Battery disconnect switch not working on 2020 Minnie Winnie 31K

[thistlesmith1]

2020 minnie winnie 31k. Bat disconnect switch does not operate the bat connect relay. Light on switch does not come on. Batteries are fully charged. Any thoughts as where to look.

 

[Waterbug]

You don't state wether batteries are always connected or always disconnected. The places to begin, depend on which condition you are encountering. A simple thing to try is to have someone tap on the relay, with the butt of a screwdriver, while another person toggles the switch.

 

[Morich]

Looks like some good info but a fair amount to sned at one time, so hang on?
We don't get the actual wiring schematics that we used to , so we have to hunt and peck for clues!
We DO get drawings to show where I think you will find the switch that you know about and then the relay that it controls.
At the door and on end of cabinet, with small relay just inside under the cabinet?

These are small plug in type relay if you are familiar with them? My group calls them 87's!
One close behind swtish in front and two of same farther back, in case they are handuy to get to unplug and swap as test?

Or shown in a different way for finding it and two others you may want to swap? Your choice on what seems to fit better when you look at things!

You may want to test or find swapping easier?
But for testing, Winn stamps ID on wires and gives us a chart to "decode" the ID!

The problem with the list is that they posted it and did not make it "searchable" so it is a drag to search. I have converted mine to search easier but not found better trained computer folks to tell me how to get it in a form to post or send to others!
SORRY! Only semi-trained on magic stuff?
I'm looking for a volunteer for that job?
The list:

https://www.winnebago.com/files/files/winnebago/resources/diagram/electrical_guide.pdf

This gives us the wire ID on the switch but not what lug to find them on! But if we look at the list it looks like JA is battery and jp ground!

This shows a 14 gauge yellow wire JA goes from the fuse to the switch and JP is ground! JA and JP are battery and ground to move the relay and that relay contacts should then pass operate the relay, where we find these wires:

That is the best we get without the schematics to follow like a road map, os lots more room for error!
Depending on how easy it is to get to any p[art of this, I might first favor swapping the relays to see if it as bad contacts. But if the switch is easy to get out of the wall without breaking things, checking for batery and ground there might be better?

IF it is a fuse and no battery on JA, it seems to come from this fuse at the load center.

But that fuse also shows feeding the water pump, so maybe not the problem if pump still works!
Lots of hints but they don't give us any better for chasing trouble!
From bat and ground goes to switch, That switch makes the relay coil open or close relay contacts to turn power on or off?
Can we heaar or feel that relay move to show the switch is moving it? That is when I might jump to swapping the relay---if you can get to the others to swap?
Wish you luck on the trek and shout if more info needed as there may be lots missing!

 

[RV_Lee]

Having the same issue, switch is fine, its apparently the battery disconnect relay that went bad. Fortunately I have a dc-to-dc charger that pushes more power to it and makes it connect and turn on, or at least thats the theory! It just went bad 2 days ago right before hooking up at an RV site, I'll be able to diagnose further once I leave

I found it was bad by using the macerator pump to dump the tank and I had nothing from that switch, I went into the RV, 12v system was off, things were beeping etc but it came on again once I started up the RV

 

[Morich]

Sounds like there may be corroded connections or loose wire feeding power on JA? But that idea is if you have the same. I might look at it as a high resistance connection at some point that keeps the battery voltage too low to operate the realy, as you mentioned. Whether at the load center or at the switch? Idea being that engine running bumps the voltage enough higher to let more current so it wakes up and moves!
Maybe as simple as the fuse needs to be pulled and put back to clear the corrosion on it?
RV are a rolling bucket of corrosion!

 

[RV_Lee]

Sounds like there may be corroded connections or loose wire feeding power on JA? But that idea is if you have the same. I might look at it as a high resistance connection at some point that keeps the battery voltage too low to operate the realy, as you mentioned. Whether at the load center or at the switch? Idea being that engine running bumps the voltage enough higher to let more current so it wakes up and moves!
Maybe as simple as the fuse needs to be pulled and put back to clear the corrosion on it?
RV are a rolling bucket of corrosion!

This is now what I am thinking, loose connection or corrosion (it had just rained 24hrs the day before the issue started). I have left the RV park and now boondocking and its working fine (I wont dare touch the macerator switch and even worried about using the water pump!). Any idea where the bad connection might be? 2016 aspect 27K

 

[Morich]

On your Aspect, it looks like Circuit and wire JA feed several different things and if you have water pump and macerator both acting funky, it may mean Wire JA ifs not getting good steady power to both?
At the load center down near/under the sink, I see a breaker that should feed JA for several different items.

Maybe as simple as flipping breaker off/on a couple times to knock any corrosion off as simple thought? More difficult to take covers off and check actually good tight contact at rear of breaker! But while at load center, the ground side of things is wire JP, so maybe good idea to just tighten all those wires as just good to do!
The problem with working this without having a clear written schematic to follow is that we don't have the "roadmap" to tell us which wire with what label to follow to get to the next item! We know power has to come off the second breaker as shwn above using wire JA. But that wire feeds several different items and we really have to guess if we have no more info than that. JP is ground and much the same problem.
The hard way is if we take a switch for something like the macerator pump out to see the wires, we can then look those codes up on this chart.

https://www.winnebago.com/files/files/winnebago/resources/diagram/electrical_guide.pdf

If this chart were posted in some form that we could search, it would let us pull up the ID for all wires going to the water pump, relay ,etc. But that is not one I have found a way to get posted or sent by e-mail! I have no idea why , if that is available, why it is not posted in that form?? Lack of training for me to guess at things like that!
I have found that we can run it through a free Adobe program and turn it into OCR form but that seems to only be for my personal use, that Ican't get shared with anybody in any form I've tried! UGH!
About all I can say is that JA shows up in 22 different spots in the list spread over about the whole 80 pages of the list!

 

[RV_Lee]

Thank you, in the fuse panel the row down the left side is breakers, and down the right is fuses. I see the macerator pump is a 20 amp fuse. How do I check the ground(s) ?

 

[Morich]

The ground is more a matter of making sure the wires are good, clean and well connected when looking at the panel as it is so much a vital part that the ground bar and connection to ground is almost certain to be good or almost all the RV would lose service. One could use a meter and put one probe on some part of the RVmetal frame and the other on the ground bar to check for continuity, but the whole thing not being grounded woul open the circuit onabout all those fuses and brekers, makng it really easy to spot things going wrong. But the screws holding some of the individual wires might be prone to getting loose!
But I am hitting a wall on looking for good info on wiring the macerator pump!
All we have is the wiring ID list and when looking at it, there is an obvios flaw.
When searching my list and using all the different ways they might logically name this pump, I only find these four places where there are wired ID'd as involving this pump.

This shows we should have a wire from the drain pump switch to a drain pump relay, with a second wire from that relay to the pump.
Sounds like a good start but then I have to ask what the purpose of adding wires between things if there are no connections to any other place like battery or ground.
What is the switch doing if it has only one wire on it as this list would seem to show? I've done a really careful check of the ID list and find NO other wire listed going to this switch!
I have to say, I am out of ideas on how to go about sorting the wiring on this as we simply do not get enough of the corrrect info to make a good guess!
There is one control mentioned that looks like it might be a solid state item with four lugs for wires. Maybe easy enough to look at as it seems to be maybe under the bed?
If this might be a storage space, any chance something has gotten against it?
Click these snips to get a better view!

Zoomed to show lugs

This seems to say it involves the fresh water pump, not the macerator!

 

[RV_Lee]

Thank you again for the detailed write up and diagram. I have used the water pump and it has not affected anything on this outing, so it can be removed from the list. Issue with the "drain pump" (macerator) is that its required to drain the grey tank! When I go to dump next time I'll leave the RV running, and if that fails I'll just fire up the generator. Love all the built in fail-safes!

AI seems to think its still the battery cut off relay, the pump requires too much power (has a 20 amp fuse) and trips it, but its fine with normal things running.