Help My Batteries Wont Charge - Montana Owners Club

Lhinkle114 · 10-09-2022, 07:14 AM

First of all thanks to everyone who responses to this post as I need all the help I can get. Bear with me as I am not a electrician but can do basic electrical repairs. Yesterday we left for awhile and came back to our 2019 3791RD Montana and our RV was missing almost all of our 12V AC power and my CO2 Sensor going off. I looked in the control box and the Accessory fuse was out so I replaced it. That did not fix the problem. I also smelled a hint of a burnt metal smell in the RV. We still have shore power and all the 110V work in the RV but my Victron battery app tells me the batteries are slowly dropping in power and currently at 13.15V. My Hughes surcharge protector did not blow and shows everything is OK. After further searching I realized my inverter is not working and does not have power. Now my thought process tells me that maybe my converter went out and took my inverter with it. I have reviewed my history on my Victron battery monitor app and it shows a huge electrical surcharge while we were gone the then went all the way back down.

I am not the best at using a meter so anything anyone can help me with would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks in Advance
Larry

Daryles · 10-09-2022, 07:34 AM

If you are sure all your 120vac receptacles are working properly on BOTH sides of your 50A circuit breakers in your electrical panel...
(if not, possibly a transfer switch problem, missing a leg, one side (converter) not getting power).

Ok, let's start with the converter.
This link will help you ID your converter and then you can download the manual and troubleshooting.
https://www.progressivedyn.com/suppo...ooting-guides/

If it is working fine the next step is looking at the red self resetting circuit breakers on the wall behind your batteries.

Carl wrote an excellent troubleshooting chart for this.
https://www.montanaowners.com/forums...ad.php?t=86323

Lhinkle114 · 10-09-2022, 07:50 AM

As far as not working electrical item this is what I have:
KeyTV
TV Antenna
Bedroom Closet , Kitchen Coffee Pot and W/D Lite working but Very dim on limited power
The Light over the over the stove (this was left on when we left but when we came back would not work)

Being I am on shore power can I by pass the switch that goes to the inverter so I am not using the inverter. It looks like I can disconnect the two Molex connectors going into the switch and connect them together.

Daryles · 10-09-2022, 12:34 PM

If those items are NOT working, are they all on the same side of your circuit breaker panel?
If so, you may be missing one leg of your power from the pedistal.
Take a multimeter and check your pedestal power

Lhinkle114 · 10-14-2022, 10:48 AM

I am the middle of trying to test and or replace my transfer switch. The switch is meant to control the refrigerator off the batteries off the inverter. I am attaching a picture of the transfer switch so as you can see what I am talking about. Can anyone help me understand what the inputs mean such as Load and Utility for wiring purposes. Also how can I test the wires to make sure I have the right one.

Thanks in Advance
Larry

Lhinkle114 · 10-14-2022, 10:50 AM

Here is the picture I forgot it

Foldbak · 10-14-2022, 10:58 AM

Another thing to check is the actual shore power receptacle the the cord plugs into. I recently had 2 transfer switches burn up due to bad connection at the receptacle.

Here is the TS manual.
https://www.magnum-dimensions.com/si...W-TS15-Web.pdf

Lhinkle114 · 10-14-2022, 11:22 AM

Please excuse me for not understanding but does the AC Input 2 (Utility) come from the AC Main Panel/shore power cable and the AC Output (Load) go to the powered devices

rohrmann · 10-14-2022, 01:24 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Lhinkle114

Please excuse me for not understanding but does the AC Input 2 (Utility) come from the AC Main Panel/shore power cable and the AC Output (Load) go to the powered devices

Utility will be coming from an external source such as from a power pedestal or even from a stand alone generator, any source coming through your shore cable. Load is power going into your rig from the transfer switch, so this will have power moving through the transfer switch from either the utility side or the generator side. Generator is power entering the transfer switch from the onboard generator when there is no power present on the Utility side.

Lhinkle114 · 10-14-2022, 04:44 PM

Thank you everyone for your help we are stranded near Pittsburg and even though we have extended insurance cant find anyone who will help us. I would gladly pay someone but no one seens to want to help. Anyway to trouble shoot I just bypassed the inverter all together as I think it blew when my converter went out and sent a surge to through it. So I removed it off the system and connected the two molex cables going to it one was from the utility and the other was from the load. Now I have replaced my converter and my lithium batteries are at 14.5. I have tested the voltage from the converter to the batteries and it is 14.5 going in. Anyway there is a black case 10 amp blade fuse connected to a red wire near the rear wall of the battery compartment keep blowing not the solar fuse or the 80 amp breaker. Does anyone where the red wire goes to, it seems to go into the belly of the RV and I don't know where it come out

Thanks for all your knowledge

Daryles · 10-14-2022, 05:25 PM

A picture of the fuse in question (and area) would help ID it. There are a couple of inline blade fuses in the battery compartment. The red 30A one is from the solar MPPT.
The red one up in the corner above the hydraulic pump is for the hydraulic system AND the tank heaters (ask me how I know...).
The attached diagram is an overview of the fridge inverter and transfer switch

Foldbak · 10-14-2022, 06:55 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Lhinkle114

Thank you everyone for your help we are stranded near Pittsburg and even though we have extended insurance cant find anyone who will help us. I would gladly pay someone but no one seens to want to help. Anyway to trouble shoot I just bypassed the inverter all together as I think it blew when my converter went out and sent a surge to through it. So I removed it off the system and connected the two molex cables going to it one was from the utility and the other was from the load. Now I have replaced my converter and my lithium batteries are at 14.5. I have tested the voltage from the converter to the batteries and it is 14.5 going in. Anyway there is a black case 10 amp blade fuse connected to a red wire near the rear wall of the battery compartment keep blowing not the solar fuse or the 80 amp breaker. Does anyone where the red wire goes to, it seems to go into the belly of the RV and I don't know where it come out

Thanks for all your knowledge

Need more information. A 10amp fuse is a pretty small circuit. Maybe you could attach a picture?
As far as your TS and rig prep. The TS that you have doesn't allow for an onboard generator. As you can see it only allow for Shore power and inverter in. I could see a spike or feedback through the TS to the inverter.

Lhinkle114 · 10-14-2022, 07:27 PM

The transfer switch that was in the RV was only the control of the residential refrigerator had no other use. I did not have any form of generator prep time in the rig. I have attached a picture of the fuse is in the battery compartment on the wall that is 10A and keeps blowing, but I’ve also noticed there is another small fuse inside behind the toggle switches inside the rig that keeps blowing so leads me to believe there is a short somewhere in the Rv. I just don’t know where to look.

A big thank you to everyone is helping with this problem without you I probably wouldn’t go anywhere

Daryles · 10-14-2022, 10:59 PM

Ok, black 10A fuse blowing. What system is not working? It looks like one end of that fuse is tied to your red solar fuse. I'm guessing that wire goes to the battery.

The other blade fuse you found inside behind the control panel, if it's 5A, it may be your water heater fuse.
Trace the wires to see if one end goes to your electric water heater switch on the front of the panel.

Foldbak · 10-15-2022, 09:30 AM

It's hard to tell from the picture but it looks like that red wire goes into that black loom which I believe to be your hydraulic leveling wiring? You're going to have to try all components to find out which ones aren't working.

Lhinkle114 · 10-15-2022, 06:33 PM

Well spend another long day lippert was on the phone with us for a while. We discovered that the controllers and all electric slides are out and a solenoid on the hydraulic motor is fried. The fuse in the picture that I was showing you in the circuit breaker panel was apparently linked to the LED light strip in the awning, which also fried every time you turn the breaker on. It blows the fuse we’re gonna try to do a manual adjustment on things tomorrow using a new controller on each individual side to see if we can still bring them in and we are not sure if the motors are operational or not they might need to replace.

Lhinkle114 · 10-15-2022, 06:53 PM

Sorry I forgot the picture

Foldbak · 10-16-2022, 09:47 AM

Wow that must have been a big spike to have fried so many components. Where did it originate? Do you have a surge protector?

Lhinkle114 · 10-16-2022, 01:10 PM

Help we got the slidesout closed manually but now the front on the hydraulics wont lift. We have red the tech bulletin and turned the valve clockwise to open on the front left foot valve but when we do that nothing happens. We also tried the other valves and first the feet go down then the Hydralic slide out come back out but the front wont move. We have tried individually opening each valve and nothing. I have attached pictures of the values so maybe someone could help me with the process

Lhinkle114 · 10-16-2022, 01:13 PM

The surge either came from the converter or MPPT charger. But what does not make sense is the 30 amp breaker in the battery compartment should have blown. Since the surge was internal from the control box to the DC our Hughes surge protector could not stop it as it only controls the power into the Rig.

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