Roadtrek RS Adventurous with Electric options

[markopolo]

Roadtrek RS Adventurous with Electric options
2013 Pricing

[mlts22]

I know a week has gone by since this post, but to me, the nice part about having the "engine generator" (isn't that known as an alternator?) is the ability to run an A/C on either diesel via the engine, or LP gas via the generator. Here in hot ol' Texas, that means more boondocking time.

Only downside I'd be concerned about is clogging the DPF... wish there would be a way to force a regen, so after a long idle time, one can get on the highway and ensure that the stuff in the filter is cooked out on the trip home.

[Vermont John]

I read a post in another forum where someone made a "fast idle" out of PVC pipe wedged between the seat and accelerator. He bumped the idle up to about 900 to avoid the problem. I'm thinking of trying it as the engine is much better than my propane generator, in terms of noise and cost of operation.

[booster]

Originally Posted by Vermont John

I read a post in another forum where someone made a "fast idle" out of PVC pipe wedged between the seat and accelerator. He bumped the idle up to about 900 to avoid the problem. I'm thinking of trying it as the engine is much better than my propane generator, in terms of noise and cost of operation.

On some of the Sprinter boards they say the fast idle option for a Sprinter is closer to 1800 rpm and sounds like a jet taking off. When I contacted MB and asked them if the fast idle setup would spare the EGR and DPF, they said no, the same 1 hour idle rules before a highway run still applied.

[Davydd]

Still shaking my head. Seven years and 100,000 + B touring miles sleeping in the B most all the time, averaging close to 100 nights per year and 8.8 hours on the generator over 36,000 miles and 200 nights in our current B, about 24 generator hours in our previous B and more than half our nights drycamping, First B had one auxiliary battery and second B has two. I would say the Roadtrek E-trek would be extreme overkill with our camper van habits.

[pattonsr]

Originally Posted by Davydd

Still shaking my head. Seven years and 100,000 + B touring miles sleeping in the B most all the time, averaging close to 100 nights per year and 8.8 hours on the generator over 36,000 miles and 200 nights in our current B, about 24 generator hours in our previous B and more than half our nights drycamping, First B had one auxiliary battery and second B has two. I would say the Roadtrek E-trek would be extreme overkill with our camper van habits.

I see you are from Minnesota. You better not come to Texas from March through November. You might melt without a generator.

[Davydd]

Matter of fact we are heading for Texas March 1 and will be there for the South Padre Island B Social April 15. Two years ago we had our B Social at Lake o' the Pines near Marshal in September. Three years ago we had one in Lafayette, LA in April. I've been in Texas numerous times in the spring for work and vacation. Over the years I've done numerous architectural projects in Texas in Dallas Fort Worth, Houston, Austin, San Antonio and Brownsville among many other places as a Texas registered architect though I live in Minnesota. It's doable. We would never go there in the summer. Spring and fall cools off at night. In fact in April in Arizona we encountered 20F temps. During the day we live mostly outdoors and we have the side door screen and the rear door screens so the B doesn't overheat.

One good reason to have a B is to follow the weather. If you live in Texas have the common sense to head north. You'll never need air conditioning in the summer on Minnesota's Lake Superior North Shore or Boundary Waters Canoe Area. That's where we hang out in the summer and last summer we went further north to Alaska. Those are the kind of places we go in the summer.

[Rok]

Hey Davydd,

Is there a Great West group that rallies? I think your rig and ours will be pretty much the same. IIRC (it is in my notes somewhere), our GW Legend SE will have two "house" batteries 12 V with a total of something like 400 Amp Hours of power. The slightly larger EX has 4 6 Volt batteries (two sets of two in series with the sets in parallell) for a total of about 500 Amp Hours. This doesn't really compare with the 1600 Amp Hours of a top of the line E-Trek, but it is a lot more than say the Pleasure Way with one house battery that is housed in the front with the engine.

The point I'm trying to make is that your Legend probably has some of the abilities of the E-Trek to begin with. Sometimes overkill is good in my opinion--sometimes you don't realize what you need until you've experienced it. Personally, I'm glad that different companies are going different directions--it gives us consumers better choices.

...............Rocky

[markopolo]

Originally Posted by Rok

............................ The slightly larger EX has 4 6 Volt batteries (two sets of two in series with the sets in parallell) for a total of about 500 Amp Hours. This doesn't really compare with the 1600 Amp Hours of a top of the line E-Trek, but it is a lot more than say the Pleasure Way with one house battery that is housed in the front with the engine...................

Re: batteries - it is roughly 100 amps hours per lead acid battery at 12 volts. Some will 80, 90, 100, 110 or 120 amp hours but, if you are thinking in general terms, 100 amp hours per battery is easy to remember.
Roadtrek persists in using the 6 volt battery rating in their E-Trek model(s). At 12 volts, the E-trek's eight batteries would have approximately 800 amp hours.

No other Class B manufacturer rates their batteries based on 6 volts. Nothing in the coaches runs on 6 volts................

[Davydd]

There is no Great West group I am aware of but I know of a couple of others I've met at our B Socials that have Legends.

We have two wet cell deep cycle batteries in our Legend and they are 105 AH for a total of 210. Our previous 2005 Pleasure-way Plateau had one battery and we got by though I had to monitor it's usage more closely. We dry camped 13 of 14 days in California once with that P-W and had no problems. If you drive most days or at least every three days that E-Trek will prove to be overkill as I stated. If you have to rely on air conditioning all the time especially in a dry camping national forest type venture then you are not camping smart, IMO. If you go to Alaska via the Alaska Highway then you have way too much with that E-Trek. We only ran our generator to brew coffee in the morning in our 110V coffee maker over two months and we mostly dry camped.