Hello to fellow GWV users and others who may be electrically savvy. I apologize for the length of this post, but thought it sensible to fully explain the problem.
People in this forum helped us a year ago with electrical problems, for which I have been very grateful, though I regret that I did not post my thanks then. Belated thanks to IndyTraveler, Avanti, MarcoPolo, and Davydd for advice then on this forum and the Class B forum. Now I'm back with a new problem, apparently from the inverter.
We have a 2015 GWV Classic, one of the few on the Dodge Promaster chassis. In general we love it, though still need to work out some bugs. It came with 2 AGM batteries, a 3000 watt GoPower inverter, and a 95 watt solar panel for trickle charging. No generator; we didn't want one due to the noise problem, and figured we would add more solar power if necessary. Electric appliances: electric cooktop, 7cf AC/DC refrigerator, 900 watt microwave, and Keurig coffee pot. Propane only: furnace and hot water heater.
Very early on we had trouble with the solenoid insufficiently charging the house batteries while driving, and thus having nearly no power for boondocking. We replaced the original solenoid with a White Rodgers 100 watt solenoid, as recommended by IndyTraveler, and that did indeed prevent the solenoid fuse from blowing, so made a big difference.
The next problem that occurred was that while boondocking we would have sufficient power in the evenings for nominal use of all appliances, but by morning the first usage (i.e. the coffeepot!) would cause the inverter to overload and shut down. So--no coffee! a Serious Problem! Several people had told us that we really needed more battery power to do much boondocking, so we decided to increase battery power and add solar.
6 weeks ago we had a much greater capacity solar system installed, increasing the solar panels to 3, with a total of 300 watt capacity, (all that would fit on top of our 20.5 ft van) and changed out the batteries, installing 4 6volt AGM batteries, with a controller.
That worked well for the first few times of boondocking after the new installation, but a week ago while boondocking on a very cold day, a somewhat more than normal use of the microwave resulted in the inverter shutting down, apparently due to an overload, though only the microwave, the frig, and a couple of lights were running off the system. The propane furnace was also running off and on—not sure whether the blower for that runs off the batteries/inverter? We waited a bit and tried the microwave again, with the frig turned off, and the microwave came back on briefly, but then the inverter shut down again and refused to come back on.
We spoke to the solar installer, and since the batteries were then, and still are, reading well within operating range—12.3-12.5v when the microwave was operating, and 12.9 when it was not operating, he thinks, according to our description, that the batteries and solar panels are delivering sufficient power. He thinks the likely culprit is the inverter. We are prepared to believe that the inverter was damaged very early on in our use of this RV because we were advised by the dealer to leave it on continuously, and the result was that it frequently shut itself down. Now we know to only turn it on when needed for one of the large appliances (cooktop, coffeemaker, or microwave). Lights, the refrigerator, water pump, and furnace all operate directly off the batteries.
We are thinking that we should have the inverter replaced, but since that is expensive, we are interested to hear what other people with experience with inverters might think. Any ideas? The inverter was new when we got the new van in May 2015. Doesn’t seem that it should be exhausted already, but. . .
GoPower 3000HD inverter’s readouts during this problem: voltage bar graph (not sure whether this is an input or an output graph, and the inverter manual we were given, same as the one available online, does not explain) illuminates up to one green bar usually when switched on, and the microwave will run for a couple of minutes that way, with the green bar slowly fading out to show only the yellow and red bars, and the green light of the on/off button flashing from green to red and back, until finally it shuts down completely, and turns red. The wattage bar graph, (is this an output bar?) which usually shows nothing at all when the inverter is first turned on, during microwave usage shows about 900-1000 watts. It seems to us that this means that it is not producing sufficient output? It does not recover beyond one green bar on the voltage bar graph indicator even after some hours of driving, and being plugged in to shore power for a couple of overnights.
We are not particularly technically savvy and don’t know how to test the current going into or coming out of the inverter. We can travel about 400 miles to get to a GoPower installer on our winter trip route, and will probably do that if all else fails, but . . .
Thanks for any help.
People in this forum helped us a year ago with electrical problems, for which I have been very grateful, though I regret that I did not post my thanks then. Belated thanks to IndyTraveler, Avanti, MarcoPolo, and Davydd for advice then on this forum and the Class B forum. Now I'm back with a new problem, apparently from the inverter.
We have a 2015 GWV Classic, one of the few on the Dodge Promaster chassis. In general we love it, though still need to work out some bugs. It came with 2 AGM batteries, a 3000 watt GoPower inverter, and a 95 watt solar panel for trickle charging. No generator; we didn't want one due to the noise problem, and figured we would add more solar power if necessary. Electric appliances: electric cooktop, 7cf AC/DC refrigerator, 900 watt microwave, and Keurig coffee pot. Propane only: furnace and hot water heater.
Very early on we had trouble with the solenoid insufficiently charging the house batteries while driving, and thus having nearly no power for boondocking. We replaced the original solenoid with a White Rodgers 100 watt solenoid, as recommended by IndyTraveler, and that did indeed prevent the solenoid fuse from blowing, so made a big difference.
The next problem that occurred was that while boondocking we would have sufficient power in the evenings for nominal use of all appliances, but by morning the first usage (i.e. the coffeepot!) would cause the inverter to overload and shut down. So--no coffee! a Serious Problem! Several people had told us that we really needed more battery power to do much boondocking, so we decided to increase battery power and add solar.
6 weeks ago we had a much greater capacity solar system installed, increasing the solar panels to 3, with a total of 300 watt capacity, (all that would fit on top of our 20.5 ft van) and changed out the batteries, installing 4 6volt AGM batteries, with a controller.
That worked well for the first few times of boondocking after the new installation, but a week ago while boondocking on a very cold day, a somewhat more than normal use of the microwave resulted in the inverter shutting down, apparently due to an overload, though only the microwave, the frig, and a couple of lights were running off the system. The propane furnace was also running off and on—not sure whether the blower for that runs off the batteries/inverter? We waited a bit and tried the microwave again, with the frig turned off, and the microwave came back on briefly, but then the inverter shut down again and refused to come back on.
We spoke to the solar installer, and since the batteries were then, and still are, reading well within operating range—12.3-12.5v when the microwave was operating, and 12.9 when it was not operating, he thinks, according to our description, that the batteries and solar panels are delivering sufficient power. He thinks the likely culprit is the inverter. We are prepared to believe that the inverter was damaged very early on in our use of this RV because we were advised by the dealer to leave it on continuously, and the result was that it frequently shut itself down. Now we know to only turn it on when needed for one of the large appliances (cooktop, coffeemaker, or microwave). Lights, the refrigerator, water pump, and furnace all operate directly off the batteries.
We are thinking that we should have the inverter replaced, but since that is expensive, we are interested to hear what other people with experience with inverters might think. Any ideas? The inverter was new when we got the new van in May 2015. Doesn’t seem that it should be exhausted already, but. . .
GoPower 3000HD inverter’s readouts during this problem: voltage bar graph (not sure whether this is an input or an output graph, and the inverter manual we were given, same as the one available online, does not explain) illuminates up to one green bar usually when switched on, and the microwave will run for a couple of minutes that way, with the green bar slowly fading out to show only the yellow and red bars, and the green light of the on/off button flashing from green to red and back, until finally it shuts down completely, and turns red. The wattage bar graph, (is this an output bar?) which usually shows nothing at all when the inverter is first turned on, during microwave usage shows about 900-1000 watts. It seems to us that this means that it is not producing sufficient output? It does not recover beyond one green bar on the voltage bar graph indicator even after some hours of driving, and being plugged in to shore power for a couple of overnights.
We are not particularly technically savvy and don’t know how to test the current going into or coming out of the inverter. We can travel about 400 miles to get to a GoPower installer on our winter trip route, and will probably do that if all else fails, but . . .
Thanks for any help.
