Roadtrek warranty change?

[gerrym51]

[QUOTE=sammie14;32308]

Originally Posted by Davydd

Roadtreking: the Group is being nervously stressed once again.[

For Hammill, this is a mild response. I hope Connie keeps us in the loop as I have a Zion on order with all the latest tech. I don't trust RT's QC.

miss lake how you doing?

[Davydd]

Originally Posted by booster

I suppose it is possible if the batteries had been discharging the whole time she had it. They are said to hold voltage until they are essentially empty, so possible without metering information, I suppose.

If she had readings above 13 volts and disconnected the batteries they would not have discharged overnight to nothing. But, if you are right, then the Roadtrek system is indeed #^%&ed up. I still think they are going to find a QC issue but then that doesn't speak well.

[gerrym51]

Originally Posted by Davydd

If she had readings above 13 volts and disconnected the batteries they would not have discharged overnight to nothing. But, if you are right, then the Roadtrek system is indeed #^%&ed up. I still think they are going to find a QC issue but then that doesn't speak well.

this is new stuff, i suspect the roadtrek quality control dept would not know if good or bad

[booster]

I doubt that it was shut totally off, as some of the monitoring stuff and solar controller would still be active, and who knows, maybe the inverter too. It is too proprietary for anyone to know what could happen, but for a million dollars of development money, it should work better. These things are exactly why Roadtrek should tell folks how they work, because even if the systems are designed well, a situation like this will scare some folks off.

[gerrym51]

Originally Posted by booster

I doubt that it was shut totally off, as some of the monitoring stuff and solar controller would still be active, and who knows, maybe the inverter too. It is too proprietary for anyone to know what could happen, but for a million dollars of development money, it should work better. These things are exactly why Roadtrek should tell folks how they work, because even if the systems are designed well, a situation like this will scare some folks off.

my solar controller stops if no sunlight you have to shut off inverter-she insists she did that,

however if it was fully charged when she left it i agree with david-it should not discharge just over 1 night

[Davydd]

Originally Posted by gerrym51

it's dead and all systems dead-
battery related.

don;t know why she started post last night. i think something drained the battery-however with lithium not sure how to read this. you'll find it roadtrekking facebook page

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?f...type=1&theater

It looks as if the thread might have been deleted. This link no longer works.

[booster]

Originally Posted by Davydd

It looks as if the thread might have been deleted. This link no longer works.

Not surprising, but this could have been done so much better, showed how well Roadtrek can respond, and been a huge positive of how they can support the new systems.

[sammie14]

[QUOTE=gerrym51;32313]

Originally Posted by sammie14

miss lake how you doing?

On a forum I follow (not RT), there's a person who spelled her name so close to mine, that I got her (assuming she) fall out. You think RT can get nasty.....

So hopefully I'm not followed here, but if I am, I can thank you.

[gerrym51]

[QUOTE=sammie14;32320]

Originally Posted by gerrym51

On a forum I follow (not RT), there's a person who spelled her name so close to mine, that I got her (assuming she) fall out. You think RT can get nasty.....

So hopefully I'm not followed here, but if I am, I can thank you.

paranoia runs rampant-lol

[mumkin]

Hi guys... I should have known that the B Board would be over here beating up on Roadtrek!! I probably shouldn't even post here. But I wanted a summary out somewhere in case someone else has a problem.

Jeff at RT has been very patient and helpful. Yes, the BMS has shut the system down... acting as if the battery was getting too low. The shut down is to protect it from dipping too low and harming it. The big question is Why? It had only been about 36 hours with everything off.

I have had the rig since the 19th and it has been my daily driver for a few days (Davydd saw me heading to the gym) or it has been parked in the lot... mostly in the sun. No electrical appliance has been turned on, no fridge, no AC, not even a light. In my previous rig, I had parasites and always turned the battery disconnect when parked... battery on while driving. That may not be necessary, but certainly shouldn't be a problem.

It was great fun every day while trying to shoe horn the stuff of a 25 ft rig into an 18 ft one, to tap my little screen to see what the batteries were doing. Solar lights all lit... readings varied from 12.9 up to 13.2 depending on the sun I assumed. It was 13.1 when I locked up on Friday afternoon. I knew that it was going to be cloudy on Saturday, and that I probably wouldn't be out there until Sunday morning. I finally had a copy of the manual for the radio/gps, so headed out to play with that. When I checked the little Samkoon reader, the lights were wrong and the screen was dead. I looked at the solar controller and all lights were off. I went to get my simple 12v reader and hit the battery switch to connect so that I could read it through the 12v receptacle... and nothing... the switch is dead.

Jeff walked me through a re-set of the BMS this morning, and it wouldn't re-start. I went through all the steps twice. So, he suggested plugging it in. I can't at my condo, so I drove over to my cousin's house. One of the steps to get it to charge was to turn on the inverter, but it wouldn't turn on either. I had it plugged in and idling for an hour... left it plugged in for another couple hours... and nada. I could get no power to the rig at all even plugged in. No lights... no little clock on the microwave.

I am to call in the morning to see if Jeff has figured out why the battery "thinks" it is too low and has shut down the system and see what the next step is.

So that is the whole story for you fellows who like to try to figure out these kinds of things. I will update as I learn anything because it's good to have a record for future purchasers. I have this fantasy that it is just a fuse... somewhere...

Meanwhile I have cancelled my trip leaving towards the end of this week... I can't risk having no way to run the AC in the current heat and humidity.

[gerrym51]

Originally Posted by mumkin

Hi guys... I should have known that the B Board would be over here beating up on Roadtrek!! I probably shouldn't even post here. But I wanted a summary out somewhere in case someone else has a problem.

Jeff at RT has been very patient and helpful. Yes, the BMS has shut the system down... acting as if the battery was getting too low. The shut down is to protect it from dipping too low and harming it. The big question is Why? It had only been about 36 hours with everything off.

I have had the rig since the 19th and it has been my daily driver for a few days (Davydd saw me heading to the gym) or it has been parked in the lot... mostly in the sun. No electrical appliance has been turned on, no fridge, no AC, not even a light. In my previous rig, I had parasites and always turned the battery disconnect when parked... battery on while driving. That may not be necessary, but certainly shouldn't be a problem.

It was great fun every day while trying to shoe horn the stuff of a 25 ft rig into an 18 ft one, to tap my little screen to see what the batteries were doing. Solar lights all lit... readings varied from 12.9 up to 13.2 depending on the sun I assumed. It was 13.1 when I locked up on Friday afternoon. I knew that it was going to be cloudy on Saturday, and that I probably wouldn't be out there until Sunday morning. I finally had a copy of the manual for the radio/gps, so headed out to play with that. When I checked the little Samkoon reader, the lights were wrong and the screen was dead. I looked at the solar controller and all lights were off. I went to get my simple 12v reader and hit the battery switch to connect so that I could read it through the 12v receptacle... and nothing... the switch is dead.

Jeff walked me through a re-set of the BMS this morning, and it wouldn't re-start. I went through all the steps twice. So, he suggested plugging it in. I can't at my condo, so I drove over to my cousin's house. One of the steps to get it to charge was to turn on the inverter, but it wouldn't turn on either. I had it plugged in and idling for an hour... left it plugged in for another couple hours... and nada. I could get no power to the rig at all even plugged in. No lights... no little clock on the microwave.

I am to call in the morning to see if Jeff has figured out why the battery "thinks" it is too low and has shut down the system and see what the next step is.

So that is the whole story for you fellows who like to try to figure out these kinds of things. I will update as I learn anything because it's good to have a record for future purchasers. I have this fantasy that it is just a fuse... somewhere...

Meanwhile I have cancelled my trip leaving towards the end of this week... I can't risk having no way to run the AC in the current heat and humidity.

is it possible it thinks the battery is low because it is low.

[mumkin]

At this point, anything is possible. But if it is low, how did it get that way with nothing drawing on it? (except probably a couple monitors)

When I left the dealer on the 19th, it had been plugged in for at least a day and read fully charged... both from the samkoon and from my reader through the 12v receptacle that evening when I checked it before locking it up.

[gerrym51]

Originally Posted by mumkin

At this point, anything is possible. But if it is low, how did it get that way with nothing drawing on it? (except probably a couple monitors)

When I left the dealer on the 19th, it had been plugged in for at least a day and read fully charged... both from the samkoon and from my reader through the 12v receptacle that evening when I checked it before locking it up.

your 12 volt meter reader thru the receptacle is useless with lithium batteries because they will read full voltage until they are nearly empty.

that is the allure of lithium. if they worked the same you would not have a special monitor.

since i don't know what the samkoon reads its hard to say. my guess is that your battery was not charging for some reason all that time. however it could be a defective cell i suppose it does happen.

a lithum battery is made up of a bunch of cells-if once goes the whole battery just goes caplooie,

another is the BMS system is not just for low battery. it monitors high and low temperature and high and low voltage. one of those conditions could have caused the BMS shutdown. lithiums are great but are more complicated than agm.

if you just make sure to charge an agm up to max to stop sulfation they are hard to kill. heat /cold/vibration-shooting with a gun they are tough.

lithiums far more versatile and far more sensitive

[mumkin]

Interestingly I got the exact same reading from the receptacle as from the samkoon... except that it has an extra decimal point.

[booster]

One thing that is pretty surprising to me is that Roadtrek has a very good dealer close by, that sold the unit, and yet the owner is doing the troubleshooting. This is new technology, that has a problem, on one of the first out the door units, so I would think Roadtrek would be all over it to try to find the issue quickly so they can prevent more from going out with the same problem. Having one bad unit of new stuff is somewhat understandable to most folks, if it is taken care of well, but having more of the same later on doesn't get much slack cut.

With a dealer tech working on it, and talking to a Roadtrek tech or engineer, they might even give him a clue or two how it supposed to work

[gerrym51]

Originally Posted by mumkin

Interestingly I got the exact same reading from the receptacle as from the samkoon... except that it has an extra decimal point.

yes- but you don't know what else the samkoon is supposed to read.

you should ask davydd how state of charge is determined on his vehicle and it's ;ithium batteries.

[gerrym51]

mumkin,

i cannot believe they banned you. i can understand the post deletion but not the banning!

[mumkin]

Obviously I didn't immediately stop posting everywhere I normally post because someone told me not to talk about it on their page. It would seem to me that once I mentioned it anywhere, it is to their benefit to show how efficiently they fix the problem, not publicly try to make me shut up.

As to heading to Lake Region, the manager of the service department is on leave this week (of course... so goes my life), so their tech is running the show... and also buried in work this week. They are 25 miles from me with a difficult route because of all the bleeping summer road construction.

But I expect that is the next step.

[gerrym51]

Originally Posted by mumkin

Obviously I didn't immediately stop posting everywhere I normally post because someone told me not to talk about it on their page. It would seem to me that once I mentioned it anywhere, it is to their benefit to show how efficiently they fix the problem, not publicly try to make me shut up.

As to heading to Lake Region, the manager of the service department is on leave this week (of course... so goes my life), so their tech is running the show... and also buried in work this week. They are 25 miles from me with a difficult route because of all the bleeping summer road construction.

But I expect that is the next step.

i will say this is an eye opener-however from roadtreks point of view if any issues whatsover show up with ecotrek it might slow down ordering of it or people who want it might wait to see more. not a good thing with roadtreks investment in it.al shu

the thing that got me the most is not that it has a BMS-lithiums need this stuff-its just that the BMS safety is a total shutdown and appears to cut off the battery from alternator charging-that is a surprise

[Davydd]

I still think it is mechanical. Maybe the BMS is malfunctioning but most likely it is not getting a reading from your batteries. If it can't get a reading it might be assuming the batteries are dead and acting accordingly. Did your dealer check the batteries directly for state of charge? I've been through this with a simple loose connection. I'd trouble shoot the battery disconnect switch first. I just don't see how your batteries could be dead overnight since they could go through a winter disconnected. Chances are they are not connected.

Get it fixed and come up to Grand Marais next week where it is always cooler on the shore. We will have over a dozen Class Bs up there for a social.