I hear with cassettes most users seem to dump them daily or every other day (e.g. on the way to the shower room dump it at the dump site or in the toilet). From my research most B vans have 10 gallons of black tank capacity so double the amount of a cassette. Also the usable volume could be less than that due to being able to lift it, need water to make it dump properly, etc.
One of my european friends told me that they typically only use the loo in their van during the night or emergencies. Most of the time they use the campground bathrooms as they are usually very nice and clean.
That's what we did - regularly in the night, maybe twice on the road, when no convenient place to stop. We have a Thetford 320P in the EVC. The waste tank is 3.2gal. On recent 4 week trip, we dumped it 3 times and I estimate it was only 1/2 to 2/3 full when we dumped it. We had no problem with CG bathrooms, even the one with pit toilets up in Cape Breton. All were very clean and well maintained.
A lot seems to depend on the type of RVing one does. We like campgrounds, and don't boondock. Others want to boondock more, so would need more capacity.
Thanks for updated video! A nice informative, though quick, walk-through!
So longer body "Aktiv 2.0" is coming! Maybe length-wise beds?
Saying you can run the A/C off the batteries, but the question is always how long and/or how long before the VoltStart senses the drop, kicks in and starts the engine with the additional alternator. And how many times does it do that over some period of time.
Would love to see a real world test(s) during a nice hot sunny day (so solar is part of the test) to find out out often the engine kicks in. Maybe a night test, when solar is not going to contribute anything.
Thanks for updated video! A nice informative, though quick, walk-through!
So longer body "Aktiv 2.0" is coming! Maybe length-wise beds?
Saying you can run the A/C off the batteries, but the question is always how long and/or how long before the VoltStart senses the drop, kicks in and starts the engine with the additional alternator. And how many times does it do that over some period of time.
Would love to see a real world test(s) during a nice hot sunny day (so solar is part of the test) to find out out often the engine kicks in. Maybe a night test, when solar is not going to contribute anything.
The first Aktiv 2.0 appears to be the one with the Zion power sofa which may be lengthwise sleeping. For permanent rear beds they might use one of the European floorplans and beds which have lengthwise sleeping in twin and other sizes.
Voltstart runs 5 times and it is limited to 35 minutes on each run, I think it is currently set up that way. So, it will not typically fully charge the batteries with each run.
Thanks for updated video! A nice informative, though quick, walk-through!
So longer body "Aktiv 2.0" is coming! Maybe length-wise beds?
Saying you can run the A/C off the batteries, but the question is always how long and/or how long before the VoltStart senses the drop, kicks in and starts the engine with the additional alternator. And how many times does it do that over some period of time.
Would love to see a real world test(s) during a nice hot sunny day (so solar is part of the test) to find out out often the engine kicks in. Maybe a night test, when solar is not going to contribute anything.
The closest I have seen to a run test on the AC would be a poster on the Yahoo board that has a short Zion with single lithium module. She travels in it for work, with pets, so the AC gets a lot of use when in the south in the summer. She has stated that the van will start run about 50% of the time, and I think it was about 20 minutes on, 20 minutes off, when the AC is on. This makes sense because AC is about 100 amps and the engine generator will put out about 200 amps, so 50% rin time. More batteries would just reduce the number of runs, not the percent run time.
Solar is going to be a minor contributor to the whole thing when trying to run AC. I would bet you would get better results by parking in the shade than in the sun, when running AC, even with the solar.
The closest I have seen to a run test on the AC would be a poster on the Yahoo board that has a short Zion with single lithium module. She travels in it for work, with pets, so the AC gets a lot of use when in the south in the summer. She has stated that the van will start run about 50% of the time, and I think it was about 20 minutes on, 20 minutes off, when the AC is on. This makes sense because AC is about 100 amps and the engine generator will put out about 200 amps, so 50% rin time. More batteries would just reduce the number of runs, not the percent run time.
Solar is going to be a minor contributor to the whole thing when trying to run AC. I would bet you would get better results by parking in the shade than in the sun, when running AC, even with the solar.
Here is the way I see it working...
The size of the battery bank extends the total time you can run the AC but the Voltstart is limited to 5 runs before you need to do a manual reset so at some point the system will shutdown for any size battery bank with depleted batteries and no more available Voltstart cycles. Once the Voltstart is triggered it will probably run 5 cycles at about 50% duty cycle and then the batteries will discharge the rest of the way and go offline. The size of the battery bank will determine the time intervals before Voltstart and after Voltstart.
Of course this all assumes there is 200 amps from the generator and 100 amps for the AC. In reality the 200 amps may be optimistic and the 100 amps too low on a very hot day...
Here's a video review of the new Hymer that the Russo's did.
What is interesting, in the later half of the video, they got Hammil to explain all Roadtreks "proprietary" technology in the Hymer (Ecotrek, Voltrek, etc).
In this, JH says that Voltrek comes on at 12.1 volts and shuts off at 12.8 volts.
So this tells me a couple things - they are not measuring SOC at all. They are effectively not even using the batteries down to 50% SOC.
Additionally, he talks about an Aktiv on the longer platform, the 2.0 as they will call it. So that is not such an experiment or concept as we talked about in the other thread.
Here's a video review of the new Hymer that the Russo's did.
What is interesting, in the later half of the video, they got Hammil to explain all Roadtreks "proprietary" technology in the Hymer (Ecotrek, Voltrek, etc).
In this, JH says that Voltrek comes on at 12.1 volts and shuts off at 12.8 volts.
So this tells me a couple things - they are not measuring SOC at all. They are effectively not even using the batteries down to 50% SOC.
Additionally, he talks about an Aktiv on the longer platform, the 2.0 as they will call it. So that is not such an experiment or concept as we talked about in the other thread.
The trigger voltages used for Voltstart are really not too critical. The key is to set the trigger activation not too close to fully charged and not too close to the 80% discharge point. You want to make sure the energy from the each Voltstart run is not wasted on fully charged batteries and that the batteries don't shutdown at 80% discharge before the Voktstart activates. You always get the full energy of 80% of the battery capacity plus the energy from the 5 Voktstart runs no matter when it triggers if these conditions are met. The Voltstart run would not typically get the batteries to full charge in any of the five 35 minute runs when the air conditioner is running and it is not desireable to have it happen in any case since you are wasting the potential energy you could get from five 35 minutes runs of the generator.
And yes, as the name suggests, Voltstart triggers on voltages, not battery state of charge which is not currently available for the Ecotrek batteries...
So if you can run 5 times for 35 minutes each, that's a little bit less than 3 hours but if will give you about 500 amp hours of charge if base it off around 170ish amps at idle with that alternator. The BMS probably couldn't handle more than 200 anyway.
So if you you have the 400 amp hour module, that's 320 usable amp hours so that's maybe 3 hours of AC, plus the 3 hour of charge time plus running the AC you'd only get about 80 amp hours to the batteries while the AC is running so that's 6 hours and the volt start shuts off with about 240 left in the battery so you could get maybe another 2 hours of AC time with the battery being dead after 8 hours. Not horrible.
I think the 5 times at 35 minute is an EPA thing limiting idle times.
So if you can run 5 times for 35 minutes each, that's a little bit less than 3 hours but if will give you about 500 amp hours of charge if base it off around 170ish amps at idle with that alternator. The BMS probably couldn't handle more than 200 anyway.
So if you you have the 400 amp hour module, that's 320 usable amp hours so that's maybe 3 hours of AC, plus the 3 hour of charge time plus running the AC you'd only get about 80 amp hours to the batteries while the AC is running so that's 6 hours and the volt start shuts off with about 240 left in the battery so you could get maybe another 2 hours of AC time with the battery being dead after 8 hours. Not horrible.
I think the 5 times at 35 minute is an EPA thing limiting idle times.
Roadtrek recommends that you have have all your Ecotreks online when driving so you can take advantage of the full charge capability of the 280 AH alternator at highway speed. They have never specified an amp hour charge limit for a single Ecotrek but 200 amps could be it...
Roadtrek recommends that you have have all your Ecotreks online when driving so you can take advantage of the full charge capability of the 280 AH alternator at highway speed. They have never specified an amp hour charge limit for a single Ecotrek but 200 amps could be it...
I just pulled 200 out of my head. It could be higher, but I would assume not much. Most lithium batteries I've seen limit the charge to between 200 and 250.
On a related note (didn't know where else to post it...), the thread entitled "Hymer Aktiv... our first RV!" seems broken. When I try to click on it, it says there are five pages of posts, but I cannot access page 5. I suspect this is a flaw with the forum, not with my computer, as I have no problem with any other threads.
On a related note (didn't know where else to post it...), the thread entitled "Hymer Aktiv... our first RV!" seems broken. When I try to click on it, it says there are five pages of posts, but I cannot access page 5. I suspect this is a flaw with the forum, not with my computer, as I have no problem with any other threads.
I just accessed all the 5 pages...
It was split into two threads, maybe you still have the old thread in a cache somewhere.
What is interesting, in the later half of the video, they got Hammil to explain all Roadtreks "proprietary" technology in the Hymer (Ecotrek, Voltrek, etc).
In this, JH says that Voltrek comes on at 12.1 volts and shuts off at 12.8 volts.
Not questioning your point, but listen again. "shuts off at 13.8 volts" not 12.8. Does that make any difference?
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