ecotrek batteries using 6 internal amps

[gerrym51]

Originally Posted by Davydd

The Roadtrek Owner's group on Facebook is a closed group so one cannot read the message unless a member. I'm not a member so only know what is posted here. I assume it is a "whine zone" group as opposed to Mike Wendland's public Roadtreking: The Group "no whine zone"?

I have to assume Voltstart comes on at a preset drop in SOC. Why would someone with an 800ah li-ion battery bank be surprised by a 4:00 AM wakeup call? Don't they have a way to know and monitor their usage to anticipate that and plan to prevent accordingly?

No they do not

[gerrym51]

FYI

you do not have to be an owner to be let in to roadtrek owners facebook page.

if you request in like any other facebook private page they will let you in

[gerrym51]

Norms post is NOT a main post. It is about 2 /3 thru a bunch of responses to this main post

Alex Cohen

6/8 at 12.39 pm

Solar / Refrigerator question: I have a 2016 CS with the large refrigerator / freezer. I have the configuration with 8 AGM batteries and 470 watts of solar. I thought I would be able to keep the refrigerator running in between road trips without needing to keep topping off the batteries. With everything turned off except the refrigerator, I still seem to be losing battery capacity. I’m not able to park in direct sunlight but I should be getting plenty of sun to the solar panels. I’m concerned that the solar panels aren’t charging the batteries. Is there an easy way to confirm this other than looking at the light on the solar controller? Thanks for any help you can provide.

[gregmchugh]

As Gerry said, there is no battery monitor for the Ecotrek batteries, no reading of current battery charge level, you are flying blind.

RT has said they are reviving the Coach Connect system and we will see what info is available there.

There may be a shunt inside the Ecotrek module or maybe not. There is a multi-pin connector that is not currently being used that may allow them to get data from the module to interface to a monitor sysytem such as Coach Connect that could be networked to all the Ecotrek modules. There was a touchscreen display on the initial Ecotrek vans like mumkins unit but there are no reports of that being active in any van and they are no longer installed.

As usual, not much real info to go on, just speculation based on info available...

[Davydd]

Not even the traditional almost useless idiot lights most RVs have to give you a clue? Flying blind means you have to depend on Voltstart as you only status? How does anyone know what their usage is and what they do to understand their usage as in do and don't under a particular situation? I think it would be rather embarrassing if you were camping at Big Bend NP Chisos Basin CG (a very coveted location, BTW) where you can be completely surrounded by tent campers if your Voltstart came on in the middle of the night. The whole campground would be giving you the one finger salute. Walmart not so much. The diesel semis will drown you out anyway.

That usage being discussed still mystifies me. I suspect part of it is because those users have no way of knowing what they are dealing with and attributing it to a single source.

[mumkin]

According to everything that I have read about the glitchiness of Coach Connect, I don't see any upside to their bringing it back.

I think they still have the idiot lights, but they have always been totally useless for reading anything... be it tank levels or battery voltage.

And DavyDD, the Roadtrek Owners Facebook page isn't about bitching. It is about presenting your problems to a group of people who may be able to help you. It is most definitely not about slagging off Roadtrek (which is much more common here). Not everyone has a Roadtrek and way more than 50% of the RT owners are happy with their rigs.

[cruising7388]

Originally Posted by Davydd

Not even the traditional almost useless idiot lights most RVs have to give you a clue? Flying blind means you have to depend on Voltstart as you only status? How does anyone know what their usage is and what they do to understand their usage as in do and don't under a particular situation? I think it would be rather embarrassing if you were camping at Big Bend NP Chisos Basin CG (a very coveted location, BTW) where you can be completely surrounded by tent campers if your Voltstart came on in the middle of the night. The whole campground would be giving you the one finger salute. Walmart not so much. The diesel semis will drown you out anyway.

That usage being discussed still mystifies me. I suspect part of it is because those users have no way of knowing what they are dealing with and attributing it to a single source.

Doesn't the Volt Start have a switch that lets you disable it if conditions necessitate it?

[Davydd]

Do Jim Hammill, Campskunk, Wendland or Seiner participate? Some of them did once chime in to the Sprinter Roadtrekers Facebook group which is now pretty much dormant. I believe Roadtrek Owners and Sprinter Roadtrekers were both created after disaffection with Wendland's group. So, would not "whine zone" be appropriate as opposed to the clearly and unmistakenly mentioned "no whine zone" of Wendland's group where this topic could not be discussed?

BTW, Mumkin, did you ever get a clear response and answer with what went wrong with your lithium battery setup?

[Davydd]

Originally Posted by cruising7388

Doesn't the Volt Start have a switch that lets you disable it if conditions necessitate it?

I don't know and why I was asking in a roundabout way. If they were to disable Voltstart then does the battery bank auto disconnect or does it run down to full discharge? If they auto disconnected you would know. You would basically have a steel tent with no electricity. Not all that dire of a situation other than your refrigerator contents which probably would not be a problem once you woke up and took care of the situation. If the batteries fully discharged that would not be good for lithium ion batteries.

[gerrym51]

Originally Posted by cruising7388

Doesn't the Volt Start have a switch that lets you disable it if conditions necessitate it?

voltstart will not work UNLESS it is turned on. not turned on it does not work

[gerrym51]

Originally Posted by Davydd

I don't know and why I was asking in a roundabout way. If they were to disable Voltstart then does the battery bank auto disconnect or does it run down to full discharge? If they auto disconnected you would know. You would basically have a steel tent with no electricity. Not all that dire of a situation other than your refrigerator contents which probably would not be a problem once you woke up and took care of the situation. If the batteries fully discharged that would not be good for lithium ion batteries.

ecotrek batteries shut down if approaching being emptied.it the internal battery bms plus the relays which probably cause the 6 amp draw in the first place
i

[gerrym51]

Originally Posted by Davydd

Do Jim Hammill, Campskunk, Wendland or Seiner participate? Some of them did once chime in to the Sprinter Roadtrekers Facebook group which is now pretty much dormant. I believe Roadtrek Owners and Sprinter Roadtrekers were both created after disaffection with Wendland's group. So, would not "whine zone" be appropriate as opposed to the clearly and unmistakenly mentioned "no whine zone" of Wendland's group where this topic could not be discussed?

BTW, Mumkin, did you ever get a clear response and answer with what went wrong with your lithium battery setup?

i have not been to that site for months since i was banned. I have no idea

[Davydd]

Originally Posted by gerrym51

i have not been to that site for months since i was banned. I have no idea

I know they participate in Wendland's group. I was asking about Roadtrek Owners group. Does Roadtrek participate in any way? Those guys mentioned are just the well known public faces of Roadtrek on Facebook.

BTW, it is easy to participate in Wendland's Roadtreking: The Group. Just think in terms of small motorhome lifestyle and leave the brands alone. There is a lot of lifestyle information to digest and suggest.

[gregmchugh]

There are at least two Roadtrek employees in the owners group but they do not get involved in discussions of issues. I have hopes that they do report back to the company the owners issues that they see on the group.

Useless 4 battery status lights still there in Ecotrek vans.

Voltstart needs to be turned on to operate.

Ecotrek batteries should automatically disconnect at 10% and not fully discharge. At least RT has always stated they would be using 10% as the shutdown point.

I suppose RT could be so clueless that they reintroduce Coach Connect without fixing all the issues from the prior version but I guess we can wait and see. I personally think they need the added option of a stripped down Coach Connect monitor without the fancy features that simply provides sufficient data to know the current status of the Ecotrek batteries. Dump the battery idiot lights for good...

[gerrym51]

Originally Posted by gregmchugh

There are at least two Roadtrek employees in the owners group but they do not get involved in discussions of issues. I have hopes that they do report back to the company the owners issues that they see on the group.

Useless 4 battery status lights still there in Ecotrek vans.

Voltstart needs to be turned on to operate.

Ecotrek batteries should automatically disconnect at 10% and not fully discharge. At least RT has always stated they would be using 10% as the shutdown point.

I suppose RT could be so clueless that they reintroduce Coach Connect without fixing all the issues from the prior version but I guess we can wait and see. I personally think they need the added option of a stripped down Coach Connect monitor without the fancy features that simply provides sufficient data to know the current status of the Ecotrek batteries. Dump the battery idiot lights for good...

i actually think booster was correct. they don't want you to know.

[gregmchugh]

Originally Posted by gerrym51

i actually think booster was correct. they don't want you to know.

You are correct that they want to live in a wonderful world where their products work fine all the time and the owners don't need to know anything in order to use all the wonderful features and the Tooth Fairy and the Easter Bunny and Santa are real...

Reality is that they have many customers who are not happy with no info on the status of the system and would like something more...

[booster]

It totally boggles my mind (easy to do by the way) that Roadtrek would think that people wouldn't notice that they were losing 72% of their battery capacity per day somewhere, meter or no meter. That they would actually sell such a system is totally beyond comprehension when compared to all hype and bragging about how great the systems are. Apparently not a lot has changed with Roadtrek, as this all looks a lot like past issues.

I think the reaction and fix will say a lot about how Hymer is going to do business in North America, as they have been around long enough now to have it be their show now.

[gerrym51]

I think Roadtrek wants to be able to mix and match ecotrek and agm among their many models.

Having each battery basically 'stand alone' with their own bms and relays actually makes sense if that is the goal.

this system however cannot get around the effect of using up power of each battery.

If it was all batteries tied to to 1 set of relays and one bms like in Davydd's i'm sure power consumption would be far less.

[mojoman]

I'm running a 65AH AGM as an aux battery with its own solar panel and battery to battery charger as a system back up and traveling battery to keep the fridge cold and operate all 12v stuff while on the road. That allows me to save the lithium pack for use at the camp site and not cycle it as often for an even longer life.

[gregmchugh]

Originally Posted by mojoman

I'm running a 65AH AGM as an aux battery with its own solar panel and battery to battery charger as a system back up and traveling battery to keep the fridge cold and operate all 12v stuff while on the road. That allows me to save the lithium pack for use at the camp site and not cycle it as often for an even longer life.

If you are as old as me you don't need to worry about outliving the life of a lithium battery bank, I will likely be gone before I would wear one out...