power is not getting from cord to breakers and converter, bu tif there is humn, it should be getting through the disconnect to the batteries and there can be corroded connections, etc, on that path.
One point to be aware of is the voltage you mention as that is pretty low for a set of fully charged batteries as they should be at least 12.7 when not charging and jump higher when they get charged as you will see the higher voltage going in almost immediatly, even if the battery is not fully charged itself. Like pouring water into a jug? You should see the water going in even if the jug is empty.
 
See you are picking up notes quickly, so a small point I did! I thought to leave the RV plugged to keep the batteries charged, but I also wanted to not be using power for the RV setting here in the yard, so I turned the battery disconnect off to not use that power!
Shot myself in the foot as I DID cut the batteries off from charge but there are still safety items left to drain them! It took a bit to wake up to things they don't show on drawings!
 
Thank you very much. A great deal of info to review and check out. The 7th digit of the Serial Number is a "2"
I will have to move out a slide to be able to raise the bed to get a close look behind the 120VAC panel. There is no change to the coach battery voltage when the RV is on shore power vs. not. The battery voltage does read 14VDC when the engine is running.
Ok, I found the Intelli-power 9200 under the bed, will check the little fuses and do some power input checks.
 
I pulled and checked the fuses, no issue there, and worked the 120VAC power supply plug a bit. Odd arrangement on the back of the panel, I think. Yes that is a convenience receptacle there. Reconnected RV to shore power, and the 9200 is now charging the batteries. All are at 13.4 VDC now and slowly rising; the fin heat exchanger on the 9200 is getting warm, as it should. Not sure what I did to fix, if anything, but all now appears in order. Thanks again!
 
Good deal! One thing that I have learned for sure is that RV have a special talent for doing things that surprise us! It can be things that start working when we look at them. Those are what I have to write off as possibly something as simple and hard to find as corrosion. It seems to follow RV more than our houses as we tend to let the Rv set longer and my theory is that makes things corrode more being outside and more prone to temperature changes?
Best of luck and happy if any of my info helped! Now go have fun before it snows?? :cry:
 
I used to have the same 2025 Vista and you got great accurate information and support. One thing I'll add for troubleshooting with no tools: If your batteries are not being charged ( resting ) and you press the check button on your monitor panel you will get 1-3 green leds, 3 indicates the batteries are over 50% state of charge. If you are getting chassis charging or AC converter charging, you should get all 4 LEDs. That is an easy way to tell that your charger is putting out power towards the batteries.
 

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