Troubleshooting Xantrex Inverter Shutdown on 2023 Navion 24D

[jimrward]

So I just got a 2023 Winnebago Navion 24D. I am storing it over the winter and will be back in May. My storage facility has shore power available. I plan on leaving shore power connected. I also connected a trickle charger to my chassis battery. Hooked everything up and it all looked good. The Xantrx charger rotary switch was on, the coach battery was charging. My surge protector showed i was drawing about 1 amp of current. It was cold, so I turned on the electric heater to warm it up inside. The heater ran for about 5 min then I noticed the fan slowed and now the thermostat control said gas / heater. I also saw that the xantrex display shut off. I also saw the coach battery was no longer being charged. Mu surge protector showed 0 amps. I unplugged shore power and waited awhile then plugged it back in. Same results. I read online that there was a STBY / ON button for the Xantrex. It said to hold down the button for 3 seconds. I can't find this button. I dont want my coach batteries to go dead. How do I get this back working again?

I owned a 2015 Winnebago View for 9 years and never had a problem like this. I just plugged in shore power and my coach battery was charged.
Thanks
Jim

 

[RayIN]

Electric heat from inverter-powered by your battery bank likely consumes more amps than the inverter/charger, or converter, can supply. This can trip an inverter breaker or charger breaker. That "button" is on the actual inverter panel, not the remote unit.

 

[jimrward]

RayIN,
Thanks for responding. So I just hold down this button highlighted in yellow on the attached Pic to reset the Inverter/charger? Will the Xantrex panel light up again indicating it's been successfully reset? What are your thoughts about leaving the shore power connected for 4 months. Would i be better off to just switch the house battery off. My house battery is only showing 10.9V and I thought it would be better to keep it charged given then xantrex is supposed to stop charging when the house battery is fully charged?
Thanks
Jim

 

[tim myers]

The button you have circled is the power button, may or may not turn your invert back on, worth a try!!

If that is no joy, there may be a circuit breaker on the inverter or even an inline fuse from the battery to the inverter. Do you have the users manual for your inverter, that would tell you if there is a Circuit breaker or not.

 

[RayIN]

Keep the battery bank charged, at 10.9VDC the battery is fully discharged and will freeze and ruin. A fully-charged battery will not freeze, and should retrain enough charge for at least 6 months of storage.
This website is a great resourse for RVer's: The 12volt Side of Life (Part 1) and part 2.
That button is the on/off button and must be on to charge batteries, there can also be a reset button, depending on model #. You can download the operators manual for your Xantrex inverter/charger from: Library Archive

A temporary measure can be implemented by connecting a stand-alone charger to the house battery, then jumpers to the coach battery if need-be, until you get the issue corrected.

 

[Morich]

Details needed!
Sounds like the inverter is not large enough to power the heater and needs to be reset.
Techie problem in the way your specific RV is wired as it leaves very little in the way of outlet NOT working through the inverter.
The reset shows here:

Looking at the drawings for your unit, it shows a 2000 watt inverter with a reset button between the two cooling fans that may have tripped as I might expect you are using a 1500 watt heater???
It appears all your RV outlets work through this inverter, so not many options to avoid this problem.
If using 1500 watts for a heater and that likely means more when first starting the heater, there is very little slack for any other items using AC before tripping the little pop out breaker.
You now have a reasonably small RV which is not set up for lots of power, so some workarounds may be needed.

If this is the problem, reset the breaker and then do it a bit different.
Is there a setting on the heater to run at 750 watts? That might be enough to keep the cold down. The heater might run longer and get the job done but use less power.
But if too cold for that, plugging the heater into a cord run directly top an outlet that is not working through the RV may be needed.
As an alternate, it may only be that the inverter was working to charge that 10 volts on the battery back up to float at 12.8 and then the added strain to run the heater made the load over the 2000 watt limit and that would shut the inverter down!

Maybe get the inverter questions confirmed first and then we might need to discuss how to best keep the batteries charged? Try to get that low battery voltage back up asap as it does tend to damage them if left discharged for too long!
Lots of small details on how to keep both sets of batteries up during storage!

 

[jimrward]

Morich,
Thanks for the reply.
It looks like from the diagram that the reset switch is on the back of the xantrex unit. How do you get to it being in the back of the compartment?
Thanks
Jim

 

[Morich]

Sorry, not one I've any experience with! Assume this is in an outside compartment and the button is on far end ? Not enough space to reach in/over or around to get to the rear?
Snagging these pics from this site:

Parts Catalog

Looking closer, I do not see a good option!

Looks like inverter mounted to "roof" of compartment and then cover screwed solidly over that with no access outside. Assume no door opening access from inside to push the handy little button which you likely can't reach from outside?
Maybe wait on that idea until checking my idea? I have ZERO hands on with that inverter, so be skeptical!
But what I see is that the breakers are 30 amp but the 2000 watt inverter is only capable of around 18 amps if we convert 2000 watt to amps!
My thinking is that the inverter seems to be the way weak link in the change getting power to all the RV except the air conditioner! Theory being that the 18amp limit of the inverter goes down long before the 30 amp breakers?
But theory can be wrong? Maybe this inverter can "pass through" a larger amount and this popout breaker is only for the "inverted"? Does not seem right to me? But that is what I seem to see. If there is only one breaker on the output from the inverter, I would assume anything that goes in and out has to pass through this breaker!

Electrical drawing for the whole 110 wiring picture. I cut it to fit!

I hate to leave doubts but if the monitor shows the inverter dead. this would seem to be where I would go as other breakers are much less like to trip due to size difference.
Parts catalog for looking at any parts and the inverter is under electrical/ 110:

Parts Catalog

Not seeing a good way to go if it requires taking the cover down off the inverter to get to a breaker which may trip that easily?

 

[tim myers]

I see vent holes at the back of that cover where the cooling fans would blow air, can you get your hand under the inverter to reach that area, or does it back up to a cabinet you can reach it through?

Morich, in the larger sketch, is that an east west bed sitting over the inverter, possibly reachable by raising the bed platform?

 

[Morich]

It takes me a bit to get a better idea of some of these things that look so clear at first!
I now see the inverter is in an outside compartment. that also means it is below floor level!
Snagged a couple to show my new view of location as I was thinking above floor!

I was thinking under sink, which it is but WAY under and even below floor!
I now see it as screwed up tot he top of the compartment, which is the underside of the floor under the sink! If we turn it around and look through the RV from the driver side toward passenger, we can see the pedestal for the dinette that set above floor and I drew floorline in black!

That makes it only open for outside access from compartment!
Did they leave space to stick a hand in behind and feel for the button through that cutout they made?

 

[Morich]

OR? Maybe I should read the book first?

I see a note that it cautions to leave the inverter off if not using it as it will drain the batteries quickly if the RV is not running!

 

[tim myers]

So can the reset be reached from under the enclosure I even see a notch in the back of the enclosure to give access to the CB

 

[tim myers]

So we need to see this picture from about 5 feet in front of the inverter?

 

[Morich]

I would guess that to be the monitor panel inside?
Page 6-4 of the owners manual looks very much the same except shows the total front panel.

On a near new RV, possible the manual is on hand and would give some basics, but I see nothing on how the control panel gets power. I might guess that it would be wired to the inverter and that needs power to power the panel?
But that is pure guesswork!

 

[jimrward]

I would guess that to be the monitor panel inside?
Page 6-4 of the owners manual looks very much the same except shows the total front panel.
View attachment 2410603

On a near new RV, possible the manual is on hand and would give some basics, but I see nothing on how the control panel gets power. I might guess that it would be wired to the inverter and that needs power to power the panel?
But that is pure guesswork!

So I made some progress...
To access the breaker you need to remove the protective cage. There are 4 philips head screws that need to removed. This requires a long philips head screw driver. The 2 screws on the left are accessible, the 2 on the right actually screw into another metal bracket. Once all 4 screws have been removed, the cage can be removed. Note that there is a back to the cage so it doesn't come out easily. The back of the cage is somewhat flexible so you can work it out. Once the cage is removed you can access the breaker reset button by reaching around to the back of the xantrex unit with your left hand. Once the button is pushed, the unit worked again. The xantrex box is mounted upside down on the top of the cargo box. There is a small display and ON button on the top of the xantrex box. This display and button is now facing downward since the xantrex box is upside down. Make sure you dont hit that button by mistake as this will turn off the xantrex.
So when I reconnected shore power and switched the rotary switch to ON. The xantrex display and control panel came back on. Only issue is that I'm not sure the xantrex charger is actually charging the coach batteries. My voltage is very low at around 10.7 volts. I remember it showed much higher voltage, around 13V when the xantrex was charging properly before. I'm thinking there may be a bad coach battery or maybe both are bad... I left the shore power on and the xantrex supposedly charging overnight and I will check it in the morning. If it still shows 10.7v in the morning i guess the next step is to start trouble shooting the coach batteries.

Thanks to everyone who contributed the pics and advise. BTW, I put the cage back on. Not so hard but you may have trouble locating the 2 holes for the philips head screws on the left side. I couldn't find them but just screwed them in to the wood ceiling of the compartment. The 2 screws on the right went easily back into the metal bracket.

Any advise on the battery voltages would be appreciated.

Thanks
Jim

 

[Morich]

Sounds like progress and we have to start a building at the foundation!
Getting the unit to light up is one.
So moving to getting that power it should be putting out over to the batteries may be next?
Without to much trouble, you should be able to see the battery voltage jump almost immediately to higher than 12. 8. Likely much higher if the battery is down in the 10 voltage range.
I think as soon as you can get the meter on, because what you see at the post is not the actual battery voltage as a whole but what you are pouring in right at the post.
Kind of like filling a barrel with syrup and looking right at the point where you are pouring it in? You would see a lot of syrup going in--even if there was no bottom in the barrel! Called surface charge as you can only see the surface, not the whole chemical mess down further!
A big thing if not seeing that higher voltage is the battery disconnect. Make sure it is on as it will cut off the charge from the converter to the battery on many RV!
If all is turned on and now working, you likely see the high voltage like possibly 13 volts getting to the battery? That's good and you need to let it set there for possibly six hours to do the slow chemical change.
But if no0t seeing that higher voltage, more checking back along the path from charge to battery is needed. Don't fall into the trap of thinking it a bad battery totally killing the charge as that is expected to blow fuse or trip breakers! If no charge, check breakers or fuse and switches as the unit is likely good but the path can be full of holes!

 

[Morich]

We don't get the best 12VDC drawings after 2010, so we are hurting for exact info. But many Winnebago will let charge from the converter go to the fuses that power the RV stuff, (fans inside lights?) but the path to the batteries may still be open.
If you still see problems, I suggest look at the 12VDC fuses to find if they are also showing dead or good voltage from the charging?
If not getting charge voltage to see at any point, there are several breakers that are somewhat different on your RV.
This is the 110AC flow and all three breakers have to be good to get power to much of your outlets and such!

Power in on red to main breaker, then out to inverter on blue and comes BACK to another breaker on second blue line before going to smaller breakers and out to the outlets, etc. on green lines!

But what we no longer get is the info on how and where the DC comes out of the inverter to get to the 12VDC fuses and RV? We know it has to go there but we don't get the info needed to show HOW!
Wish you luck and try not to let it boggle the mind!!

 

[jimrward]

Thanks
I ran out of clock...
I was trying to get it charging before I left. Now it's in storage in Port Orchard WA while I head for my home in Tucson AZ. Before I left I removed shore power, turned the Xantrex rotary switch to off and shut coach battery to off. Be back in 4 months. May have 2 dead coach batteries on my return in May.
Jim

 

[Morich]

AARGH! Yes, understand timing is important for what we do.
Gotta do what we gotta do!

 

[Vsmith1814-XRD]

So I just got a 2023 Winnebago Navion 24D. I am storing it over the winter and will be back in May. My storage facility has shore power available. I plan on leaving shore power connected. I also connected a trickle charger to my chassis battery. Hooked everything up and it all looked good. The Xantrx charger rotary switch was on, the coach battery was charging. My surge protector showed i was drawing about 1 amp of current. It was cold, so I turned on the electric heater to warm it up inside. The heater ran for about 5 min then I noticed the fan slowed and now the thermostat control said gas / heater. I also saw that the xantrex display shut off. I also saw the coach battery was no longer being charged. Mu surge protector showed 0 amps. I unplugged shore power and waited awhile then plugged it back in. Same results. I read online that there was a STBY / ON button for the Xantrex. It said to hold down the button for 3 seconds. I can't find this button. I dont want my coach batteries to go dead. How do I get this back working again?

I owned a 2015 Winnebago View for 9 years and never had a problem like this. I just plugged in shore power and my coach battery was charged.
Thanks
Jim

There is a removable panel on the floor under the sink cabinet door that should allow you to reach the reset switch on the inverter maybe.