Winnebago Travato thread here

[gerrym51]

Originally Posted by mlts22

The 2019 Travato has dual-pane windows as an option. I think that is a nice thing to have, because it deadens noise quite a bit. Even though Volta is tried and true, I would probably wait 1-2 model years until Winnebago works the bugs out.

It is nice to see improvements in models that are not just some new trim or just useless gewgaws. Having dual pane windows is a big step up.

ARV has been installing volta for at least 8 months. Bugs are already worked out.

2 Class A manufacturers use it.

I actually exchanged e-mails with the volta head. He obviously worked with Winnebego because he answered every winnebego question. His systems are all plug and play-he new the travato stuff a right away. He answered all my questions. I did not like one of his answers however thats the way it was not the way i wished

[Boxster1971]

Originally Posted by gerrym51

ARV has been installing volta for at least 8 months. Bugs are already worked out.

2 Class A manufacturers use it.

I actually exchanged e-mails with the volta head. He obviously worked with Winnebego because he answered every winnebego question. His systems are all plug and play-he new the travato stuff a right away. He answered all my questions. I did not like one of his answers however thats the way it was not the way i wished

What answer didn't you like?

[gerrym51]

Originally Posted by Boxster1971

What answer didn't you like?

I live in a winter time climate-massachusetts. On my agm zion i use outside storage. i don'r cold weather camp-hate the cold-however occasionally i go south in winter

the travato battery only comes on when the cabin temperature is 8-9 degrees centigrade his words-i figured this as 45 degrees-at least in the travato. You have to run your engine and warm the cabin. However it all seemed fine to me. not an issue. remember until the battery comes on there is no 12 volt , including the combi circuit board. even if propane it won't work. again not a super big issue to me-you get the van warm enough to trigger the battery then you turn on combi and your good to go.

I asked about plugging in . He said his device will let the shore power thru on the travato and all 120 volt devices could be used. However winnebego has opted to still not let any 12 volt devices come on. ergo no combi to warm cabin even if plugged in.

i'm going to try to copy the exact last e-mail from him-i had 6


In the Winnebago scenario yes if you plugged it in and the storage system was off all AC loads will operate. In the Winnebago design they only have a 58v to 12v converter for the 12v loads so it would only work if the system is on.

[Davydd]

Originally Posted by gerrym51

I live in a winter time climate-massachusetts. On my agm zion i use outside storage. i don'r cold weather camp-hate the cold-however occasionally i go south in winter

the travato battery only comes on when the cabin temperature is 8-9 degrees centigrade his words-i figured this as 45 degrees-at least in the travato. You have to run your engine and warm the cabin. However it all seemed fine to me. not an issue. remember until the battery comes on there is no 12 volt , including the combi circuit board. even if propane it won't work. again not a super big issue to me-you get the van warm enough to trigger the battery then you turn on combi and your good to go.

I asked about plugging in . He said his device will let the shore power thru on the travato and all 120 volt devices could be used. However winnebego has opted to still not let any 12 volt devices come on. ergo no combi to warm cabin even if plugged in.

i'm going to try to copy the exact last e-mail from him-i had 6


In the Winnebago scenario yes if you plugged it in and the storage system was off all AC loads will operate. In the Winnebago design they only have a 58v to 12v converter for the 12v loads so it would only work if the system is on.

I mentioned that I think in another thread about having to keep the inside of the van warm to charge the batteries. I suspect they haven't thought that out too well. It takes some time to bring those batteries up to ambient temperature since it is the battery itself that has to be above freezing not just the surrounding air temperature. In other words if you have a glass of ice in a 70 degree room it still takes a long time to reach a state of water.

[tgregg]

Originally Posted by gerrym51

i'm going to try to copy the exact last e-mail from him-i had 6

I'd like to read the email if you can copy it.

I thought you could use a lithium ion battery below freezing. You just couldn't charge below freezing.

Even if that were the case, it would be nice if the 58 volt alternator could provide 12 volts through the DC to DC convertor when running the engine so you could run 12 volt appliances like the heater.

I wonder if ARV's Volta installation has the same limitation? Or Prevost?

[Davydd]

Originally Posted by tgregg

I'd like to read the email if you can copy it.

I thought you could use a lithium ion battery below freezing. You just couldn't charge below freezing.

Even if that were the case, it would be nice if the 58 volt alternator could provide 12 volts through the DC to DC convertor when running the engine so you could run 12 volt appliances like the heater.

I wonder if ARV's Volta installation has the same limitation? Or Prevost?

ARV has 12v resistent heating pads in the battery box with my 12V setup. I imagine similar with the Volta but i don't know what they do. That ARV video on the Volta system says in going to Florida they left them out for that trip. They soon realized they needed them and will now install them. They have always had them with lithium ion batteries and when plugged into shore power the batteries stay topped off and the batteries themselves in turn power the heating pads. That is the way mine works and I stored outside for two winters in Minnesota. Yes you can discharge lithium ion batteries at below freezing but it is a death spiral. My 800ah battery bank has never gone below 41 F. The heating pads have a draw off the batteries at less than 200ah in a days time to keep them above freezing. That's peanuts in recharging with the Volta systems. It is about 40 minutes of driving on my 12V system. The Volta system probably recharges in 20 minutes of driving.

ARV batteries shut down if they go below freezing as well.

[BBQ]

.

Words filtered through various videos :-

The Volta battery box in the Travato is insulated and heated.

The battery box has a duct that's connected to the cabin. It uses the cabin heat to keep the battery warm.

[gerrym51]

Originally Posted by tgregg

I'd like to read the email if you can copy it.

I thought you could use a lithium ion battery below freezing. You just couldn't charge below freezing.

Even if that were the case, it would be nice if the 58 volt alternator could provide 12 volts through the DC to DC convertor when running the engine so you could run 12 volt appliances like the heater.

I wonder if ARV's Volta installation has the same limitation? Or Prevost?

I did copy the last e-mail it was the last paragraph in my earlier post

[gerrym51]

time to review the arv video

Travato is not a 4 season rv-

however it does copy some arv stuff

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ofCcnxJxzeE

[gerrym51]

E-mail response number 1

Hi Gerry,



How Winnebago has chosen to integrate the system you will need to start the vehicle up and let it warm up inside and once the temperature of the packs is above the low temp threshold it will turn on and will work automatically. The system won’t let it use power at low temperature to prevent from harming it. As long as the system isn’t modified or bypassed no harm will come to the energy pack due to low temperature storage.



email respnse number 2

The chassis heat would be the main source of heat to warm everything up with how Winnebago is executing the system. The internal number is 8 or 9 C but you won’t see that information. If you plugged into AC and just warm the vehicle up before a trip you should be fine. Heat up time if it’s -20 or something like that would be a couple of hours.

email response number 3
The inverter has an internal bypass. Doesn’t need voltage. We have a head start on our system design because of our automotive back ground. There is a lot that goes into advanced energy systems that are not like traditional technology and that is why companies that try to get into it using traditional thought processes end up having issues.


email response number 4

In the Winnebago scenario yes if you plugged it in and the storage system was off all AC loads will operate. In the Winnebago design they only have a 58v to 12v converter for the 12v loads so it would only work if the system is on.




the other 2 emails were more private to me. i will not post them

[tgregg]

Originally Posted by Davydd

Yes you can discharge lithium ion batteries at below freezing but it is a death spiral.

Davydd,

Why can't I discharge the lithium battery by running my espar diesel heater, warm up the van (if the lithium batteries are inside) or run battery heating pads and when the battery is above freezing, start the engine and charge the battery?

[gerrym51]

Originally Posted by tgregg

Davydd,

Why can't I discharge the lithium battery by running my espar diesel heater, warm up the van (if the lithium batteries are inside) or run battery heating pads and when the battery is above freezing, start the engine and charge the battery?

I think davydd was referring to an actual cold lithium battery. if you discharge and can't recharge of course it's a death spiral.

every vehicle lithium system including Teslas and the ilk-have battery warming.research it


if the battery temp is above 32 it does not matter outside temps-doesn't matter as long as the battery is warmer than 32. as far as i know the plating from charging only happens below 32.

However in your esper scenario-the battery(s_) must have access to inside van warmer temps. i think if you look at the ARV video thats what they do

[Davydd]

Originally Posted by tgregg

Davydd,

Why can't I discharge the lithium battery by running my espar diesel heater, warm up the van (if the lithium batteries are inside) or run battery heating pads and when the battery is above freezing, start the engine and charge the battery?

It is a safety feature to disconnect lithium ion batteries if the fall below freezing so you cannot charge them. You can theoretically continue to discharge them if they are connected but that last 10% in Winnebago's case would discharge before you could mostly likely heat your batteries - death spiral as I said. That would be rare if you kept your batteries reasonably charged or fully charged.

With warm batteries there is also a SOC disconnect as well to protect discharging your batteries.

As far as Winnebago goes, I have already stated the ice cube analogy. Since then Gerry said that Winnebago estimated about two hours of heating before the batteries return to above freezing. In effect you would have to drive without electrical power in the coach for two hours. That could be an agonizing long time.

[BBQ]

.

If you can't start the Li battery due to the cold temperature,
you can always start your engine to warm up the coach.

[gerrym51]

Originally Posted by Davydd

It is a safety feature to disconnect lithium ion batteries if the fall below freezing so you cannot charge them. You can theoretically continue to discharge them if they are connected but that last 10% in Winnebago's case would discharge before you could mostly likely heat your batteries - death spiral as I said. That would be rare if you kept your batteries reasonably charged or fully charged.

With warm batteries there is also a SOC disconnect as well to protect discharging your batteries.

As far as Winnebago goes, I have already stated the ice cube analogy. Since then Gerry said that Winnebago estimated about two hours of heating before the batteries return to above freezing. In effect you would have to drive without electrical power in the coach for two hours. That could be an agonizing long time.

did you read the 4 email relies from volta power. since arv is using volta power now why wouldn't they have similiar issues.

theres cold and then theres damn cold. -20 centigrade is a lot worse than -2 centigrade

[BBQ]

.

AFAIK,

Travato's version of Volta does not have built-in heater.
It is only heated (warmed) by the coach's internal temperature.

[avanti]

Originally Posted by BBQ

.

Travato's version of Volta does not have built-in heater.
It is only heated (warmed) by the coach's internal temperature.

Seems kind of strange. In the grand order of things, the cost of a small heating pad is down in the noise.

[gerrym51]

Originally Posted by avanti

Seems kind of strange. In the grand order of things, the cost of a small heating pad is down in the noise.

this battery is more like a teslas. it's super insulted 4 amp heating pads on outside would probably be useless.

as the volta guy pointed out-trying to equate to the 12 volt world is pointless.

I would study the volta power site. and study they specs.


i would also look at arv video again. they are doing it that way

[avanti]

Originally Posted by gerrym51

this battery is more like a teslas. it's super insulted 4 amp heating pads on outside would probably be useless.

I do not understand your point. Tesla batteries are most certainly heated.

If you can heat a battery with warm air, you can heat it with a heating pad. Obviously, you wouldn't put the heating pads outside of the insulation.

[gerrym51]

if i buy this and will start in winter-after starting the engine wiill use one of those 1 pound propane Mr. Buddy heaters.

put it toward the back and turn on to warm house section