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Old 06-10-2015, 02:35 PM   #1
FordMan1966
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Inverter problems

Have a 2015 3611RL with a residential refrigerator and left on a 2 week trip this morning and the inverter would run about 15 seconds and turn off. Never would stay on. Wonder what is wrong with it? Called Keystone and really no help other than call Camping World that is a service for Myrtle Beach
 
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Old 06-10-2015, 04:39 PM   #2
DQDick
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Were you plugged into shore power? If not, is your battery dead? That frig will kill a battery pretty quick. Lastly, are we talking about your inverter or your converter?
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Old 06-11-2015, 02:26 AM   #3
cw3jason
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listen to the fan, it should be running. try and read the display, it will give you an error code if it detects one. i had to use a mirror to read mine because of its position in the pass thru. finally, you can try a reset by removing all power. both AC and DC. unplug the unit and use the seperate battery cutoff installed for the inverter to remove dc power. Wait like 30 seconds. Then plug it back in and turn it on.
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Old 06-30-2015, 03:33 PM   #4
FordMan1966
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Well the Invertor was wired wrong. Works great now. Went out to the Montana today to turn the refrigerator on for the camping trip this weekend and no power to the refrigerator. So I found the electrical plug and disconnected plug and plugged into another plug. It worked. Taking it in to the dealer for a short visit tomorrow to get this plug replaced and a new A/C installed in the bedroom where the compressor went bad. Lots of early troubles to be a new RV
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Old 07-01-2015, 09:12 AM   #5
captl27
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I have had my share of problems with other brand 5th wheels over the years and it really stinks when it happens to a new unit. hope all go well and quick.
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Old 07-01-2015, 12:41 PM   #6
1retired06
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From this forum sounds like many of the new residential frigs are having inverter issues.
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Old 10-16-2015, 06:36 PM   #7
PeteandJoan
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Have a new 2015 3611 with residential refrigerator. I don't have a clue how this thing works and Montana can't tell me either. My question is, is it supposed to "change over" from battery (inverter) to shore power and shore power back to battery power automatically? When I unhook from shore power and start to drive to next destination it is not switching over and I have to manually turn on power to inverter in order to get fridge working and then when I hook up to shore power I have to turn off inverter and so on and so on...... I have waited for a couple of hours to try to give it a chance to change over but not working. Have called them and could tell they knew nothing about it. Wrote email and they sent me a manual but it also does not explain how this thing works. The lady that answered email said it was supposed to "sense" when to change-over. Is that true. Am I supposed to do something special. Any help would be appreciated.
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Old 10-16-2015, 06:46 PM   #8
Drifty1
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I would think it would run on the inverter all the time and the batterys are being charged by the converter/ charger when plugged into shore power. I do not have this system but it seems keystone would go the cheapest route when installing a inverter.. This is my guess.. And it is only a guess.
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Old 10-17-2015, 04:25 AM   #9
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PeteandJoan,

I have a residential refer in a SOB so I'm not certain your Montana is wired the same way, but I would think it is, so here goes:

My inverter has 2 sources of input, one is the shore power, the other is battery power. The inverter has a transfer switch. Its sole purpose is to detect which power to use. If it detects shore power, it passes the 110v directly to the refer. If there is no shore power, it pulls 12v from the batteries, inverts it to 110v to power the refer. This should occur automatically, with one small exception. My inverter has an on/off switch. Naturally if it's off, it will not provide the 110v.

You might try to find the make and model of your inverter. Hopefully they provided a manual that will further explain its capabilities.

Ken
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Old 10-17-2015, 02:58 PM   #10
Bigboomer
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Ken has it right. There should be an on/ off switch and when on there should be an internal transfer switch which will automatically switch between shore and battery whether you are on shore or disconnected from shore.

When you purchased your rig you should have received a manual for the inverter if not look it up on the net for the manual.

Also, check all the electrical connections including all the main wiring making sure they are all tight including the grounds and neutrals.

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Old 10-18-2015, 06:57 AM   #11
cw3jason
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Quote:
quote:Originally posted by PeteandJoan

Have a new 2015 3611 with residential refrigerator. I don't have a clue how this thing works and Montana can't tell me either. My question is, is it supposed to "change over" from battery (inverter) to shore power and shore power back to battery power automatically? When I unhook from shore power and start to drive to next destination it is not switching over and I have to manually turn on power to inverter in order to get fridge working and then when I hook up to shore power I have to turn off inverter and so on and so on...... I have waited for a couple of hours to try to give it a chance to change over but not working. Have called them and could tell they knew nothing about it. Wrote email and they sent me a manual but it also does not explain how this thing works. The lady that answered email said it was supposed to "sense" when to change-over. Is that true. Am I supposed to do something special. Any help would be appreciated.
I will try to explain. If the inverter is on, and you are plugged into shore power, it is in pass thru mode and just monitors voltage. once you unplug it automatically switches to inverter mode and supplys 120 volts to the rv fridge plug. You do not need to have the inverter on when plugged into shore power, however when you unplug from shore power the inverter will not turn itself on and switch. you would need to manualy turn on the inverter at that point. I usually turn off the inverter once plugged in just so the fan does not run all the time, then before I unplug from shore power, I turn the inverter back on. once I unplug, the inverter switches over. this will be noticed by the LED light turning from green to amber.
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Old 10-22-2015, 03:19 PM   #12
PeteandJoan
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Thanks Jason. Great explanation. I was under the impression that the inverter was supposed to automatically turn itself off and on as needed. I was told it had a sensor that would do that for me, but now I see how it works. This is how I have been doing it all along. I also did not think inverter was supposed to run when on shore power so I would turn it off and then back on before leaving camp site.
Jason, Montana needs you. They could not explain it to me. One guy said to pull refg. out and unplug it from the wall !!!!! I swear.
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Old 10-31-2015, 08:04 AM   #13
cw3jason
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I was confused as well when I first got mine. I had a nice long chat with the inverter manufacture and they explained it to me. as well as why I would get an error sometimes after connecting back to shore power. led turns red. seems if the batteries have been sufficiently drained to cause the converter/charger to enter boost mode to get the batteries back up, The inverter does not like the converter/charger in boost mode charging because it puts out over 14volts and it causes the inverter to error out. to reset it, just shut it off for about 15 seconds and turn back on, or just leave it off while on shore power. once the batteries are back up and then charger returns to a trickle charge it will no longer bother the inverter.
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