Roadtrek warranty change?

[booster]

Wendland's RT group. Roadtreking. Yan used to be a good guy, now he's taking swipes at competition and right after JH's remarks that he never panned other manufacturers. I have never understood if people realize they're BSing or think other people are dense.

Yan and Campskunk both used to be very nice and helpful here and on the Yahoo board. It is amazing what folks will do for personal gain.

 

[gerrym51]

I just a call from an acquaintance who also has seen davydd's posts, saying that Yan Seiner just took a shot at ARV by saying they use off the shelf batteries with no BMS. He said Facebook , but not which site. Davydd is not going to like that.

I thought ARV made their own battery packs

 

[gerrym51]

Yan and Campskunk both used to be very nice and helpful here and on the Yahoo board. It is amazing what folks will do for personal gain.

i think your being unfair. If you take renumeration from an entity biting the hand that feeds you is a no no in public. what they say to roadtrek in private may be different

 

[booster]

i think your being unfair. If you take renumeration from an entity biting the hand that feeds you is a no no in public. what they say to roadtrek in private may be different

If you were told by a company you worked for to defend, inaccurately, indefensible things, by misleading, chastising, insulting, and demeaning folks, under your good name, would you do it? How about posting known false information about other companies products, again under your good name?

I would be looking for another job.

 

[booster]

I thought ARV made their own battery packs

They do, and davydd has described as best he could the complexity of the BMS and other controls and safeties.

 

[Davydd]

Yan Seiner is a complete idiot if he said that. ARV has a BMS from Elite Power Systems and is custom designed to interface with Silverleaf to report each individual cell's voltage and temperature. It is also designed to shut down at 20% SOC or if cell temperatures drop below freezing. Heating pads will come on if cell temperatures drop below 40F and Autogen will come on keyless and charge batteries on high idle at any SOC desired. Evidently Roadtrek can't do any of that and from the looks of their battery banks I've seen they are a two bit POS compared to ARV.

I might had the are protected in a completely environmental sealed insulated box protected by significant angle iron and plating and further protected by quarter inch aluminum skid plating and not flimsy unprotected metal snap on boxes I've seen in Roadtrek pictures. Well Hammill and Roadtrek poo pooed everyone else's efforts and now they have big time egg on their faces.

I hadn't said much in this thread other than to venture it was simply a mechanical breakdown in communications but it is now starting to appear they haven't a clue. they should have had better testers.

 

[gerrym51]

Yan Seiner is a complete idiot if he said that. ARV has a BMS from Elite Power Systems and is custom designed to interface with Silverleaf to report each individual cell's voltage and temperature. It is also designed to shut down at 20% SOC or if cell temperatures drop below freezing. Heating pads will come on if cell temperatures drop below 40F and Autogen will come on keyless and charge batteries on high idle at any SOC desired. Evidently Roadtrek can't do any of that and from the looks of their battery banks I've seen they are a two bit POS compared to ARV.

I might had the are protected in a completely environmental sealed insulated box protected by significant angle iron and plating and further protected by quarter inch aluminum skid plating and not flimsy unprotected metal snap on boxes I've seen in Roadtrek pictures. Well Hammill and Roadtrek poo pooed everyone else's efforts and now they have big time egg on their faces.

I hadn't said much in this thread other than to venture it was simply a mechanical breakdown in communications but it is now starting to appear they haven't a clue. they should have had better testers.

but Davydd-tell us what you really think-lol

 

[gregmchugh]

At the risk of getting myself booted, I asked if tbirdman got booted from the facebook group because if this exchange or for other reasons. JF replied that you got booted for other unnamed reasons. This us not an unexpected response after she was the one with the nasty responses. Just like high school over there, popular kids run the show and others get bullied. I am not sure why have made it so long without the boot...

 

[gregmchugh]

tbirdman, now she posts, Mikes group, Mikes rules. If you want back in contact Mike. Can't imagine why you would want back in...

 

[sammie14]

i think your being unfair. If you take renumeration from an entity biting the hand that feeds you is a no no in public. what they say to roadtrek in private may be different

I refuse to hire any business that trashes the competition. There is no way any of those employees are telling RT anything critical about their handling of consumers. Obviously, they feel it's best to imitate the boss.

 

[gerrym51]

Just an aside- Dave Steinheider informs me the reset procedure Yan said to do did not work.

He is hopeful that new relays will solve the issue.

 

[Jostalli]

Advanced RV does not make their own batteries. They use the same cells everyone else uses. They assemble them and use an off the shelf BMS with custom Silverleaf controls.

 

[gerrym51]

Advanced RV does not make their own batteries. They use the same cells everyone else uses. They assemble them and use an off the shelf BMS with custom Silverleaf controls.

i actually assumed he was talking about assembling 4 3.2 volt prismatic lithium sacks(china says sacks i would say packs(
into 1 12 volt battery. the tendancy is to say make their own batteries.

I will try to remember assemble as oppossed to make-thanks

 

[avanti]

Well, the word "battery" actually means "an assembly of cells", so strictly speaking, yes, they are "making their own batteries".

 

[avanti]

More often than not (at least in my experience), one is faced with a starter battery that is not completely dead, merely too weak to turn over the engine. In these cases, there is a pretty good chance that the extra help of even a marginal boost system will do the trick.

 

[mumkin]

Just let me come on here and say that first of all, neither my two dead batteries nor the Dave's that has failed, shut down because they were too low. Therein lies the problem. We have fully (or almost fully) charged batteries that decide to shut down.

I was given a reset procedure, actually two of them, and neither worked. I passed them on to Dave, but his system is slightly different. Yan updated my process to his system and Gerry reports that it didn't work either.

So... there we go. I look forward to getting my two new shiny Group 31 AGMs this week.

 

[Davydd]

Well, the word "battery" actually means "an assembly of cells", so strictly speaking, yes, they are "making their own batteries".

You are right. I guess it is a semantics thing. Most all the lithium ion battery assemblies I have seen so far have been 3.2 volt cells that are assembled in series to be 12 volt batteries that are then wired parallel for a final amp hour block. Technomadia, the best known example used 20 100ah 3.2v cells to create a 500ah battery. My battery bank consists of 16 200ah 3.2v cells assembled to create four 200ah batteries for 800ah total. Almost, maybe all, including what Roadtrek uses, come from China and are assembled in a similar fashion. Not a big secret. Technomadia detailed quite a bit of it. ARV batteries came from the same company Technomadia got there's. ARV's are a much newer generation. I've seen my batteries. As I mentioned they are no big secret. However, my assembly including prior mentioned steel weighs 450 lbs and is bolted and completely sealed now. In theory I should never have to deal with them. Only the BMS is accessible. I've been to Elite Power Systems in Tempe, AZ and they did some wire tuning for me. The owner examined what ARV put together and was impressed.

From what I have read so far about the two battery failures with Roadtrek makes me confused about how the batteries could have run down. I still feel the problem is external to the batteries and involves the battery disconnect switch if mechanical or the control software failing to read the state of charge of the batteries. Nevertheless, Roadtrek clearly does not have the fail safes built in as they claimed.

Hey but what do I know? I'm sleeping in my B for the 101st time this year and have been out and about for 21,000+ miles coast to coast. I had some problems early on but they were fixable even by a tech challenged Amatuer like me.

 

[Jostalli]

Well, the word "battery" actually means "an assembly of cells", so strictly speaking, yes, they are "making their own batteries".

It's like Roadtrek wiring up two Odyssey AGM batteries and calling them "Roadtrek AGM 200" and not telling you they are Odyssey.

I have a LiFePO4 battery pack made up of 8 Thundersky (Winston) cells. I think it's pretty important to know the manufacturer and model of the battery. Then you can program your own BMS or at least know what the parameters should look like.

 

[gregmchugh]

Davydd, I am not familiar with all the features of your battery system. Does it also include heaters for the batteries? I seem to recall the Roadtrek battery system includes heaters but I might not remember that correctly.

 

[Davydd]

Davydd, I am not familiar with all the features of your battery system. Does it also include heaters for the batteries? I seem to recall the Roadtrek battery system includes heaters but I might not remember that correctly.

Advanced RV heats the batteries with electric heating pads in direct contact thermostically controlled to come on at some time below 40F when the actual battery cell temperatures drop that low. I have no idea what Roadtrek does but it appears the customer has no way of knowing what is going on.

I have detailed monitoring. Here is an example readout.