DRitter Report post Posted July 10, 2013 Hi. We're new RV owners with a 2013 Coachmen Encounter. We've had trouble with the generator operating the air conditioners - and it's about 90 degrees around here! All works well when hooked up to electric at a campground. When the generator is on, we disconnect the power cord to the garage, and I think the inverter "AC in" is supposed to still be on, but it's not. The house batteries also do not appear to be charging when the generator (only) is on. The AC usually won't even switch on. If the engine is running, sometimes it will switch on, but drain the batteries until it switches off again. We've read all the instructions (which aren't specific to our model), but they're not too helpful to troubleshoot specific problems. Is there a switch or trick to making the generator primary power source? Any help would be greatly appreciated. Happy camping. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
dickandlois Report post Posted July 10, 2013 Hi DRitter, and welcome to FMCA. Reading between the lines, sounds like you have 2 Roof AC units. Correct? They do not funtion when the generator is running and they should. The item in question is do you have a transfer switch for the generator or a receptacle in the bay where you connect to shore power and a receptacle in the same area, a generator output that you connect the cable to when running the generator. Would look the same as the one you connect to to use shore power. This set up requires you to manually make the connection from the generator to the coach 110 volt AC power panel. I found a link for a copy of the brochure of your model. Look at page 7. it pictures the receptacle that I mentioned. http://coachmenrv.com/products/encounter.aspx let me know it things work when you make the connection. Rich. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
wolfe10 Report post Posted July 10, 2013 Yes, a little more details. The generator has TWO breakers on it. Turn them OFF and then back ON. That will supply power to the ATS (Automatic Transfer Switch) or outlet that Rich mentioned. From that point onward, shore power and generator power share the same wiring-- so the issue is at or before the ATS/connection. And the inverter panel will only show AC IN when shore power OR generator power reaches the inverter. Same with the inverter/charger charging the batteries-- only when it receives 120 VAC from either shore power or generator. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
