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Old 03-12-2018, 04:30 PM   #1
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Airstream better up their game.....the herd is advancing

While still lacking the build quality of an Airstream, Winnebago has just announced their adoption of the Volta 48v Lithium system for their Travato line, and I'm sure it won't be long before it shows up as an option on their luxury Era products.....

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Old 03-12-2018, 05:17 PM   #2
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The interior seems nicely thought-out and the high-voltage battery system is great, it'll be nice when they bring those features to van platforms that are a bit nicer to drive than the Ducato. That exterior ladder is REALLY trick, too... I wonder if they make a version of that for other platforms than the Ducato...
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Old 03-12-2018, 05:24 PM   #3
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That exterior ladder takes the cake. I've never seen one better.

I'm not a fan of the lithium slung under, due to the road hazard issue, as I said on another thread.

I'm not a fan of the space apportionment either, but it certainly solves the problem of where to sleep the third person, if there is a third person.

I'm looking forward to seeing their Part II vid.
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Old 03-12-2018, 05:48 PM   #4
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Nice!
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Old 03-12-2018, 05:53 PM   #5
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I'm looking forward to seeing their Part II vid.
Same.

You know James is going to be like a little kid at Disneyland and want to do and try EVERYTHING, so I'm sure he's going to give the Volta system a thorough workout.....
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Old 03-12-2018, 05:59 PM   #6
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Some people actually get paid to do this kind of assessment. It gives me a "Hmmm..." moment.
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Old 03-12-2018, 06:39 PM   #7
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That interior is looking better than before... nice... layout, not so sure. This would have been too small for the four of us... surprised to see gas grill instead of induction.

But got to say, overall, looks really nice.
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Old 03-12-2018, 06:40 PM   #8
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Another interesting initiative from "the herd". Hat tip to someone on Class B Forum.

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Old 03-12-2018, 11:21 PM   #9
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Some people actually get paid to do this kind of assessment. It gives me a "Hmmm..." moment.
Is there some history with FitRv and Airstream? Haven't seen any of their reviews cover one.
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Old 03-13-2018, 07:34 AM   #10
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Is there some history with FitRv and Airstream? Haven't seen any of their reviews cover one.
Not that I know of. Airstream appears on their general list of manufacturers, but I haven't seen them do any detailed Interstate reviews.

I wish they WOULD do one. Airstream might take it seriously. It's one thing to have a bunch of forum participants grumbling, and quite another to have respected social media commentators say, "Hey, you can't run the fridge off this thing..."
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Old 03-13-2018, 08:25 AM   #11
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3D Printing

While not necessarily a member of the "HERD" it is definitely advancing...

3D Printing
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Old 03-13-2018, 09:54 AM   #12
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Combine 3-D printing with powdered metal and use the AS as a template....I want one NOW!

Seriously, it depends on the material they use in the 3-D process.
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Old 03-13-2018, 10:37 AM   #13
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Is there some history with FitRv and Airstream? Haven't seen any of their reviews cover one.
FitRV actually has some kind of relationship with Winnebago. If you check out their YouTube videos, you'll see this progression of them reviewing PleasureWay, AdvancedRV, and Leisure Travels Vans while they owned their early 2000's Sprinter from Forest River. Then all of a sudden they have a new Travato, with no real segway video like "Hey, we bought a new Travato!", unless I missed it?

Since then, they've been much more focused on Winnebago. I'm not saying they're paid shills like the Wendland's are for RoadTrek (*shudder*....), but there's certainly a relationship there. As such, I see very little from FitRV these days talking about other brands, and the video I included in my first post seems to "scoop" the new "Pure3" brand and is the first I've seen of the new lithium solution from Winnebago (it's not even on the Winnebago website yet). Winnebago isn't going to do that with just anyone, so they must be pretty close.....
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Old 03-13-2018, 11:35 AM   #14
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Sure wish Airstream would convert to Windows that really open wide.
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Old 03-13-2018, 12:12 PM   #15
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FitRV actually has some kind of relationship with Winnebago. ...
I think most people would agree that they are compensated either directly and/or indirectly.

That being said, they do some measure of reviews on other brands. LTV was the most recent, about a month ago. But I don't recall any Airstream-related content from them.
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Old 03-13-2018, 04:18 PM   #16
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Looks like there’s a Travato 59KL version as well, it’s about time a major brand going lithium all out. We just finished a 3 months 15,000 miles trip in our AI, still love our rig but its battery power was a constant worry.
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Old 03-13-2018, 05:23 PM   #17
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Looks like there’s a Travato 59KL version as well, it’s about time a major brand going lithium all out. We just finished a 3 months 15,000 miles trip in our AI, still love our rig but its battery power was a constant worry.
The greatest part of our Lithium upgrade (after the creature comforts that came with adding a big inverter) is eliminating the battery anxiety. I’ve gotten to the point where I only check the battery status every second or third day.

If I could have designed our van from scratch, I would have gone with a 24v or 48v system. Even oversizing all my wires and using 4/0 cables (as big around as my thumb) for the inverter, I’m never comfortable seeing in excess of 100 amps anywhere in the system.
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Old 03-13-2018, 05:50 PM   #18
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I got asked to review the Electrodacus BMS recently, upside and downside. There's nothing to say on downside. It has now spent about a year sitting there doing its job flawlessly (knock wood). You know something works well when there is never anything to do or say about it and most of the time you don't even remember that it is present.

Knock wood again, Amirm's original concern hasn't manifested. The durability of the Electrodacus, as a relatively un-tested road device, was naturally an open question. Could it withstand the constant jarring and slamming that come with living in the rear of a Sprinter? We have at least 10,000 miles on it and no issues of concern have cropped up.
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Old 03-13-2018, 08:38 PM   #19
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How do they have the two solar panels wired? two panels with different number of cells (voltage) pose any problem? 160 and a 40 watt seems like it would be very different voltages? I was led to believe that this would be inefficient?
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Old 03-13-2018, 09:14 PM   #20
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How do they have the two solar panels wired? two panels with different number of cells (voltage) pose any problem? 160 and a 40 watt seems like it would be very different voltages? I was led to believe that this would be inefficient?
It depends on the specs of the panels used. If they have the same output voltage, just different output current, then they can be wired in parallel with no performance loss. Similarly, if they have the same output current, just different output voltage, then they can be wired in series with no performance loss.
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