2015 Winnebago Vista 30T Inverter Issues

[tantonaros]

We purchased our Vista 30T in March 2022. After having it home for a couple of weeks and trying to figure everything out we realized we had no power to the outlets on the rig. Come to find out the inverter was shot. The dealer replaced the inverter and everything has been fine since. . .until now.
While boondocking it last weekend I was running the rig off of 2 inverter generators linked with a parallel connection. Ran out of fuel a 6:30 am. Refilled and restarted inverter generators. Everything good again.
At 9:30am got up and turned the coffee pot on, to no avail. No power.
I shut down the inverter generators, unplugged the rig from them and started the onboard generator in hopes of having my morning coffee. Still no power. I reset the GFI and restored power. . .but only for a moment. Power went out again moments later and I have not been able to reset the GFI since.
Someone told me that there is typically 2 40 amp fuses for the inverter, which I have not been able to find.
Does anyone know if that is true and if so where are they located?
I find it hard to believe that the inverter went again.
Thought there might be a reset switch on the inverter itself but there is not.
Any feedback or assistance anyone out there can give would be greatly appreciated.

 

[Morich]

Common problem for folks to assume that all RV are the same. If they know what is on their RV, the same will be on your RV!

WRONG!
First fault is to think your RV has a main 30 amp breaker and there would be two 40 amps for the inverter? Main breakers are almost always bigger as they carry the total load to smaller sub breakers. If your main will only handle 30, there is no need for two 40 amps!

This is the drawing for your RV 110 AC :
https://www.winnebago.com/Files/Files/Winnebago/Resources/Diagram/2014/14_wire_185946.pdf

I made a small snip of the important parts for this question. Click it to get a better view or go direct for more info. Scroll down to last page for the full drawing of what you have.

If you have power to the bedroom outlets but not the Bedroom TV, the inverter may need a look? Reads like a road map fromthe load center going out on the tracks shown.

 

[tantonaros]

Richard,
Thanks for your response. Although I can't make heads or tails of the wiring diagram--not enough to figure out my issue anyway.
Since this happened I have no power to any of the outlets in the rig and no power to the ac or refrigerator.

 

[Morich]

Okay, I missed what the real problem was and that you may not be getting any power to anything inside, so let's start over and look at what to expect from the start.
The problem with reading these drawings is that when we first start looking there is just too much there, so we need to start with smaller parts and then we can study each small part with less confusion.

So when we plug the power cord into power or run the generator, it sends power to a transfer switch and it decides to use the cord power or the generator power. That may be where things are not working but we need to check where it stops.

When things are working right, the transfer switch chooses the correct one and sends the power to the load center like in this part of the drawing.


Power in like the blue lines and out to the load center main 30 amp breaker like the green line. That breaker is connected to all the smaller breakers and if they are on the power can go out to the different parts of the RV like on the yellow lines!

To save space and cut it down some, I only marked a couple that I thought might be easy to spot if they are working. Things like the bathroom outlet. RCP is short for receptacle and then it tells kind of where to find that outlet!
An important one to know about is the first one that shows Rcp-GFI as that is the one which may trip and cut off all the outlets on down the line! So know where it is and check it first as it can make several others go dead but easy to push the reset button.

The second picture here shows a gizmo to shed load if there are too many things on that line using power at the same time. It will often only let you use the microwave or the electric water heater at the same time and it cuts off one or the other at times.
When testing, just leave the water heater turned off and then the microwave lights are easy to look to see if it is getting power!

I did not read carefully enough and got into checking the inverter but if there are lots of other parts not working, you need to look back toward the power cord and find where there is a "hole in the road".

If there are some things like the bathroom outlet working but not others, it is likely to be between the load center and whatever is bad.
But if nothing works on 110 AC, then maybe it is as simple as the 30 amp breaker kicked off or transfer switch or maybe just the plug is loose in the power outlet??

Kind of like a bunch of garden hoses all tied together? If it was water, you would go along and check the faucet was on and look for where the water stopped, just the problem is we can't see the power, just what it makes happen.

Keep in mind that the lights, vent fans, and smaller things are running off battery and will likely still be working, so don't let that confuse you.

See if that makes sense and shout back if needing more help if it looks like the transfer switch is bad. If you can plug in and don't get anything to work, it can help to try running the generator to see if that makes things work as it might just be "stuck" on one or the other gen. or cord?

 

[danhannah]

Morich -

Brilliant reply. Very educational.

Do you have any idea what
"Thrown in wire" means on these diagrams?

 

[Morich]

Yes, that seems tobejust a quaint way to describe the setofwires that they "throw in" as they build the RV! Sounds sloppy but I've found they throw it in and thing add clamps and connect it all together!
Most of the world seems to what some sort of "secret code" in their language? Maybe it works to let the folks who do it all the time sort out those of us who only visit once in a while?
Folks on big line trucks that have pole augers and such talk about a "headache bar" and sure enough it gives you a headache if you forget it is there!