Inverter Question - Solitude 380 FL-R

[rg4bs]

Good morning all. I am a fairly new owner of a Solitude 380 FL-R. Picked it up April 14. We are full timing and staying in an RV park near work. Will retire soon and then travel we hope. Took our first longer trip last week. A 6 to 7 hour trip each way. I noticed that the residential refrigerator had not been working on our trip down to the coast. The Solitude has factory solar package and a magnum inverter that I believe is located in the front compartment with the generator. I had the understanding that the inverter would run the refrigerator while we traveled. I read up some and people were talking about a switch for the invertor that has to be on for it to service the 5^th wheel while not on shore power or generator. I located a switch in the first compartment on the door side. Tried to make sure the switch was on but still no power to refrigerator when not on shore power or generator. Made the trip back with the refrigerator not working again. Picture of switch in first compartment below. What am I missing?

[pengle]

Good morning all. I am a fairly new owner of a Solitude 380 FL-R. Picked it up April 14. We are full timing and staying in an RV park near work. Will retire soon and then travel we hope. Took our first longer trip last week. A 6 to 7 hour trip each way. I noticed that the residential refrigerator had not been working on our trip down to the coast. The Solitude has factory solar package and a magnum inverter that I believe is located in the front compartment with the generator. I had the understanding that the inverter would run the refrigerator while we traveled. I read up some and people were talking about a switch for the invertor that has to be on for it to service the 5^th wheel while not on shore power or generator. I located a switch in the first compartment on the door side. Tried to make sure the switch was on but still no power to refrigerator when not on shore power or generator. Made the trip back with the refrigerator not working again. Picture of switch in first compartment below. What am I missing?

In my 310GK w/solar I have a battery disconnect switch like that one close to my inverter in the front bay on the ceiling. One other thing to check is that the GFCI outlet on the inverter has not popped.

[steve gravelle]

Not the same model, but in our 2020 Solitude S2930 - R, the inverter switch is above the counter where we place our coffee maker, below the glass front upper cabinet. It's a push button that has a green pilot light. I believe you only want it on when you don't have 110 volt source. It works great for us, when we travel for many hours, refrigerator is at proper temperature when we reach our destination.

[Crespro]

On our 310GK-R, the inverter would stop working during trips. The startup current on the refer is two to three times the stable running current. I checked the specs for both the cable (and length) and the inverter power. Perhaps my original inverter was not wired correctly, but I replaced the battery cables, installed a 4K Giandel inverter in the front compartment (check Amazon), ran the start switch cable from the cabinet to the inverter, and extended the 120V power line to the inverter. In my view, the cable from the battery to the original converter was undersized and too long and 1K was too weak to handle the power surge when the Samsung compressor started. The current system is probably overkill, but it works fine. The manual shows the refer with a six amp usage, which by my math is about 700 watts. Our EE friends are welcome to amend my comments. My reading suggests an inverter with three to five times the steady state usage to cover the startup spike.

Our EE friends can probably provide a much better explanation.

Crespro

[bertschb]

...Perhaps my original inverter was not wired correctly

That could be. The 1,000w inverter in our 2019 Solitude 373FB-R worked fine with the Samsung fridge even on loooooong road trips.

[DarnDave]

rg4bs Check that switch in your basement area. It is a momentary switch. If the light is green, your inverter is on. Amber, and your battery is low. Red, and the inverter is blocked by low voltage. So, if you have a green light, and no fridge, there is a problem elsewhere. Maybe tripped GFI? If you do not get any light, check above (way above) your battery compartment on the ceiling and you will find another red key disconnect just like the one next to the switch in the basement. Make sure key is inserted and won't come out. We don't "turn the inverter on and off"; it has a bypass switch when you hook to shorepower. It is automatic.

[ThePowells]

On our 390RK-R, the remote control inverter switch in in the cabinet directly below the cabinet with the electrical control panel, not in the same cabinet. The LED should be green and we leave ours on, and ours does not have the second master switch for the inverter. We haven't turned ours off in 18 plus months. (gee, has it been that long??)

[Jsmith132]

Has anyone moved their inverter that is located in the outside front storage compartment?

[howson]

Has anyone moved their inverter that is located in the outside front storage compartment?

Not to my knowledge (at least not documented on the forum). Out of curiosity, why do you want to move it? Moving the 120vAC won't be too much of an issue, but if the 12vDC inputs require a longer run that could be detrimental.

Please take a moment and read the Welcome Letter and get your signature line setup if you'd like to learn how to get the most from your time here on GD's (Technical) Owners' Forum.

Howard

[CaliforniaSolitude]

We were struggling with our solar, too (2022 Solitude 345 GK), and finally got the dealer to send someone to us (we just retired, and are full-timing).

Nice guy. He said, "Whoops, looks like we didn't perform any of the dealer PDI items, including connecting your solar." He spent the entire day doing what they should have done before delivery, including the solar, fixing defective cabinets, and Grand Design even used the wrong screws in the shower (they all started rusting within days of our first showers). He replaced those with stainless steel screws.

He took care of most of it, and spent a lot of time in & under the front bay, and finally said, "Let's give this a try."

But it wasn't until after he left that we realized we don't know where the inverter is located, or how to make use of it.

Reading this thread, we're not sure where to look for our switch, or how to make use of it when the power goes out?

Does anyone know where that "switch" is on a 2022 Solitude 345 GK?

[howson]

Does anyone know where that "switch" is on a 2022 Solitude 345 GK?

Look inside and up at the ceiling of the front storage compartment--is there a WFCO inverter mounted there? A new ST391DL-R Solitude I toured at the National Rally had it's inverter switch mounted in the basement, left side wall. It looked like item posted below.

[Lenbren8718]

Hello, we are just starting to use our grand design solitude 380Fl-R and we are not understanding our inverter push button on/off switch. It has a green light to indicate it is on. When our camper is sitting we want to turn off the inverter but can’t when we push in the button. Is there a trick to shutting this off. We don’t want it to pull our battery power. Thank you!

[howson]

Hello, we are just starting to use our grand design solitude 380Fl-R and we are not understanding our inverter push button on/off switch. It has a green light to indicate it is on. When our camper is sitting we want to turn off the inverter but can’t when we push in the button. Is there a trick to shutting this off. We don’t want it to pull our battery power. Thank you!

There are so many combinations of inverters and controls we'll need a picture of the control and inverter you're attempting to manipulate.