View / Navion Electrical Information RV Mods

Electrical System Highlights of the “Stock” 2020 View / Navion

First, let’s talk about what came out of the factory. For the 2020 model year on the View / Navion, Winnebago made some significant electrical changes as a result of their LifePO4 option, requests from Mercedes Benz, and the feedback from owners. After weighing the additions and deletions, I believe the changes enhance the capability of the motor home tremendously:

1 – Alternator charging of the house batteries – According to Winnebago, knowing that the introduction of the LifePO4 option created the potential for significant higher charging currents that could affect the temperature and life of the chassis alternator, Mercedes requested that a current limited electronic charge relay be added to the alternator charging circuit. Winnebago complied.

Mastervolt Charge Mate Pro 40 current limited charge relay

This charge relay replaced the “booster solenoid” that Winnebago has used in the View / Navion for many years. As an enhancement to the legacy solenoid found under the co-pilot’s seat, not only does the new charge relay allow charging of the house batteries when the alternator is outputting appropriate voltage, and provides chassis battery isolation during coach battery discharging, it now limits the charging current to 40 amps; well within the long life requirements of the Mercedes alternator. The legacy booster solenoid does not provide this type of protection. Having said all of that, all I have seen being sent from the alternator to the house batteries, during highway cruise, is a maximum of 25 amps - so I’m not yet quite sure what Winnebago is advertising when they provide the justification for the Charge Mate Pro they have insatalled. (During some high RPM mountain climbs it has risen to around 35 amps, but that is at temporary RPMs we don’t usually see during normal cruise.)

So, do you need to install a DC - DC charger as part of a lithium battery upgrade? Well, that depends on what you are trying to do… as explained above, Winnebago has already taken care of protecting the Sprinter alternator from potential damage due to high charge rates that a lithium battery can withstand. But, if you consider the factory alternator charge rate too low on these newer View and Navions … then perhaps a DC - DC charger installation that bypasses the Charge Mate Pro 40 is worth considering. For our operations we have not needed any more charge rate than what the 2020 and newer production alternator system typically provides. By the time we get to our next destination, after a number of hours of highway cruising, the coach batteries are nicely topped off, even after a night of dry camping. We just have not needed more than the 25 - 30 amps of alternator charging that came out of the factory. If you have a View / Navion that was made prior to 2020 and before the introduction of the Charge Mate Pro 40, have a look at this video from Grandpa Ron. He discusses the issue of alternator protection and charging rates in-depth. This video might answer your questions:

Grandpa Ron and DC - DC Chargers for your View / Navion

The option to be able to connect the house batteries to the chassis battery is no longer available, another request from Mercedes Benz. However, after reading the brochure found at a link on this page, you will note that the Charge Mate Pro does have this capability built in. Over to you if you want to rig something up to be able to manually close the isolator to allow the house batteries to be used to boost the chassis battery. Winnebago requests that this capability not be used. The topic of a chassis battery maintainer is discussed later…

2 – LifePO4 option for house batteries – We chose not to take the lithium option out of the factory, instead opting to save some money and have some fun installing the batteries ourselves. But, even though you can choose to do the upgrade on your own, there does not appear to be any penalties associated with this choice. Winnebago has made the upgrade very simple. They have taken care of the potential for alternator damage with the Charge Mate Pro 40, the Zamp solar charger has a Lithium chemistry selection, and the new Xantrex Freedom XC inverter / charger also has a Lithium chemistry selection. The only thing missing in the Winnebago gear is a battery monitor system that provides a quality battery state of charge reading, as opposed to just a battery voltage reading. The topic of a good battery monitor is discussed later…

3 – Xantrex Freedom XC 2000 – The increased power capacity of this new inverter has allowed Winnebago to connect all the household 120V outlets to the inverter, including the microwave oven outlet. This was a huge benefit to us, as in all of our previous coaches we have had to start the Onan genset to be able to run the microwave while in parking lots, rest stops, or while tucked away on a lakeside tent site at a provincial or state park. Starting the Onan to heat up some water for a tea or coffee just did not make sense to us.

Also, as mentioned earlier, the fact that the out-of-the factory inverter / charger is Lithium capable makes an in the field battery upgrade pretty easy, and takes away the potential downsides of not charging the batteries to their full capacity.

4 – Automatic Transfer Switch – This was a surprise to us, when we started researching late model Views and Navions. We had no idea that this functionality was not standard, until the 2020 model year. Now that it is included as standard on the later models, we will not have to worry about leaving the coach to plug in the shore power chord to the generator outlet located in a locker at the rear of the motor home. We have never had to do that before, so are happy to be not starting!

5 – Roof Access Port – Now, this is another great idea. Gone are the days when I had to get creative to figure out how to get the cellular booster antenna cable from the roof to the inside of the coach. At this point I don’t believe we will be hooking anything else up there, but if we do, it will be equally easy to accomplish. (See the dedicated mod description of what we did to get the magnetic antenna to stay on our non-metallic roof, in the details below.)

6 - Solar Panels - This functionality is one of the things that Winnebago did not change from previous years, but somewhere along the production line they switched from rigid panels to flex panels. Flex panels are much lighter than rigid panels, so possibly that was the incentive for installing them as standard equipment. But, their method of installation has proven to be a problem. For our model year, and some subsequent years, they chose to lay them flat on the roof with no appreciable air gap between the panel and the thin Filon fibreglass sheet that is the veneer of the roof. As a result, the Filon sheet gets scorched and damaged from the temperatures associated with summer charging. As many others have opted to do, we removed our factory SunPower panels and replaced them with rigid panels. In addition, we took advantage of the project to add an additional two panels. (See the dedicated mod description of our solar panel retrofit, in the details below.)

Here is a simplified schematic of a stock 2020 factory equiped View / Navion electrical system: