Good Morning! New Owners 2017 Winnebago Vista LX 30T

[Ndberning]

Good Morning! My husband and I are new owners of a 2017 Winnebago Vista lx 30T and are nervously excited, but also a little frustrated, at having had the unit inspected and yet having electrical/battery problems since we brought it home. It is our first RV, but not first camper, as we have owned three types of tow-behind campers for years. We live at 9200 feet in Park County, Colorado and winter has been slow to come, thankfully. Yet we are now starting to get really cold, more snow at times (still a pretty bad drought), and ice on roads and we are hoping to leave for warmer temperatures around January 20th (after the Hoosiers play Miami on the 19th - yes, we have our priorities, being lifelong Hoosiers until a couple of years ago). Since my husband is neither mechanical, nor interested in being mechanical, and I am both, I would like and hope to post numerous questions on this site in order to have a better understanding of how this unit works before we hit the road. A friend down the "street" (we live on dirt roads and are pretty isolated, being 45 minutes to an hour in any direction from civilization) helped take out the two house batteries for me; now I am looking to take them to Interstate Battery in Colorado Springs to purchase two AGM batteries suitable for our unit. Any advice on that, what kind, etc. would be appreciated.

 

[be happy]

Welcome
Below is the link for the owners manual, just incase you do not have it. There is alot of good information.

2017 - Winnebago

www.winnebago.com

This link if for the electrical

Table of Contents

This link also has more information for owners

Home - Winnebago

www.winnebago.com

The 3d parts lookup is also another great link.

Now to your battery question. A lot if not all depends on what type of rving you plan on doing. If you plan on staying at an RV park plugged in the standard batteries would be enough. If on the other hand you plan to boondock a better battery may be needed. I am not a battery expert by far, as my unit is always plugged in so no need for battery upgrade. I guess I would replace with what you are taking down.
Now please tell me that when you and friend disconnected the batteries you took pictures before you disconnected them. Tell me you also labeled and tied each set of cables separately.
When you are looking at the links provided you will see there are two different links for your unit depending on the seral number.
In the signature block it will help for future post if you list information about your unit.

 

[Ndberning]

Can you tell me what specs we look at when looking to upgrade the battery? The current batteries are lead/acid (one ran dry after having electric heat on plugged into 30 amp shore power while I cleaned our new RV - hope it is just old batteries that could not charge up properly causing the converter to run for a day and a half.). So I will replace with AGM batteries but I see on the Interstate Battery site a number of options. I am a total novice with batteries (other than flashlight, lol) so please bear with me. And thank you for all the links; I will definitely spend time all week before the big game studying up - I did take a photo of all three batteries but planned on having an RV tech install the new batteries. Friends who are full-timer RVer and previously had a Class A assure me that I can drive our unit without house batteries - I sure hope that is true. Getting an RV tech up here will require a total of 3 hour travel time!

 

[Ndberning]

Here are the battery photos

 

[Morich]

Morning to you! Lots of info handy on the internet but that always brings some question on how we each may operate!
Do you have a full blown computer to access or use a phone only?
Odd question but what the difference gets into is how well you can see any drawings that we send along.
Hard to read a drawing that looks good on a 20 inch screen if we squish it down to a 3 inch screen! Not much help in sending along things you can't read!

Do we talk about marked up drawings or do we need to go to "word salad" descriptions?
I like using the big pictures but no help if you can't see them!

So how does this look on your end? If something you can read we can go through other pictures but they tend to be a bit harder on this drawing. Nothing we can't walk you through but a little less clear!
This info comes from this drawing set:

https://www.winnebago.com/Files/Files/Winnebago/Resources/Diagram/2016/000201193.pdf

You may get the info needed to wire by going direct? Or we can talk about things if not clear!
This detail is listed as detail BB and the location on the RV is marked as BB on the main RV on first sheet. See the muddle at BB on the batteries>? That may need some help?

But I do like your choice to go AGM as there are several levels on batteries and changing. Different needs for different folks!
I go for
AGM for better performance at a reasonable price, somewhat higher than older lead acid but not needing major changes, either. When first making the changes, I don't like jumping into lots of major change until we get a better idea of what will fit best.

So the choice on AGM is much about fitting the new in without change. Two issues to consider beyond size. The start/chassis battery needs high amounts of power quicker, while the coach batteries need far less sudden power and need "deeper" long lasting power. Cold Cranking Amps is the one to check when buying start batteries. Higher CCA means more sudden power when cranking a cold engine!
But for the coach lights and such, it becomes less a sudden need but we want it to last longer if we are camped without shore power to plug into. That is when we want high Amp Hour (AH) specs.
If we were speaking about water, CCA is how fast we could fill a bucket. AH is how many gallons we might get out of a bucket?
Cold weather starting the engine in Colorado may mean you want high CCA on the chassis battery. But on the coach batteries, we are okay with slower sudden power but we want it to last longer.
For a first round choice, I might recommend going with the size you have now and not get too concerned with maxing it out until you find how you operate?
That is shopping the size as they list them as "group size".
If the old batteries are on hand, they likely have the specs on a label. I shop in this order, first group size as it fits the same space for ease. Start battery, I go for high CCA in that group size.
Finally on the coach batteries, I go same group size with higher AH to let me use them longer.
But how you use the RV is a factor and changes how much we may want to pay. Higher AH for coach may be good if we don't camp where we plug in, but a waste if we pay a lot more to get more AH when we normally go to parks where we plug in much of the time.
WHEW! Too much overload, so I'll let you tell us what you feel you need or how we can help!

EDIT! Whoopps, I see I type too slow!

 

[Morich]

Whoops! I see I forgot about deep cycle. They are kind of hybrid that is good to start a boat engine but also use to power a trolling motor for long, slow power. Group 34 is the basic outside measurements to fit the mounting, but in RV use it may/may not fit to have the hybrid type. shopping for best value is always a game but for the coach power, we are not concerned about having fast power for starting anything and the primary need to the AH for longer but slower use (AH).
Trolling batteries are good for some while not much help for others if we can find better at less expense.
Since you are not likely starting a 150 horse outboard engine, your CCA rating can be less if it fits and cheaper!

 

[Ndberning]

Whoops! I see I forgot about deep cycle. They are kind of hybrid that is good to start a boat engine but also use to power a trolling motor for long, slow power. Group 34 is the basic outside measurements to fit the mounting, but in RV use it may/may not fit to have the hybrid type. shopping for best value is always a game but for the coach power, we are not concerned about having fast power for starting anything and the primary need to the AH for longer but slower use (AH).
Trolling batteries are good for some while not much help for others if we can find better at less expense.
Since you are not likely starting a 150 horse outboard engine, your CCA rating can be less if it fits and cheaper!

Thank you so much! But this is a steep learning curve for me so this is going to take me a while, but I did take a photo of the battery so maybe a quick look at that and you can tell me generally some options on picking up two new batteries? If not no problem becaus by the time I get down to Colorado Springs I hope to understand the whole system a little better! And yes, I can use either my laptop or my cell phone so I'm good with being able to seediagrams.

 

[Morich]

Okay! Good picture to start with the basics of shopping for what you may need/want!
Need and want are often combined with what we WANT to pay, so knowing the language is a good place to start.
This label; is what I expect to see on most any battery we find as it tells us the details.
You have a group 24. that will let you shop a size that fits that same space in the same way. All group 24 should have the same outside length, width , and height! Then for details DC means deep cycle. Probably more lead and it can give longer use than one that is not deep cycle.
This type battery is made especially to do both start a motor, so the 690 would be good to crank and start a big outboard motor. On your RV, there will be one battery used to start the engine and it likely has near the 700 amps rating. Big diesel engines need bigger cranking amps than a small engine.
Since this is a marine use battery, it gets "hybrid" specs. The last spec is how long you can use power (in theory!)
In a perfect world we could expect to use 1 amp of power for 101 hours! But lots of things that change that number, so more try to give us some numbers to shop. Temperature, how old and how they have been treated all change how much we can get out! Like your old battery? It might have3 good specs when new but if it is old and water gets too low, the numbers stop working!
Good part of AGM is how the water is less work to keep steady and I'm a real fan of them!
The start battery and coach need different specs to get the best value.
Cold weather may mean we need lots of the CCA reading to get a big, half frozen engine to crank long enough to start.
But the coach battery is not using a high burst of power but more a slow trickle where we want longer (larger)
amp hours!
My first battery use was in an area where we often spoke of **** freezing over, so I like big start batteries. Here in Texas. I'm prone to having start batteries that may be too big! If minus 30 sounds familiar, go for big CCA!
Then the coach batteries can have more choices as they depend much more on how you use the RV. If you go out in the woods with no hookups, lots of amp hours (AH) will let you run the furnace longer for overnight, etc.
But we no longer do that and lower amp hours may be cheaper if we just drive from one hookup site to the next? More amp hours is better but not if I have to pay for it!

Some ideas on cabling and it may not match the exact route for where the drawings show and what you find. cables get changed over the years and often just get put where it seems quicker!
What the drawings show:

Main rule is negatives of all batteries connect to the big buss ground bar on the frame.
Positive of start battery goes to chassis items like starter, etc. NOT combined with coach positives! Maybe a big fuse in line?
What I see from your pictures for start battery cables:

And coach cables?

Coach positives connect to other coach positive and possible big fuse before going on out to coach items.
At some point both coach and start will have cables that go to big posts on a solenoid. Likely away from this picture but the solenoid is what connect the two battery groups together at different times like when we drive. That connection lets the engine alternator charge BOTH start and coach as we drive!
Not to let that confuse you if you trace a cable from each battery to the one single solenoid. Looks like a silver can on many RV!

One point on driving to places with no coach battery? Make sure the cables are wrapped up or isolated with something before starting if the coach battery cables are loose!
Power from the engine goes to that solenoid and when we have the engine running contacts close and pass power to the coach cables going to those batteries! If the cable end is loose at the battery and gets over to metal, sparks fly! Tape an old rag on it, etc. to keep it safe!

Take a look when you get to it and see if that makes sense? No rush here and I fully understand folks get busy.

 

[Morich]

error!!!

 

[Morich]

For new folks who are moving from trailer or just first time for motorhome, there can be one really confusing item to know as the details can snag us.

A biggie is how easy to think there is a battery disconnect switch. that would seem to mean it would disconnect he load of electrical things off the batteries and that is only partly true! If we want to store the RV, we may want to turn off ALL the drains on the batteries, but what is missed is that safety items are left ON! Even when the disconnect tells us the batteries are disconnected, things like propane and CO2 detectors are left ON!
This can mean we want to leave the RV plug into power to keep those coach batteries charged but we may not want to keep a lot of stuff we won't use till spring turned OFF?
That can mean we ruin the first set of batteries over the winter months! OUCH!
The problem is the way the disconnect DOES cut off the charge from the converter to the coach batteries, it DOES cut off much of the normal load we think about like the lights, fans and all those little hidden things like the lights in compartments!
The big problem is that t cuts off charging but leaves on those small hidden safety items and we come back in the spring to find the batteries are totally dead from several months of very slow drains!
This drawing of the battery disconnect may help to see what can happen if we assume too much!

Coach battery comes in to the left side of the disconnect relay like the green line. When this relay is closed power goes to the safety stuff as well as goes through the relay contacts to the right side to feed all the rest of the lights, fans and such inside!
When we open the disconnect, the red stuff dies and also the converter is cut off.
But the devil is that the green line going to the safety stuff stays hot to drain the battery if given time!
Wire GJ stays hot!

Just one more little tricky thing to snag us when we are trying to figure it all!

 

[Ndberning]

So the propane alarm was not functioning, as per the inspector. I just received the new one from Amazon. Would that have been enough to cause the batteries to struggle and the converter to never turn off?
I have read through your instructions again and am understanding a little bit more each time. Question: when wrapping the battery cables before we leave tomorrow, just the red one? or both red and black?

 

[Morich]

I tend to not trust very much when I get around a used RV as the folks before may have changed things.
So on the battery cable colors, it is better to not trust the red and black colors too much if somebody may have just picked up what they had handy and it might have been the wrong color.
Red should be the one that goes to the positive (HOT? post, but until you know you can trust things a bit more, make sure the cable you insulate is the one that goes to the positive post. See the plus and minus signs stamped into the battery near the post?
In auto use in most cases, the negative cable or wire should go to the ground, frame, or whatever we call it! We can call the positive post at times because that's where we get sparks if it touches metal like ground!

Let me write the idea down in a different way? It is often not the cable end we need to worry about, but we want to keep any power that might be connected to the other end of that cables from touching something the wrong way.
Since RV can get all kinds of weird things wired, when I take a cable off, I like to just wrap it up before I drive, just to avoid the chance we might hit a bump and that cable suddenly flop over to some point that it gives me trouble.
What you put on the cable end can vary a lot but just something that is not likely to fall off (fastened good?) or let metal punch through it!
An old leather glove, a thick cardboard? I like rags because they wrap easy and If they get dirty, I have lots more around!

Big thing is the red or whatever color goes to any positive post needs to not get touching any cables or post that is connected to the frame that we use a s ground.
Second is any cable that eventually is connected to ground, we don't want it to move around and touch any positive post or cable end.

No problem taking time to study and ask questions if not totally clear as it is not stamped on our brain when we are born, so we have to let it soak for a time!

 

[HappyNomads]

Greetings and welcome!

We own a rig very similar to your Vista LX. Ours is a 2021 Adventurer 30T. It looks like folks have pretty well addressed the battery, so I will focus on your chassis.

First, it does ride a little rough, and can be noisy. The previous owners probably did the “cheap fix” on the front antisway bar. They may have installed Sumo springs on the rear axle. Some go much further to improve some of the undesired chassis movements during sudden lane changes or passing semis. Check out Henderson Line Up in Grants Pass Oregon and their Supersteer outlet. They’ve been fixing F53 chassis problems for a long time and work with Motorhome repair shops around the country. They did a great and affordable job for us.

Noise levels: the V10 engine going up hills can be very noisy. I don’t know the soundproofing done by Winnebago on your doghouse. Ours was good. The previous owner of ours also added a sound-absorbing thick rubber “diamond plate design” mat on the floor in front of the driver. It may help. If you have stock shocks replace them ASAP. We switched to Koni EVOs that do much more than the stock shocks did. They even made the ride quieter.

Tires. If your tires are original you should replace them. You will appreciate the quieter and smoother ride on the new rubber. Inflate to Winnebago specs. Many shops have a 105psi “standard” that will jar your fillings loose. In our case, 105 psi was set by Seffner RV who should have known better. The jolting actually snapped one of the battery cables. Winnebago put the tire inflation spec on that rectangular label on the driver’s wall (if your 2017 is like our 2021). Ours is 82.

Front removable fiberglass engine panel —- the panel you lift up and forward to check the oil. Winnebago used an epoxy resin to glue the metal panel attachments to the fiberglass front body. Check and make sure every attachment and every standoff is still there. The epoxy manufacturer says they didn’t use enough. If yours are loose or missing, Winnebago will work with you. My 30T was still under warranty. Customer Service sent me the parts and plenty of epoxy. AND they authorized a local dealer to do the work replacing them.

Lastly, watch your butt. In the first week of ownership I didn’t watch my butt closely enough. The 30T sticks out a long way when you drive through a big Safeway parking lot. When you make a turn, do it after you have already studied the parking lot in Google satellite view. I was super careful, but just not careful enough. I could not gauge the distances to the right rear corner correctly. So today, my corner rub strip shows minor abrasion. You wouldn’t notice it. But the nice compact car that experienced it didn’t come away as well.

On a final note, we love it. HUUGE window expanse to watch the scenery. Plenty of room with the slides in or out. We’ll pass 40,000 miles by year end.

Enjoy!

 

[Bubble_oh_7]

ND, I have a sister rig to yours a 2018 Vista 31BE and I had to replace the coach batteries last summer. Easy job but because I suspect if I am boondocking it will be very occasionally, shore power an RV Resorts for this guy, I bought the best rechargeable batteries at Costco. Little over 200 bucks here in Canada and I suspect cheaper for our US cousins.

As far as the batteries so far so good.