Xantrex Inverter/Charger Working or Not? 2022 View

[Ontario Don]

bnkview - The inverter side of the Xantrex in your View works the same as the inverters in your previous RVs. You do not have to have the push button on the remote panel in the cabinet selected to ON, unless you have no shore power or Onan, and you want the batteries to power the inverter and send 120 volts AC to the receptacles. If you are on shore power, or the Onan, that push button switch has no effect on your coach's electrical system.

Via the Winnebago wiring, shore power, or the Onan, has priority when sending 120 volts AC to the receptacles. In fact, you don't even need coach batteries installed to get AC voltage at the plugs if on shore power.


To answer your question, I think, even if that push button in the cabinet is ON - your View will always use shore power or the Onan first. If someone pulls your shore power, or your Onan quits, with that push button selected ON - the inverter will wake up and pull 12 volts from the batteries and invert it to 120 volts AC for the plugs. If not on shore power or the Onan, your Xantrex charger / inverter can NOT charge the batteries. You will have to rely on the direct charging connections from the alternator and the Zamp solar controller.


I don't recommend using that push button in the cabinet unless you are making the conscious decision to request that the inverter draw power from the batteries. If you get in the habit of leaving that push button on, at some point you will shut down your View, and the inverter will remain powered and rob voltage from your battery. Use that push button only when you really want inverted power from the batteries. With shore power, or the Onan, that push button has no effect on the electrical system of your View.


Happy Camping!

[bnkview]

Many many thanks!!!! I am planning that it will all work as stated. Although my last fifth wheel had an inverter, it never had to be on to charge the house batteries. I only turned it on when I didn't have shore power and needed AC receptacles active.
We will also work on understanding the Xantrex system better.
Thanks again and I hope others find this thread helpful.

[Ontario Don]

bnkview - Your View's inverter does NOT need to be on to allow the Xantrex's charging side of the unit to charge the house batteries.


But, the large rotary switch down on the floor at the entry way DOES need to be selected to ON to allow the Xantrex to charge the batteries while on shore power or Onan power.



Cheers,

[Ray,IN]

Originally Posted by Ontario Don

bnkview - Your View's inverter does NOT need to be on to allow the Xantrex's charging side of the unit to charge the house batteries.


But, the large rotary switch down on the floor at the entry way DOES need to be selected to ON to allow the Xantrex to charge the batteries while on shore power or Onan power.



Cheers,

Thank for clarifying my post; the inverter and charger are 2 separate systems, and thus operate independently.

Good catch!

[Morich]

Originally Posted by bnkview

Many many thanks!!!! I am planning that it will all work as stated. Although my last fifth wheel had an inverter, it never had to be on to charge the house batteries. I only turned it on when I didn't have shore power and needed AC receptacles active.
We will also work on understanding the Xantrex system better.
Thanks again and I hope others find this thread helpful.

You might be having some confusion as a result of names used.
As things have been developed, different names have been used and some are definitely confusing for my understanding.
Older RV had converters and often built into the back of the load center. Those charged batteries and fed the 12VDC items.
Then small inverters were added that could power a few things like a TV or so, maybe 300 watts.
At some point they began putting those two in the same item and the name began to get a bit messy as they were often called converters but did two things. they charged batteries and made 12VDC for lights, etc. but also did the inverter thing which is use 12VDC to make 110AC which is what an inverted does.
Things got worse when they started calling them inverters that made 12VDC!
Inverter charger seems a better name to me as a way to let us know they do different functions.

It may be that you had RV with a converter as well as an inverter and the naming is messing with our mind?

[bnkview]

Originally Posted by Ontario Don

bnkview - I can't find any reference to the inverter in your posts... is the inverter working - does the inverter power your AC outlets?

Originally Posted by Ontario Don

That rotary switch allows the batteries to power the inverter - and shore power, or the Onan, to charge the batteries.

If that switch is not selected on, your inverter will not be powered from the batteries - and shore power, or the Onan, will not charge your coach batteries.

Originally Posted by Ontario Don

bnkview - Your View's inverter does NOT need to be on to allow the Xantrex's charging side of the unit to charge the house batteries.


But, the large rotary switch down on the floor at the entry way DOES need to be selected to ON to allow the Xantrex to charge the batteries while on shore power or Onan power.



Cheers,

Got it and understood. Two separate areas and controls. The large rotary switch is a little confusing to the novice who thinks he knows everything because he had previous RVs and the rotary switch says Inverter with an On and Off. Thanks again.

[Morich]

I don't feel at all bad when finding I am confused! It's part of the everyday learning process and we are no more confused than many of the people I see every day!

I once worked with a new young fellow who was certain he had a better way to do things. He was so sure of himself that I refused to work with him any more! His actions killed the guy who replaced me !

[Riverbend]

The Xantrex manual should be a big help to you, if you have it. I'm attaching a picture that serves as a great basic reminder of switch uses for new Winnebago owners.

[Ontario Don]

Riverbend - Great idea to add some visuals to the conversation, thanks.

I'd like to respectfully suggest a tweak to your labelling of the rotary disconnect switch on the floor at the entry-way...

This whole tread was started by bnkview because he was not aware that power to the entire Xantrex Charger / Inverter was disconnected by that high current rotary switch. Not only does that rotary switch remove battery power to the inverter, but it disconnects the 12 volt charging to the batteries from the charging side of the Xantrex.

I'd label it "Charger / Inverter Power" to make it clear that Xantrex battery charging and the battery feed to the Xantrex inverter side of the unit will be lost if that rotary switch is selected to OFF.

There is an argument that the charging side of the Xantrex is more frequently used when compared to the inverter, anyway. Because these late model Navion / View motorhomes do not have a "converter", the 12 volt users in the coach are always being fed from the batteries - and if using shorepower / Onan - the batteries are always being recharged by the charging side of the Xantrex.

One last comment. I would not leave the inverter push button in the cabinet remote selected to "ON". The Xantrex is hotwired to the batteries (via that big rotary disconnect switch), so if you shut down your coach, when not in use, the inverter will turn on and could deplete your battery. I would recommend only using that push button in the cabinet when you "Really" need the inverter because you are dry camping.

Cheers,

[Morich]

Sometimes we miss the small points and don't read for the details?
From the manual:

[Riverbend]

Ontario Don, point well taken, but I was just sharing that from another forum on Views/Navions. It was put together by a kind soul trying to help newbies, and I thought the OP could glean some useful info. I came over from an Isata class C, and found that particular information very helpful as I acclimated to the Winnebago's much different electrical system with the converter/charger, BIM and or LiBim. It's taken me some work to get comfortable with the Xantrex.

[Ontario Don]

The Winnebago owner's guide is mostly responsible for the confusion that new owners experience regarding the Xantrex. With the introduction of a charger / inverter instead of a stand alone inverter and a stand alone charger / converter, the writers of the owner's guide have not done a very thorough job explaining its operation.

Richard's above extract from the guide is a great example of incorrect text leading to confusion. It should say:

"When the inverter is not being used, it should be shut off at the Xantrex panel in the overhead cabinet. The inverter could drain the house batteries if shore power is not connected, or the Onan generator is not running, and the rotary entry-way Charger / Inverter Disconnect switch is selected ON"

What Winnebago needs in their owner's guide is an easy to understand drawing that depicts all of this functionality. Let me think about that...

[Morich]

The common problem that if find in many different areas is how the manuals and instructions are written. They are often written by the inside group who fully understands the details on the item.
That is great for some items as they DO know their stuff! But it can also be the problem as they may not spot how much detail they are leaving out for folks who do not know and understand those details.
Working in telcom with microwave and then fiber optic equipment there were two big points that we noticed.
NEC was a Japanese group and wrote very complete and extensive manuals which were great for us to work with as end users when we got the new items.

When we also got Rockwell -Collins and went to schools in the Dallas area, we were constantly confused and left in the dark. We traced much of that confusion to the mindset of each.
NEC assumed there might be a language problem and worked to avoid it
Rockwell assumed we would just know stuff and left it to us to call if we had problems!

Manuals should be written by experts and then corrected after letting a novice group try to use them!
But we are now lucky if we even get any written info!

[Ontario Don]

When we were researching Views and Navions before buying, this was the diagram that would have helped me quite a bit. Once we got our View, it was trial and error in figuring out how things worked. The manual helped a bit, but was not great. Yes, I did go into the motorhome a couple of times to find the inverter still on, and the batteries drained quite a bit. The secondary inverter ON switch on the Xantrex box itself, located in the right side locker, sometimes gets bumped when moving gear around in there... watch for that one!

This diagram is drawn to support the good info that Riverbend posted; I hope it is of use to new owners out there. It is drawn on a letter sized sheet, so if it gets uploaded to the forum a bit small, it can be downloaded by right clicking on the image and "Save Image As" to view it in a larger format.

Let me know if you see something that needs to be improved. In simple terms, this is the way our 2021 View works; I'm not aware of any big changes in subsequent years.

Cheers,

Don

[Fanrgs]

We bought our 1 year-old 2020 Navion 24V from a man who had installed Li batteries himself. But I was lucky because he made a copy of the entire Xantrex manual and circled all the changes he had made, including a table of the exact defaults that had been changed from lead-acid to Li on the Xantrex. When we are plugged in, a green light stays lit on the Xantrex panel, even if the "on" button is off. After reading the entire Xantrex manual, what I realized was that all AC power--30A 120vac from a pedestal or the Onan--goes through it, as mentioned earlier. Then the Xantex acts as a converter feeding 12vdc to the batteries, as well as directly feeding 120vac to all the AC outlets.

The manual indicates that the Xantrex can be programmed to supplement an AC voltage drop from a pedestal with battery power through the inverter. But I have never encountered that scenario, so have not programmed that ability into the Xantrex.

I really like what the Xantrex can do, as we make morning coffee with the Keurig, even when dry camping or boondocking. We have also used the toaster, conv.-micro, and induction cooktop from the inverter a few times, but only for the length of time it took to make toast or heat a frozen dinner. But we don't use the electric space heater, 120v fan, etc. for long periods off the Xantrex inverter. I replaced the bedroom TV with a 12v TV, so no inverter is needed to watch it. And, when our only 4 year-old C-M heat pump literally had a meltdown in the control box AC wiring, I replaced the entire unit with a TurboKool evaporative cooler. Since it is 12vdc, we can run it on batteries when boondocking without using the inverter at all. Didn't work as well even when plugged-in when it was 106 degrees in Las Vegas, NV, on our northern AZ-NV-NM trip in late September, but it was great on 85-95 degree days in Cortez, Page, Caliente NV, and St. Johns AZ. But our OEM AC didn't work great on 100+ days either, so the 12v unit is perfect as we live in CO and RV in the arid West.

[Ontario Don]

Fanrgs - Great input, thanks. Yes, I should draw shore power, or the Onan, feeding the Xantrex first, before looping directly back to the AC plugs.

Also, I think I will add another status panel on to the Xantrex box, to identify another method of possibly inadvertently activating the inverter.

Thanks,

[Ontario Don]

Ok, I changed the flow from shore power and the Onan to show the true path of the priority 120 volts AC looping out to the coach plugs.

Also, I added another monitor panel to the Xantrex box itself, for completeness.

What else?

Thanks,

[Riverbend]

Great job! Do you think sketching in the Amp-L-Start would be helpful for those that have one? I've had to explain to a few folks what that did, and also why shore power doesn't charge their chassis battery. Seems to be a few of those still out there, and even some Trik-L-Starts being modified to charge lithium. My 2023D came with the Trik-L, which I disconnected when I installed LiFePo. Just a thought...

[Ontario Don]

Ok, that is a good thought. I imagine there are quite a few motorhomes going to new owners with a Trik-L-Start or Amp-L-Start already installed.

Back in a bit.

Thanks,

[Ontario Don]

Here is another draft - I added a "Chassis Battery Maintainer - If Installed" and show a picture of an Amp-L-Start. I didn't want to get into the different types of coach batteries and the appropriate choice for a chassis battery maintainer, so I hope this is not too general. I think it makes the point, but let me know.

There are a couple of other minor changes.

Thanks,