I am Removing the failed WFCO WF-9855 CONverter that came with the unit and Installing a Magnum energy 2012-20B INverter on 2011 Fleetwood Terra. Any help would be appreciated. I cut incoming 120v wire before breaker box and inserted inverter, in and out 120v. The 12v wire from converter has no voltage reading. What am I missing?

I'm a little confused about your post. If the converter failed, why would you expect there to be 12volts coming out of it?

Moved from Forum Technical Support

http://www.metrotrekkers.org/utility/notes.pdf

I cut incoming 120v wire before breaker box and inserted inverter, in and out 120vCould you describe this a little better? A few things that would cause the Magnum not to have 13+V at the outputs: Output wires are reversed, Magnum is not powered by 120V, the internal transfer switch did not close, and possibly, the internal GFCI interrupts power to the charging section. Did you measure the absence of voltage at the output terminals of the Magnum or across the battery terminals? If at the battery, is there a circuit breaker, a fuse, or a battery disconnect switch between the Magnum and the battery?

rrhino2 wrote:I am Removing the failed WFCO WF-9855 CONverter that came with the unit and Installing a Magnum energy 2012-20B INverter on 2011 Fleetwood Terra. Any help would be appreciated. I cut incoming 120v wire before breaker box and inserted inverter, in and out 120v. The 12v wire from converter has no voltage reading. What am I missing?By from converter do you mean the 12 volt positive and negative you removed from the converter? Are they now connected to nothing or the new INVerter? I would hope they show nothing as I would hope you disconnected the battery bank or at least turned off the master battery disconnect before starting this job.More importantly, are you mounting the new INVerter in the same location as the old CONverter using existing wire? This could mean you are going to try and pull hundreds of amps through 10 or more feet of 6 or 8 gauge wire. Not happening!-Jeff

Removing CONverter Installing INverter on 2011 Fleetwood

16 Replies

rrhino2
Explorer
May 16, 2014
OK, i mistakenly used a 6 conductor RJ-11 since there were 6 wires in the socket on the remote. Changing to a standard telephone cable (4 conductors) solved the remote problem. Furthermore, while trying to find the three 30 amp circuit breakers on the ME-2012, I discover there were two missing! (This was a used ebay pruchase and missing those parts) I have ordered 2 new breakers and by next tuesday should be up and running.
CA_Traveler
Explorer III
May 15, 2014
Sorry I don't know what a "shortstop" is. Did you check troubleshooting in the manual? With a blank display I'd guess that it's not charging either. Are you sure it's wired correctly including the remote? The unit doesn't know jack about wire size, but it will know about low voltage due to a variety of reasons. What is the DC voltage at the units terminals?

Are the CBs tripped?

Is this where you want to install the inverter ie as a whole house inverter? I would not want haavy loads like the HW, AC going through the unit for a variety of reasons.
rrhino2
Explorer
May 15, 2014
Yes, I have the remote, yes I cut the 10/2 120v wire coming into breaker box and inserted MS-2012-20B, the problem with existing 12v+ wire was a "shortstop", which I have now removed.

Now I have 12 volts, inverter light is blinking once per second. 120v at input terminals but no 120 at output. No display on remote.

Does the MS-2012 know if the 12v wire is too small and not work?
CA_Traveler
Explorer III
May 14, 2014
And for clarity what model: ME2012-20B, MS2012-20B, or ???
CA_Traveler
Explorer III
May 14, 2014
OP You did not mention the control panel. Are you planning to push the button on the unit to turn the inverter on/off? You have a high quality unit and I would think you would want a remote control panel attached.

There are lots of other questions: Like battery wiring requires 2/0 or 4/0 wire depending upon length, what batteries do you have, etc.

ie A 2000W inverter and 100A charger requires MUCH more installation consideration than your old WFCO.
CA_Traveler
Explorer III
May 14, 2014
I cut incoming 120v wire before breaker box and inserted inverter
Does this mean you inserted the unit in the incoming wire from the pedestal going to the breaker box?
CA_Traveler
Explorer III
May 14, 2014
The OPs unit is an inverter/converter. Most likely this unit has to be connected to the battery before it will charge the battery or have any DC output. Did you try that?
Unyalli
Explorer
May 14, 2014
camperpaul wrote:
YOU CANNOT REPLACE A CONVERTER WITH AN INVERTER ! !

A converter runs on 120VAC and makes 12VDC.

An inverter runs on 12VDC and makes 120VAC.

THEY ARE NOT INTERCHANGEABLE !

YES YOU CAN REPLACE AN CONVERTER WITH AN INVERTER CHARGER!!!

In fact it's preferred as a quality inverter charger will have temperature compensation as well as customization of charge settings.

-Jeff
KJINTF
Explorer
May 14, 2014
Posted By: camperpaul on 05/14/14 06:14am

YOU CANNOT REPLACE A CONVERTER WITH AN INVERTER ! !

A converter runs on 120VAC and makes 12VDC.

An inverter runs on 12VDC and makes 120VAC.

THEY ARE NOT INTERCHANGEABLE !

Might want to check the specifications of the unit in question
It's called an Inverter/Charger and can easily replace the converter function - actually it's a far superior charger than the WFCO
camperpaul
Explorer
May 14, 2014
YOU CANNOT REPLACE A CONVERTER WITH AN INVERTER ! !

A converter runs on 120VAC and makes 12VDC.

An inverter runs on 12VDC and makes 120VAC.

THEY ARE NOT INTERCHANGEABLE !