110 volts or 12 volts for your "stuff"

[stanw909]

Great advice Windcrasher. Not everyone is able or ready to get the new lithium batteries so your recommendations are very usefull. I am also thankful for Dayvdd and the others that are jumping into the new technology. Some day when the rest of us are ready we will benefit from their pioneering.

[Davydd]

Originally Posted by markopolo

Thanks for the tenting reminder, good & lasting memories hiking and tenting. I like my B better now though. But, ........... it's a stretch to call what we've done for the past few years camping. I'd have to call it Touring. We used to more or less camp in with our B when we lived on the West Coast and really enjoyed it. I guess that is the nice thing about a B van - you can use it as you wish.

I'm guilty of spending a fair bit of money for "basically use of microwave and coffee pot" over the years. I too use the microwave mostly as a breadbox and stopped carrying the coffee maker but use a toaster fairly often. I've added batteries and inverters to 3 RV's now. All four RV's I've owned have had solar, inverters and multiple batteries. And I'll probably do it again

Buy want you want, high end or low, new or used, main thing is to enjoy it

OK, not camping. I don't want a half-assed motel room.

There is a couple picking up what we believe is the first customer bought Advanced RV ecOasis B with the 800 ah lithium ion battery package. They have been there since Tuesday living in the B in the Advanced RV parking lot for orientation. They haven't been plugged in and claim to be very comfortable in it. I believe that is 3 nights for them in cold weather (Cleveland). Since they have taken daily trips I imagine they've charged the battery that way. They claim they've been toasty warm and I found out the electric radiant floor does work without shore power. I can't wait. Before this one they had converted some of their rental Bs already and have been testing for over a year. They have been installing lithium ion batteries for some time now but they were the Smart Batteries. Ours next month will be the next 800 ah B with the new battery strategy. Another one going out at the end of this month I believe will be 600 ah. That is mikes46's "Imagine" that has been mentioned in this forum. The one being picked up this week, iirc, is the 23rd Advanced RV in 2-1/2 years. That would mean ours will be number 25. That's not many.

[markopolo]

Exciting stuff and impressive.

I remember reading a story by Dean Koontz (maybe sci-fi short story). The character was driving to a remote city and his electric vehicle had enough power to melt the snow on the road in front of it. He had to stop and recharge periodically. We're not there yet but things like battery powered heat (even short duration) in a Class B would have been thought to be pretty much impossible not long ago.

[Boxster1971]

Originally Posted by Davydd

If I wanted to abandon half my B and camp half-assed I would have stayed with tent camping. I don't want any work arounds. What I want is freedom and no urge to think I ought to seek an electrical hookup to use my coffee maker when I am going to plan on getting up to go at 6 AM two hours before generators are allowed to be run in a campground. .....

I will unveil my planning and desires in about a month. Heck, I haven't even seen what I have wrought yet.

I agree with your view. My current b-van is my second, my third will be a no compromise rig. I started with an old Dodge that I converted myself. It was little more than an iron tent with only an extra 12v battery for lights and a simple external power plug. I tried an Airstream travel trailer in between but it was a hassle to use. My Airstream Interstate is nice but not up to the latest technologies.


- - Mike
2013 Airstream Interstate from 2012 Sprinter 3500 tall & long

[Davydd]

Boxster1971,

This one will be our third Class B. You learn something about them and yourself with each. Also, new developments come along. Who would have thunk these things would have 800 ah of lithium ion batteries a decade ago. Back then I had no clue a second lead acid wet cell battery was feasible or desired. AGM batteries at the time were the debatable untested topic. Lithium ion batteries were those strange little batteries in electronics supplanting nickel cadmium.

My second Class B pretty much addressed the things at the time that were bugging me about the first. It wasn't a need as much as a want. Comfort and versatility drove most of those decisions. Our third is just one more quest in that direction and is coming about because the second as over the first one could not be modified or improved to meet those new desires and ideas. We are still in the touring mode of travel and not in the destination and living in one place more than a week. If that ever changed with us, a Class B would not be the greatest RV. We had a vintage 1972 Airstream trailer for two years before getting Class Bs. It was mostly a remote bedroom in our yard and mouse attracter.

BTW, that Airstream Grand Tour EXT is a pretty good improvement in their Class B design, IMO.

http://www.airstream.com/touring-coache ... ifications

[obgraham]

BTW, that Airstream Grand Tour EXT is a pretty good improvement in their Class B design

Hmmm. Higher price, less capability than RT. Where's the advantage there? (Unless of course the floor plan suits a person better)

[Davydd]

Originally Posted by obgraham

Hmmm. Higher price, less capability than RT. Where's the advantage there? (Unless of course the floor plan suits a person better)

Like I said, improvement in THEIR Class B design.

[booster]

Originally Posted by markopolo

Exciting stuff and impressive.

I remember reading a story by Dean Koontz (maybe sci-fi short story). The character was driving to a remote city and his electric vehicle had enough power to melt the snow on the road in front of it. He had to stop and recharge periodically. We're not there yet but things like battery powered heat (even short duration) in a Class B would have been thought to be pretty much impossible not long ago.

I just hope all the cool stuff gets used for "good and not evil" Otherwise we may wind up with a Campground Caped Crusader.

In reality, I do hope that folks use all the extra power they have respectfully. On our last trip, we noticed a huge increase in campsite lighting, probably do to the low cost and power use of led lights. There were campsites lit up like a football stadium, with light spilling into many other sites and the RVs on them. TVs outside in tent sites even, running on generator. Some lights were even left on overnight and when the campers were away. It was almost all in electric sites, but there some in the generator sites, too. None in the no electric, no generator, campgrounds, and I would hate to see that change because of having lots of battery and solar, as it is our favorite type of place.

[Davydd]

For starters no generator in ours. No awning either and most come now with built in LED light strips. Definitely no outside TV. No outside speakers. Totally light blocking opaque curtains. OK, just maybe one outside porch light.

[Boxster1971]

Originally Posted by Davydd

.... We had a vintage 1972 Airstream trailer for two years before getting Class Bs. It was mostly a remote bedroom in our yard and mouse attracter.

Our Airstream TT was also vintage 1971, 27 foot model. Had it for about four years and used in less than a dozen times. I originally bought it for a move from Wash DC to Seattle. We were living in the city of Seattle and I had to store it way out in the suburbs.

[Ok pete]

Hello,
I have a 2012 pleasureway plateau RB with 12v TV ,fans, heat and lights. Use portable 400 watt inverter to charge Ipad and lithium batteries for Hobie kayaks. Love the simplicity of this setup, with the exception of one battery. Like the feature on LTV that isolates radio from chassis battery. Next mod. With 165 watt solar panel. Adding two AGM batteries under bed and using under hood house battery for radio. However, not pleased with overall quality of finish. In the process of refinishing cabinet doors. Love the bbb. Now if only easier, to maintain MB. Life is so complicated when you are retired.

[bikerbill]

booster, I think the reason Roadtrek requires shore power to go thru the inverter which means the inverter must be ON for the 115v outlets to work when plugged in is this.

The 5000 watt inverter output is capable of more than the 30 amp shore cord can provide in amperage . So they would need to install a 5000 watt capable transfer switch to chose either the 30 amp shore power or the 5000 watt inverter output to supply the 115 v distribution panel. Then they would need to be able to feed the input of the 5000 watt inverter "from" the distribution panel via a circuit breaker. Definitely more complex and a bit more expensive. Keeping in mind that the 5000 watts is in excess of over 43 amps therefore the transfer switch needs to be probably a 50 amp model.

I believe the overall concept behind the E-trek is supposed to be simplicity. And it is "once the owner understands the operation." And trust me the original and now revised owners manual still is somewhat confusing as to how things operate. One of the big issues is the remote switch that comes with the 5000 watt inverter. It has STANDBY, OFF & INVERTER ON .positions. Most everyone understand OFF and INVERTER ON. Its the STANDBY that confuses most people. I don't know why they have it other than I believe the switch is supplied that way from the inverter manufacturer.

But I too would prefer an option of having shore power available when plugged in WITHOUT turning on the inverter and its constant running cooling fan. I would think the inverter manufacture could design one with a temperature operated cooling fan that only runs when your load is increasing and creating more heat from the transistors. And you need to turn it on to charge the RV batteries when on Shore Power. Our prior Class A Prevost Country Coach conversation bus, built back in the 90's had 2-4000 watt inverters, of course in a lower bay, but the fans only ran when the heat was increasing due to conversion of 24 v into 115 v. And obviously you could not hear them since they were in the lower bays, but if you had the bay door open and got close to the Trace inverters it was hard to even hear them running. They were also at least twice the physical size of the 5000 watt inverter in our E-trek but then that's what electronics had done: gotten smaller which then obviously increases heat due to the fact that there is less of an aluminum heat sink in the design.

[Fastpaddler1]

Originally Posted by Davydd

My Pleasure-way Plateau had a small 400w inverter just for the TV and my 2011 Great West Van Legend had a similar setup of a 750w inverter just for the TV. The odd thing is whenever we camped where TV reception was decent we were usually at an electrical hookup campsite. So, in both instances I rigged connections directly to 110VAC outlets to get around running the inverters because, even small, being right next to the TV, I found them the fans to be too loud and annoying.

We have the same experience with our PW. I have 1000W Inverter which I only use occasionally for a toaster or microwave. If boon docking in woods I start propane Onan and run everything!

[mlts22]

One mod I plan to do with my next rig is to get a Morningstar SureSine 300 (a relatively small PSW inverter which has the ability to have a monitor panel and a remote switch.) Since most rigs have a 1000-2000 watt inverter, I'd like to be able to shut that off when boondocking (so I don't have to hear fan noise and have that parasitic battery drain), and just use the 300 watt inverter for things like charging an electric shaver, plugging a laptop in, charging batteries for cordless tools, etc. Assuming a ten percent overhead, 30 watts are a lot less on the battery than 100-300 watts.

[victor u]

110 electrical outlets in center of coach do not function when plugged in to shore power
bed works and back plug works but not kitchen, outside or bathroom plugs
yes have replaced ground plug in bathroom

[rowiebowie]

Originally Posted by victor u

110 electrical outlets in center of coach do not function when plugged in to shore power
bed works and back plug works but not kitchen, outside or bathroom plugs
yes have replaced ground plug in bathroom

Welcome to the forum victor!

EDIT: It would help if you posted the make, model and year of your rv. That way, someone with the same model, and therefore familiar with your electrical layout, can offer you specific advice. But just in general, flip all your breakers fully off and back on. In rare instances, a breaker may be flipped internally, but look like it's in the on position when it's not.
.

[victor u]

Originally Posted by rowiebowie

Welcome to the forum victor!

EDIT: It would help if you posted the make, model and year of your rv. That way, someone with the same model, and therefore familiar with your electrical layout, can offer you specific advice. But just in general, flip all your breakers fully off and back on. In rare instances, a breaker may be flipped internally, but look like it's in the on position when it's not.
.

thanks for reply unit is 2008 pleasure way excel ts ford e350

[rowiebowie]

Originally Posted by victor u

thanks for reply unit is 2008 pleasure way excel ts ford e350

Nice. Widebody I believe? Pretty sure we have several owners of similar models here plus a few electrical gurus.

Off topic, but temps here are 95f degrees (35c) for the foreseeable future. I wish I was up your way right now. We planned to visit Canada last year but I found out we needed passports and I applied too late to get them in time. Maybe soon though.

[booster]

Originally Posted by victor u

110 electrical outlets in center of coach do not function when plugged in to shore power
bed works and back plug works but not kitchen, outside or bathroom plugs
yes have replaced ground plug in bathroom

Probably a Roadtrek and those outlets would commonly be the "inverter" outlets, which really means that they are not powered directly from shore power but go through the inverter/charger and it's internal transfer switch. This allows them to be run off the inverter when no shore power and on shore power when it is available. It should happen automatically when you plug in to shore power that they come on.



Do they come on if the inverter is on?



The also are on GFCI outlets which may be tripped or bad, which is very common. There should be at least on GFCI outlet running them, maybe more and will affect more than one outlet. Try to find them and reset them to see what happens, as that is the most common issue.

[victor u]

Originally Posted by booster

Probably a Roadtrek and those outlets would commonly be the "inverter" outlets, which really means that they are not powered directly from shore power but go through the inverter/charger and it's internal transfer switch. This allows them to be run off the inverter when no shore power and on shore power when it is available. It should happen automatically when you plug in to shore power that they come on.



Do they come on if the inverter is on?



The also are on GFCI outlets which may be tripped or bad, which is very common. There should be at least on GFCI outlet running them, maybe more and will affect more than one outlet. Try to find them and reset them to see what happens, as that is the most common issue.

Hi

Thank you replaced the gfi in bathroom and power gets to plugs so it must have
been defective gfi however it still trips without any interference of plugging in
appliances or any action on my part if it is a short somewhere in the system
where and how do I begin my search?