Travel power - doesn’t work, can anyone help?

[kingbillymatt]

Hiya folks,

I inherited a travel power system on my boat - and it’s never worked. Or I presume it doesn’t. When the engine is running and travel power is selected on my changeover switch, and it’s switched on, apart from a green light - nothing happens! I know nothing whatsoever about the system and I’m presuming it’s supposed to run the power on the boat, but nothing! There’s a large alternator wired up to it and everything seems to be there. I’m just wondering if either anyone on here knew anything about them and what can go wrong and whether it’s fixable by myself! Or whether there are any engineers who know anything about them I could turn to. I’m in the north of England around Yorkshire!

Thanks very much in advance of any help anyone can give me! 
regards,

Matt 

[Tracy D'arth]

The belt is on the alternator? Are all the wires connected and the connector is not burnt out?

Where is the green light?

Beta Marine installed lots of these, is it on a Beta engine?  They may be able to help.Try them first.

If the alternator is faulty then Lancashire Rotating Electrics can fix it. If the Electronics in the inverter box is faulty then Selweb may be able to help.

Edited March 16 by Tracy D'arth

[kingbillymatt]

Alternator and belt seem fine - and the green light comes on when selected - just no power to anything!

 

[Tracy D'arth]

See my edited post.

[kingbillymatt]

8 minutes ago, Tracy D'arth said:

The belt is on the alternator? Are all the wires connected and the connector is not burnt out?

Where is the green light?

Beta Marine installed lots of these, is it on a Beta engine?  They may be able to help.Try them first.

If the alternator is faulty then Lancashire Rotating Electrics can fix it. If the Electronics in the inverter box is faulty then Selweb may be able to help.

Thank you for your response, everything appears to be connected ok and nothing burnt out from what I can see! I have a Isuzu 70 engine!  I’ve had a suspicion it’s always been something wrong inside the travel power pack itself, but as mentioned I know nothing about these things!

my inverter works fine when switched on. Does the travel power - power the inverter? I have tried to switch on whilst it’s running and nothing - but I presumed it only worked when on battery power! My selector switch has 3 settings, shoreline, travel power and inverter. I presume if it was working correctly when travel power is selected I’m supposed to get power akin to being on shoreline?

sounds like I need to perhaps disconnect the alternator and take it to be checked out and then if that doesn’t work have someone look at the power pack itself - just didn’t want to throw good money at it if it’s not worth it in the end! Although on the face of it it seems like a cracking bit of kit, if it actually worked, ha! 

[Tracy D'arth]

1 minute ago, kingbillymatt said:

Thank you for your response, everything appears to be connected ok and nothing burnt out from what I can see! I have a Isuzu 70 engine!  I’ve had a suspicion it’s always been something wrong inside the travel power pack itself, but as mentioned I know nothing about these things!

my inverter works fine when switched on. Does the travel power - power the inverter? I have tried to switch on whilst it’s running and nothing - but I presumed it only worked when on battery power! My selector switch has 3 settings, shoreline, travel power and inverter. I presume if it was working correctly when travel power is selected I’m supposed to get power akin to being on shoreline?

sounds like I need to perhaps disconnect the alternator and take it to be checked out and then if that doesn’t work have someone look at the power pack itself - just didn’t want to throw good money at it if it’s not worth it in the end! Although on the face of it it seems like a cracking bit of kit, if it actually worked, ha! 

The inverter I referred to is the Travelpower box, it is an inverter inside, not your inverter which uses your cabin battery as a power source.

[David Mack]

Have you checked that it's not something as simple as a blown fuse or a fault with the three way selector switch?

[blackrose]

28 minutes ago, kingbillymatt said:

Does the travel power - power the inverter? 

 

The Travelpower produces AC electricity, so no it doesn't power your inverter. 

 

Your inverter is powered by your batteries. It takes DC power and inverts it to AC. 

 

So you might want to check that you have the inverter switched off because I can't see that having 2 sources of AC on the same mains ring would be very safe. However, I also know next to nothing about these things so I might be wrong.

 

There isn't another AC selector switch somewhere that needs to be switched to Travelpower is there?

Edited March 16 by blackrose

[mrsmelly]

Ring Ed Shiers on 07922 163072

A first class no nonsense bloke.

What he doesn't know about the Travel power isn't worth knowing 

[dmr]

If the green light is on then the TravelPower is likely working. Its possible that the mains wiring, selector switch, or some clever electronic switch inside your inverter (if you have one) is to blame. If you are confident with mains electricity and have a multimeter then you could measure the voltage at the TravelPower box (if you have access).

 

There are few people about who can fix problems with the alternator, if it turns out that the Travelpower silver box has a fault then Cox Auto electrics at Atherstone are probably the only people who can still fix them (he did mine about two weeks ago 😀).

[cuthound]

Cox Auto Electrics of Atherstone, Warwickshire have loads of experience at repairing Dometic Travel Powers.

 

https://www.coxautoelectrics.co.uk/marine-leisure

 

Damn, cross posted with @dmr

Edited March 16 by cuthound

[Mike Tee]

Another vote for Ed Shiers

[kingbillymatt]

Some great advice and help there everyone - really appreciated, thank you all! 
 

Off to the footy now - but will get down in the engine bay tomorrow - triple check the alternator. Trace the wiring back and check for any fuses or anything else - check the selector switch, and anything else and hopefully narrow it down!

 

pretty sure I’ll be giving Ed Shiers and/or Cox auto electrics a call though, ha, but will then hopefully be able to get to the bottom of it and get it sorted! 
 

thanks again everyone  

[Tony Brooks]

To absolutely clarify. Have you plugged a mains item into the boat's 240V socket, started and revved the engine, turned the multiway switch to Travelpower and turned the Travelpower on. Don't do this with the inverter turned on or a shore line attached.

 

The three-way switch is almost certainly used to connect one of the three "mains type" power sources to your boat's 240V sockets.

 

Your boat should have a domestic  mains circuit breaker/fuse and RCD box, so make sure the RCD or a circuit breaker has not tripped

[Brian422]

I Have a Travel Power and Victron Multiplus. with three way switch; inputs from Travel Power and Shoreline, output to Multiplus.

Switch to Select Input from Travel Power the Multplus Mains Input LED is on.

[dmr]

So it sounds like the Multiplus is handling the switching of the Travelpower to the mains wiring.

I don't know anything about the Victron, can anybody on here help?.

 

Note that the Travelpower is unusual (or at least the old blackbox model is) in that it does not produce a conventional 240 volts but instead makes 120 on the live and an out of phase 120 on the neutral. Is it possible that somebody has got the neutral-earth bonding wrong?

[Paringa]

2 hours ago, Tracy D'arth said:

Where is the green light?

And i hope it isn't just any old green light...

 

Ooops, sorry wrong thread

[dmr]

Thinking about that green light a bit more ... 😀  On my blackbox travelpower that green light only comes on if the Travelpower is working and the voltage is good, if it gets loaded too much (at lower speeds) then the green light goes red, so that light must be actually monitorig the output, its not just any old green light 😀, so if the light is on then its almost certain that the Travelpower is working and the problem is within the wiring, switch, or Victron.

[kingbillymatt]

40 minutes ago, dmr said:

Thinking about that green light a bit more ... 😀  On my blackbox travelpower that green light only comes on if the Travelpower is working and the voltage is good, if it gets loaded too much (at lower speeds) then the green light goes red, so that light must be actually monitorig the output, its not just any old green light 😀, so if the light is on then its almost certain that the Travelpower is working and the problem is within the wiring, switch, or Victron.

Ahhh, interesting mate - and that makes total sense! 
Will have a good nosy about tomorrow when not under the influence and hopefully be able to suss out! 
thank you  

Thank you so much everyone again! 
 

I’ve just had a good nosy and found a loose wire in the changeover switch!

I’ve just re-attached and I now have a working travel pack!
 

can’t tell you how delighted I am, genuinely absolutely made up and grateful to you all!

 

thank you all for diagnosing! 

[Tracy D'arth]

Yippee! A happy boater!

Better than all the moaning ones!

Thank you for coming back on.

[dmr]

29 minutes ago, kingbillymatt said:

Ahhh, interesting mate - and that makes total sense! 
Will have a good nosy about tomorrow when not under the influence and hopefully be able to suss out! 
thank you  

Thank you so much everyone again! 
 

I’ve just had a good nosy and found a loose wire in the changeover switch!

I’ve just re-attached and I now have a working travel pack!
 

can’t tell you how delighted I am, genuinely absolutely made up and grateful to you all!

 

thank you all for diagnosing! 

There you go, working under a bit of influence can be quite productive as long as you don't overdo it. 😀

[Tony Brooks]

Thank you for reporting back from me as well. It helps everyone learn.

[TheBiscuits]

7 hours ago, dmr said:

There you go, working under a bit of influence can be quite productive as long as you don't overdo it. 😀

 

I've had some of my best ideas in the pub.

 

Admittedly some of my worst ones too!

[ditchcrawler]

8 hours ago, TheBiscuits said:

 

I've had some of my best ideas in the pub.

 

Admittedly some of my worst ones too!

But do you remember them to put them into practice. Its how I ended up with 24 volt electrics on my boat

Edited March 17 by ditchcrawler

[JoeC]

As a bit of extra info.

I had issues with my Travel Power connected to my Beta engine and the issue turned out to be with a worn brush in the alternator for the TP. I had used Ed Shires and he supplied and fitted a new brush.

 

On my engine, it is tricky to get the TP alternator belt tight enough which led to squealing when using the TP. Using a piece of wood as a lever helped me to get the correct belt tightness - just be careful what you rest the wood against as leverage as you could cause more issues.

 

Ed is a very good bloke, not cheap but does a thorough job - he cares about the work he does. He also gives out lots of free advice so that compensates for the extra cost! I would use him again - in fact I have used him several times. Ed is a mobile electrician, solar installer based in the Leek area but does travel.

 

Joe