2015 Grand Tour Ext bad batteries?

[lewster]

Here is the Airstream recommended settings for your Magnum inverter/charger (courtesy of UKDUDE):

The only settings I would change are the Charge Rate (change to 100%) and the LBCO (low battery cut off) change to 11VDC.

Everything else looks OK.

The ME-RC remote that I prefer is much easier to operate and also provides you with more possibilities, like auto generator start and battery monitor.

[Dalwyn]

Originally Posted by lewster

Here is the Airstream recommended settings for your Magnum inverter/charger (courtesy of UKDUDE):The only settings I would change are the Charge Rate (change to 100%) and the LBCO (low battery cut off) change to 11VDC.
Everything else looks OK.
The ME-RC remote that I prefer is much easier to operate and also provides you with more possibilities, like auto generator start and battery monitor.

Thanks Lewster. I will make that change. I am checking with my dealer to see if they can install the batteries. Will also check and see if they can install the ME-RC remote and auto generator start. I know that they use Interstate batteries because there is no authorized Lifeline dealer in this area.

Appreciate the info.

[Dalwyn]

Originally Posted by lewster

Here is the Airstream recommended settings for your Magnum inverter/charger (courtesy of UKDUDE):

The only settings I would change are the Charge Rate (change to 100%) and the LBCO (low battery cut off) change to 11VDC.

Everything else looks OK.

Lew, This is probably a stupid question, but looking at the highlighted boxes, this one has AGM1, but since I have AGM2 I would not want to change that would I?

Thanks

[lewster]

What type of AGMs do you have?

AGM1 is specifically for Lifelines

AGM2 is for all other AGMs


Lew Farber
RVIA/RVDA Nationally Certified Master Tech
Master Tech Energy Systems, Inc.
AM Solar Certified Installation Center
Lifeline Batteries**Magnum Inverters
541-490-6357

[Dalwyn]

Actually, I will have to check. I was going by what I was told by one of the tech's during the walk through. But this answers my question, I know what to make the settings when I get the GPL-6CT installed either today or tomorrow.

Thanks

[InterBlog]

Originally Posted by Protagonist

....

With the parasitic draws, you'd get less than 12 hours before your house batteries dropped below 50% charge state. ......

So to answer your question, your batteries may not be bad— or at least they weren't. This appears to be more along the lines of a design flaw.

.....Really, limiting battery capacity so that you get less than 24 hours off the grid before recharging is necessary means the Grand Tour is the LEAST boondocking-capable Interstate when it SHOULD be the MOST capable.

......

It's a design flaw that has persisted across successive generations of Interstates. One can do the analysis quantitatively as Protag has elegantly done here, or one can do the same analysis experientially and arrive at the same conclusion.

Our older T1N Interstate gets about 24 hours off-grid before recharging is necessary (and it probably gets that much only because our balky Dometic fridge runs on gas).

The rate-limiting factor, however, is not the off-grid duration but rather the time required for restoring charge to near full, which in our case is absurdly long - probably close to 4 hours of driving. Which means that we could never hopscotch across any reasonable destination such as Yosemite and keep ahead of the drain.

Someone will immediately want to say, "Of course not - that is precisely why Airstream installed solar".

But apparently they didn't install ENOUGH solar, and in our case, we have none at all. Because we are in that unique position, at this point we are leaning toward lithium rather than solar as our next investment. Lithium first, and then depending on the results we experience, perhaps solar to follow.

In our case, boondocking is going to to continue being involuntarily in some cases, so there's nothing to be done but resolve this design flaw ourselves.

I spent part of yesterday pounding my head on my desk trying to plan a trip into an area with few resources. The only RV hookups are in establishments that get "poor" ratings on the internet because of "large numbers of redneck full-timers" (online reviewers' descriptions, not mine). The more desirable public areas are booked for several months into the future during the times that my husband is actually able to travel (grueling work schedule). It's Wallydocking or not going to those places at all, basically. And for that we need a properly-designed battery set-up. Pretty simple decision tree.

[Boxster1971]

We haven't done much true boondocking, but have done a lot of "dry-camping" in National Parks and other campgrounds without hook-ups. Our first outing with just the 50 watt solar panel worked OK. We just had to use the generator twice a day. Once in the morning for breakfast and again in the evening for dinner. Now I have 400 watts of solar and seldom have to use the generator except to use the microwave or AC.


- - Mike
2013 Interstate Lounge EXT on 2012 Sprinter

[InterBlog]

As a post-script to what I said above… perhaps this is not the ideal thread in which to mention this, but let me do so before I forget.

There is a scenario in which design-flawed battery fragility could present a very serious and expensive problem to an Interstate traveler, and that is the scenario in which an already-paid hook-up reservation is re-sold out from under the traveler such that (s)he then is forced to choose between (1) driving into the night because their battery(ies) are too low, or (2) boondocking involuntarily and intentionally let their battery(ies) become damaged as a result.

We have not owned our Interstate for a very long time, and this has not yet happened to me with hook-up reservations, but I have experienced it repeatedly with hotel reservations.

For those of you who are not familiar with this phenomenon, let me explain.

Most accommodations now employ what's called "variable pricing" - the greater the demand, the more they charge. This used to occur only on a seasonal basis - they would have a peak-season rate and an off-season rate. But now it occurs moment by moment depending on prevailing conditions. The reservation you guaranteed with your credit card at $100 two weeks ago might have an actual market value of $300 to the establishment owner on the day of your arrival. So his motivation to “lose” your pre-paid reservation is extremely high. And so they often do it – they re-sell the accommodation outright at 3x the original price. You then show up with a paid internet receipt for your accommodation only to find that it doesn’t exist.

In deploying this strategy, they target later arrivals. Obviously the later arrivals are the best candidates for being genuine no-shows. If the owner rolls his dice the right way, he can charge your credit card at 1x for the no-show, and then collect an additional 3x from the guy who walked in the door at the last moment. But his worst-case scenario even if you DO show up and call his bluff is that he gets 3x his original fee. And maybe his scam gets reported to the BBB, but he simply calls it a “booking error” and continues to scam more people this way in the future, at a fabulous profit margin.

This practice is downright dangerous. My most notable case was one in which I spent a very long day working in another city and then went to dinner with my client. By the time I got to my hotel, it was probably 9:00 pm, but that didn’t matter (I thought) because I had pre-paid for it. I produced my confirmation number and credit card receipt only to be told “F--- you, there is no room for you here” (literally). I had to then get on the road and drive back to my home in Houston in the middle of the night, totally exhausted after already working for about 12 hours that day, because there were no other vacancies in the area. It was either that or sleep in my car in winter weather.

So my corresponding nightmare scenario with the Interstate is that I will be put in a position of having the same thing happen. I will arrive at an establishment only to discover that they have sold my pre-paid hook-up reservation out from underneath me. At that point, I will have to choose between driving while exhausted or boondocking and intentionally letting my battery fall below 50% with the likely damage to it. Because neither I nor my husband are retired, our travel is not leisurely. We tend to be the latest arrivals no matter where we are going, so we are among the most likely targets for this.

That is one of the reasons why I want a more robust battery system, so that there is less chance of me being forced into situations where the variables are too tightly constrained for the imperfect conditions that exist in the real world. It is also why I leave an explicit paper trail whenever I make RV hook-up bookings – so that the establishment owners would have a much harder time claiming human error when really it can be demonstrated that they were actually scamming.

[Boxster1971]

I agree 100% that Airstream needs to improve the battery capacity on the Interstate. I've posted it here before that Airstream is behind their market competitors (based on price) , like Roadtrek and Advanced RV, who now offer large lithium batteries that solve the battery limit.

To solve this issue myself I'm now adding four Lifeline GPL-4CT, 6volt batteries in series pairs. This will give me a total of 440 AH of capacity. I'm also upgrading to a Magnum MS-2000 inverter/charger that give me 2000 watts of 120v AC power to run the microwave. Here are a few photos of my new battery racks under construction in my shop.


I will mount a pair under each side of the van just behind the rear wheels. Like my solar upgrade this is turning into a big project that I'm half way through and wondering why I ever started.

I chose to stay with AGM batteries after doing a lot of research on lithium batteries. I like the advantages of lithium, but they require a total system redesign for proper charging and protection. Lithiums also require special considerations for operation in freezing temps that we get here in Maryland.


- - Mike
2013 Lounge EXT on 2012 Sprinter

[ben322]

Looks great Mike, hopefully you'll be at Sprinterfest next year and we can take a look.

Ben