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Hello everyone. 2003 Fleeetwood Revolution 40C. With shore power disconnected, generator not running, and both chassis and house power switches turned off, our Xantrex Freedom 458 inverter/charger just started up by itself in “invert” mode and the remote panel (Xantrex Basic Remote) came on. I was able to turn it off by pressing the Invert button on the remote panel, but after a few minutes of silence, the inverter turned itself on again! After a few cycles like this, I called Xantrex tech support, and the friendly person who answered suggested that I reset the inverter/charger by disconnecting the battery positive cable from the unit and waiting 2-3 hours. I did that, but when I came back and reconnected the battery, the inverter started itself up again. I called back to tech support, and the technician told me that a second try at the reset procedure might work. But if it didn’t, he said that given the age of the inverter/charger (original equipment), it was likely that I would need to replace it. So I tried the reset process a second time, but the inverter started itself again. This time, after I shut it off from the panel, I had the idea to unplug the RJ-11 connector for the remote from the inverter, and then plug it back in. To my amazement, the unit stayed off and I thought I might have solved the problem. I left after a half hour or so of observation. But alas, when I returned to the coach this morning, the inverter/charger was humming merrily along in the bay. Much more of this and I’m going to end up with flat house batteries. So, what’s your consensus? New unit, or something else to check?

interior electrical system shuts down as soon as i disconnect from shore power. First thought it was the 15 year old 2000w Magnum ME modified sine wave inverter. batteries tested 12.6 volts but magnum panel showed low voltage fault. could not retract jacks or return slides without having engine on. even had trouble starting generator but thru boost got it fired up and made it home. had to run generator while driving to power residential refrigerator. when got home and plugged into shore power, all was again normal until after a few days of fully charging to float charge. again as soon as i disconnected from shore power, all power shut down. came back on as soon as reconnected. Replaced inverter with new MS 2012 and everything worked fine on start up. after an hour or so charging batteries to float, turned of shore power and power immediately shut down again, both 12v and 110v. panel indicated low batteries at 4.5 volts. I checked batteries with multimeter and each tested at 6 volts individually and 12.5 in parallel but magnum panel still indicated low voltage and no power even after connecting to shore power. went back thru start up procedures, did reset on inverter but nothing changed. shutdown shore power and tried to start generator. even with boost took a while and would not stay on. plenty of fuel. started engine and after a few minutes, power came back on and seemed to be normal and batteries at 13.8v until shutting of engine. then no power. reconnected to shore power, no change. restarted engine and power came back on as before. this time i reconnected to shore power before shutting of engine. this time power stayed on. left system plugged into shore power but confident power will go down as soon as i drop shore power. 12 years ago i bypassed the salesmen switch, so no issue there. last year i added 400 watts of solar but added a cut off switch to isolate solar panels into charge controller and controller to batteries to avoid potential conflict with charging batteries from solar while on shore power or using generator. not sure that caused issues with ATS. any thoughts of trouble shooting power issues. 2007 HR Endeavor

Hello everyone. Kinda new to the forum. I have a 2005 Winnebago Vectra with the above mentioned inverter. Last night I noticed that my lights were dim while plugged in to shore power. Checked my battery voltage and noticed they were down to about 7.5 V. Seems inverter stopped charging at some point. Checked all breakers. Dimensions display in coach was flashing with no buttons working. Inverter usually has a hum and creates a little heat, but it was silent and cold. Cycled the inverter breaker on the AC panel in bedroom, and then realized that the 120 outlets powered by the inverter were still working. After about 20 minutes of troubleshooting and scratching my head I noticed it he panel had stopped flashing. Set it back to charge mode and noticed the battery voltage was slowly creeping up, made it to 8.6. Went to a friends for the night thinking they would charge. Came back today and batteries were at 7.5V, panel still reading charger on. Cycled shore power and and tried to reset. Panel is flashing again with no buttons working, and has been for about an hour. It flashes faster when I press the reset button, but then back to flashing. Any thoughts? Is the inverter dead? Eric Babin was helping troubleshoot early today but still no luck. Previous owner from last April told me it has died once and had Dimensions rebuild it about 2 years ago. Also, can I purchase an external charger to charge the house batteries til I can solve the issue? No heat obviously cause thermostat is battery operated. Thanks in advance. Danny Rosado

2020 Entegra Reatta XL - On the road now for four months. Several weeks ago 12V obviously a problem one night. Vegatouch shows house battery in the red and charger says No Charge, Inverter on Passthru (as expected). No breakers flipped upstairs. Turning off/on the red Battery Disconnect Switch quickly gets the house battery charging. We have had to do this several times a week - a lot of the time the charge is on float keeping them in the green. Then all of a sudden it is obvious batteries are down. This can happen at night with no LED's and just aquahot heat on or a/c on, so not dependent of amount of 12V draw. Happens at more than one site, always on 50Amp, sometimes with, sometimes without Progressive Surge Protector. Vegatouch software is up to date. Hope you can read pics below. Pic 1 obvious to us there is not enough 12V present in the coach; Pic 2 Shortly after Battery Disonnect Switch turned off/on; Pic 3 a minute or two later (times in upper RHand corner); Pic 4 Inverter/Charger settings.

Inverter charger has 120v power in, no charger power for batteries, no ac power out on 1 and 2. How can we tell if we need a new inverter or batteries?

HI, I am new to RVing. Our Fleetwood 2013 Expedition might have a problem with the inverter. We were at a KOA and put the inverter on. We were already attached to 50amp shore power. After a while, we lost total power to the coach. Thought it was a GFI issue, couldn't figure it out. The next day while driving noticed the inverting was inverting, at next destination, after connecting to shore power, the inverter was still inverting, not charging. After a period of time, when the batteries ran down, we lost power again. For some reason, the inverting does not charge while ion shore power. Any suggestions? Thanks

Hi Folks, I haven't completed my electric usage inventory yet, but I think I can get away with a 500 or 1000 watt inverter. I have a Forest River Sunseeker and I'm mostly concerned about keeping my electronics charged - laptop, tablet, phone and regular use of my microwave (I don't cook much.). I will be dry camping for a week or more at a time. Can anyone recommend a reliable and affordable inverter? There are just too many online to know what I'm really getting. I know I need Pure Sine, but otherwise I'm a little lost. Thanks, Nan

Wow, the forum responders on FMCA are simply spectacular. Reason for me writing is I realize after some 5 years with a Dometic 4 door refrigerator, I will have to replace some time perhaps sooner rather than later. One of our friends went through this a couple of years ago and opted for a Residential fridge. Due to high cost of Dometic's largest fridge, we are going to opt for a residential fridge also. I had talked with our friend about possibly using a separate pure sine wave inverter only for the fridge or perhaps replacing the now 13 year old Xantrex modified sine wave inverter. He was told in order to replace his current modified sine wave inverter (identical to ours) he would need to have his coach rewired at cost of at least $1,000 (which I thought would be remarkably cheap.) He and I were both concerned about the possible problems of having a separate pure sine wave inverter wired directly to the "house batteries" and serving only the electric plug for the new fridge. He finally opted to plug in the new residential fridge in the old ice maker plug which is what I had considered doing when I ultimately had to make the decision on a new residential fridge. Question 1 is does anyone know if the suggestion about possible re-wiring if I change to a pure sine wave inverter in lieu of the current Xantrex modified sine wave is a reasonable requirement? Question 2 is would a supplemental 1500 watt pure sine wave for the proposed new residential refrigerator be a good option if it could somehow be wired into the automatic system that turns off the inverter when we have 110V shore power (including the 7500 watt generator.) My friend is currently running his new residential fridge using the old ice maker plug without a problem for more than a year so I know that is an option. He does have two more heavy duty golf cart batteries than we have and I realize that is potentially an option we may need to explore. We have 6 -6v Golf Cart Batteries. I realize I have put forth a number of scenarios for our readers to consider and obviously allow my ignorance of most things electrical to show and simply ask your indulgence. For those who wonder why we do not want to stay with the current LP/Gas-110V combination that we currently have we offer the following thoughts. The Norcold and Dometic fridges of the large size we require simply have lots of problems that are not easily fixed. Two years after spending almost $4,000 on our current 4 door Dometic, the heating unit failed. The first words out of the tech's mouth when he saw the green dust in the bottom of the back portion of the fridge was "heck, there goes $2,000.) I then said, well I did pay for an additional 3 years warranty which he suggested was excellent foresight on my part. i thought at the time, this is madness to think of something costing $4,000 not lasting more than two years. I then begin to think about the residential option. My friend mentioned earlier had the big Norcold version and had continuous problems with his never keeping food cold enough or frozen properly in his fridge. Paying that kind of money every few years is not good and we have heard so many good things from acquaintances who made the switch to residential. We have been full timing for some 7 years now in a 39' 2004 Fleetwood Providence, 350 HP ISC Cummins. We now have 160,000 miles and hopefully will have 160,000 more before we have to hang it up. We have worn out a Honda CRV and switched to a Ford Explorer with more storage room for a toad. We think FMCA is simply the finest organization of its kind anywhere thanks to the wonderful Forum contributors. For whatever it is worth, we fully concur with and hope the other members will vote for the recommended change to allow other types of RV users to join this wonderful group.

I have a 2007 Fleetwood Revolution 40LE. It has 4 one year old blue top optima's for the house that the previous owner installed. My house batteries are discharging completely within a couple weeks. I think it was approx. 3-4 weeks and the display shows the batteries down to 8.7 volts and it also shows "3A".......am I to assume that is a three amp constant draw? This is also after turning off both house and engine disconnects. My questions are, Shouldn't the display also turn off when I turn off both disconnects? Does the 3A indicate a 3 amp draw?

Our coach is equipped with a Xantrex Freedom 458 inverter/converter. I've rarely used the inverter function. Yesterday I turned it on to test my TV antenna cable and noticed that my digital plug-in voltmeter was reading 157 volts at the inverter-powered outlets!! Kinda scary, so rather than damage anything I shut off the inverter and used the generator instead (voltage reading was the normal 120 volts, so it's not the voltmeter). Is this a symptom of a failing inverter, or might there be an incorrect setting that I can access to get the inverter output voltage down to the right level? Thanks for any guidance. --Tim C.

Well, after 3 months of owning this thing I just figured out that the after market Siemens Solar setup is not charging the house batteries. I thought it was working because the Siemens regulator panel looks like it is working. It shows battery condition and current charging status, but the brand new house batteries are not being charged by the system. In full sun it says it was charging @ 4 amps. Dumb question#1 Does the voltage from the panels go through the regulator and then right to the house batteries? Dumb question #2 Does the inverter have to be on all the time for the solar to charge the house batteries? The house batteries charge fine on shore or genet power.

Just replaced all the house and coach batteries with Full River AGM's The chassis batteries were bad for a while and the coach batteries were overdue. Our Trace Engineering RV2012GS inverter has been giving me fits. Xantrex is of little help and seems to have outsourced support to a fellow with a script in India. Oh Joy. Everything is fine on Shore power and Generator and the Esco ES65N transfer switch is working fine. However when off shore and generator the inverter will run only a minute or 2 sometimes up to 10 minutes. Then it will stop inverting and flash every 4 seconds as if in search mode. However search mode is set to default (off). Stranger yet, if the coach engine is started the inverter switches to inverting and will remain on as long as the coach engine is running. I am suspecting the internal transfer switch relay is stuck in the pass thru mod and the alternator is somehow back feeding energizing the inverter? I disconnected the shore and DC power and AC outputs then waited an hour for the "Master reset". No change. I bypassed the coach wiring with #4 gauge jumper cables direct to the inverter terminals. No joy-- with direct DC from the batteries applied to the inputs no AC out was measured. Battery charger works fine in all 3 stages and confirmed same with DVM measurement at battery terminals. Short of pulling it and sending it out for repair I am out of ideas. Anyone have any?

Last December, we purchased a 2007 Fleetwood Revolution LE. Based on the records, it had new Interstate batteries (both house and chassis) installed in January 2014. We have been getting a strong rotten-egg odor in the interior of the coach under the following conditions: a) when on the road for a couple hours or more; or when we have the generator running and charging the batteries; or c) when we are connected to shore power. The odor is strongest in the battery compartment in the basement, so I am convinced the odor is coming from the batteries (and not the gray or black water systems, as one dealer suggested). At least two of the house batteries are consuming water.....I have to add water to three or four of the cells of two of the batteries on multiple occasions. After the last road trip, I found one of the house batteries had "blown its top"......the case is slightly bulged, one of the caps was blown off, and battery acid was sprayed about in the battery compartment. I talked to the Magnum folks to make sure the inverter/charger settings are correct for my batteries, but I have not made any functional checks of the operation of the inverter/charger. I checked the voltage of the house batteries, found them low, and found the specific gravity of the batteries to be in the "red" zone of the hydrometer. I'm concluding my house batteries are shot and need to be replaced. I am looking for advice on some checks I can make to my charging system before I just put in four new house batteries. I don't want to repeat the cycle of damaging good batteries. Thanks!

We have had a Freedom 458 inverter motorhome for 11 years and it has been trouble free. It seems to keep my four Trojan T-105s happy. Last February, we did our usual breakfast morning and the voltage was 12.0 v (it is usually 12.2 v). This occurs now, often. Batteries are 25 months old, fluids are regularly checked, terminals clean, and hydrometer readings are constant all across. Yesterday, when checking fluids, I thought about what the voltage was in the float mode. It read 14.3 vdc and I believe it should be a bit higher. Huge amount of storage capacity loss between 14.3 vdc and 14.7 to 14.8 vdc. Am I wrong? We are planning for an Alaskan tour next year and might be dependent on some serious dry camping. The more storage capacity, the better I will feel, plus the DW won't nag me to turn off the generator as it seems to take longer to reach charged capacity. Scotty (person who lives with "can you turn off the generator now?")

After several trips of constantly turning on the generator so that the kids could watch TV or my wife could charge her laptop while driving, I finally decided to install an inverter to power the coach with the house batteries. After some research this is what I came up with: * Disclaimer - I am not a mechanical engineer. These are the rantings of an ex Master Mechanic who has spent hours doing his research. Please if you consider doing this, do your own do diligence. Pure Sign Wave Inverter There are many articles out there that detail the differences between pure sign wave and modified sign wave inverters. Simply put, pure sign wave is safer for sensitive electronics like cell phones or laptops. I chose a Samlex America SSW-2000-12A 2000W Pure Sine Wave Inverter for both its price and 2 year warranty and the Rep at Samlex was very helpful in answering all my questions. The Install According to everything I read it was very important to keep the inverter close to the batteries, but not exposed to the elements. My house batteries are just behind my right front tire but are not protected from the elements. So I went with the closest storage box and ran 2/0 Gauge AWG battery cables with a 300 amp inline fuse. Then I ran a 30 amp power cord to the rear storage box and connected it to a 30-Amp outlet. The final step was to install the Samlex inverter remote. That was easy enough and now the whole system works perfectly! Next up - Let's add some solar!! What do you guys think? - Ryan

I have four 6 volt AGM house batteries that are 5 years old. Recently two of the batteries in the same series line have bulged significantly and test BAD. The other two batteries in the other series line test good. Is it just bad batteries or is the charger overcharging. I have an Airpax Dimensions Inverter/Charger which has a three stage charger with the switch correctly set for battery type.

Hello Group, I apologize for the questions. This is my first post and out of desperation. I have a 2000 Dutch Star 38' Cat Engine on a Freightliner Chassis. Newer Lyght LPT-50 Transfer Switch, Freedom 458 20D Heart Combi inverter/charger with the Heart Interface Remote Control Panel. My problem is: Batteries will not charge from inverter/charger on 50AMP shore power or Generator. They will charge from running the engine via the alternator. Last night batteries were at 7.8 volts and running engine 15 minutes brought them up to 12.8. This morning 12 hours later they were at 11.7 with only the systems I don't know about running. I shut everything down except I did not put it in storage mode. The remote control panel says all is ok. When hooked to shore power control panel far right LED says 50 amps incoming breaker, on far left AC IN LED on, charger light on. On the front of inverter green charge light is on. Checked all circuit breakers and no apparent problem there. Battery state shows correctly on panel. Could the huge fuse between the charger/inverter be blown ?? How would I check it ? That fuse is between the charger and battery bank ( Four Newer- 2 year old Crown 6V in series ) . This fuse is behind the batteries bolted to the wall directly behind the Batteries. I have cleaned most of the battery terminals particularly the one tied to the charger. They are all tight and clean. I thought I may have had a bad battery cell, but now I'm not so sure. Any suggestions would really be appreciated. Thanks, Don Mohney

I am new to owning a class A motorhome. I used to have a truck camper that was way less complicated, but I am eager to learn. :-) What I have: 2002 Itasca 32' Suncruiser with a Xantrex Freedom Inverter with a remote panel. At home I only have a 15 amp plug outside so that is what I use. However, when I do this there is a very loud clicking sound coming from the inverter every 10/15 seconds. I took it in to my local RV service department and asked them to check it out. They plugged it into a 30 amp service and said the clicking wasn't there, but when they plugged it into a 15 amp service it started clicking just like at home. They said they didn't know why this was happening, maybe the inverter couldn't handle not getting 30 amps. This answer didn't leave me with a warm fuzzy feeling inside. So I thought I would ask here. Question: Is this normal or does this indicate a problem? Megann

I have U.S. Warranties on my motorhome. Problem is they have yet to cover any claims I've submitted. Recently my Freedom 2000 inverter/charger went out and they are telling me it was the result of a power surge. The motorhome was plugged into my 50-amp power share at home. No other problem except the power to my motorhome, brand-new microwave, new flat-screen TV, both ACs, and refrigerator is gone. Should I get a lawyer?

Last winter I took an electric blanket from the house with the intentions of using it in the motor home. I figured that when we were boondocking, while traveling, that it would work of off the inverter and keep the gas furnace from running. It would not work. The controllers were erratic and I think that I even burned up one of the 2 controllers since now only one side works. One of the members of my local FMCA chapter said that the the "sine wave" is different when working off of an inverter. Is this right? Does anyone know of a blanket that would work off of the 110v inverter plug. I don't want to run the blanket off of 12v if I can help it.