Changes to the 2023 Globetrotter

[gadgetgrrll]

Originally Posted by Eduprey

I pick up my 25FBT GT Monday and the dealer is adding a few things. Checked it out top to bottom last week and it does have new Coleman units. I returned my wi-fi thermostat and now have the correct one. I found no flaws initially. Very pleased with Woodland AS of Indy.

Which thermostat did you order?

[markuscis]

Originally Posted by malligator

We took delivery of our '23 25FBT a little over a week ago. It came with Colemans, the Furrion stove, and no batteries.

I have no idea if the Colemans are better than Dometic having never before owned an RV of any sort. I'm also not sure about soft starts as I'm not really sure how to tell. What I can say is that I couldn't find the exact model number anywhere on Coleman's site so I wonder if they are new models specifically for Airstream. (47023B675 and 47024B675)

As for the other stuff, the Furrion stove seems fine. The mattresses are...serviceable. The LiFePO4 batteries work great, but I had to add those. The WFCO 8955-AD converter seems to work just fine for charging them--AD meaning auto-detect.

I have a 2022 27FB International with the 9855-AD and found that it was not charging up the batteries very well. Working with Larry at WFCO who is the firmware upgrade tech he believes my unit has the older firmware and needs an update. They were easy to work with and sent a UPS label paying for shipping and return after Larry does the upgrade. If you have this unit you may want verify it is auto detecting and charging correctly. If not call Larry. According to Larry in the first 30 seconds of powering on the 9855 it should show 14+ volts at the battery and if not you may need the upgrade.

[Eduprey]

EasyTouch RV 355 - Black

[thewarden]

Originally Posted by markuscis

I have a 2022 27FB International with the 9855-AD and found that it was not charging up the batteries very well. Working with Larry at WFCO who is the firmware upgrade tech he believes my unit has the older firmware and needs an update. They were easy to work with and sent a UPS label paying for shipping and return after Larry does the upgrade. If you have this unit you may want verify it is auto detecting and charging correctly. If not call Larry. According to Larry in the first 30 seconds of powering on the 9855 it should show 14+ volts at the battery and if not you may need the upgrade.

Am I reading this correctly, you had to remove your 9855AD and send it in for the firmware update? That does not sound like a reasonable thing to have to do on a new trailer.

[Renagade69]

Originally Posted by thewarden

Am I reading this correctly, you had to remove your 9855AD and send it in for the firmware update? That does not sound like a reasonable thing to have to do on a new trailer.

He has a 2022. They are selling 2023 now. It may not be new.

[gadgetgrrll]

Originally Posted by Eduprey

EasyTouch RV 355 - Black

Thanks. Aren't there two different versions of this part dependent on the connectors? Wasn't sure which one would be needed.

[markuscis]

I purchased my 2022 27FB new, picked it up July 9th, 2022 this year. It came with 2 Lifeline AGM batteries and so at first it was fine. Then 2 weeks ago I upgraded to 2 Battleborns and noticed that they would take forever to recharge. Called WFCO tech and they were very helpful I just happen to have a 9855-AD unit with an older firmware version. While I would rather do the firmware upgrade myself, Engineer not at all afraid of doing it, they have a process under warranty to send it in and they upgrade it bench test it and send it back all shipping paid by them.

I could have taken it to RV solutions here in San Diego where I got it but that would imply leaving the trailer there for 2 weeks and I can't use it. I can use my trailer without the Converter as it only charges the batteries from shore power. I just pulled the electrical panel, it is behind it, undid 2 mounting screws, unplugged it from the back of the panel, capped off the 2 - 6 gauge cables to the batteries and put it all back together. Did that in about 10 minutes. I'm going camping with it Thanksgiving weekend. I have a 30 amp battery charger I have already tested that can be run from my generator if necessary which fully charges the batteries fast.

[Merlintiaga]

Originally Posted by thewarden

Am I reading this correctly, you had to remove your 9855AD and send it in for the firmware update? That does not sound like a reasonable thing to have to do on a new trailer.

I am curious about this as well. I have a 2022 27’ GT with 2 BB lithium batteries. The converter does not kick into bulk mode at any battery level. It can take a couple days for the batteries to charge when hooked to shore power. I have a smart shunt installed and can see that only 5 amps is going into the battery with everything turned off in the trailer. I called tech support at WFCO and they said I may need the firmware update. The converter is in lithium mode (the lights are blue indicating lithium mode) I’m bringing my trailer in for some warranty issues soon so I’m going to let Colonial deal with it.

[markuscis]

Originally Posted by Merlintiaga

I am curious about this as well. I have a 2022 27’ GT with 2 BB lithium batteries. The converter does not kick into bulk mode at any battery level. It can take a couple days for the batteries to charge when hooked to shore power. I have a smart shunt installed and can see that only 5 amps is going into the battery with everything turned off in the trailer. I called tech support at WFCO and they said I may need the firmware update. The converter is in lithium mode (the lights are blue indicating lithium mode) I’m bringing my trailer in for some warranty issues soon so I’m going to let Colonial deal with it.

What blue lights on the converter? My 9855-AD does not have any lights on it that I recall, I sent it in so can't look at it now. Do you have a picture of that?

BTW - That is the same charging behavior mine was doing, i.e. 5 or 8 amps max at 13.3 volts. The solar charger did a better job than the converter.

[Tyler2you]

I recently swapped out my WFCO 9855-AD for a PD converter when I upgraded my batteries. One thing I found was the ground on the DC side was only 10 gauge wire. I was only getting a little over 16 amps to the AGMs. When I installed the PD converter, I put in a 4 gauge wire for the ground and now I'm getting almost a full 60 amps to the LifePo4s. Don't know if the small ground wire had anything to do with it or not

[Merlintiaga]

Originally Posted by markuscis

What blue lights on the converter? My 9855-AD does not have any lights on it that I recall, I sent it in so can't look at it now. Do you have a picture of that?

BTW - That is the same charging behavior mine was doing, i.e. 5 or 8 amps max at 13.3 volts. The solar charger did a better job than the converter.

If you look at your converter when on shore power, you will see a relatively faint blue glow, that’s lithium mode. I can’t see the LED, just the light from it. The blue light is noted in this article. Like you, my solar is doing a better job charging than my converter.

https://www.loveyourrv.com/wfco-elec...erter-charger/

[markuscis]

Thanks for the link, I'll have to look for that led when I get it back from WFCO.

[Bcc75]

So after some research, here is what I found out about the new Coleman A/C units regarding factory soft start(or lack of):

The Colemans do not actually have an after-market soft start like a micro-air unit installed from the factory. They are actually built with a more robust circuitry that acts as a built-in soft start , so to speak. This will allow the smaller unit (13k BTU) on 50 amp dual A/C trailers to run from a 20 AMP household circuit or a approx. 2200 watt generator without tripping.
Most Likely the only generator you can get away with this is going to be the Honda 2200i in that 2000 watt category. The cheaper generators still probably won't cut it.

[malligator]

We took our '23 GT25FBT out for its (and our) first trip this past weekend. I'm not 100% sure our converter is working in lithium mode, but it could also easily be user error.

It took us a couple of weeks to prepare the GT for our first trip. In that time I ran the batteries down by mistake trying to learn how to use everything while it was sitting in storage. I had no way of charging the batteries through the Smartplug so I removed the batteries, charged them with a Victron wall charger at home, then reinstalled. In other words, we should have been pretty well topped off when we got to the campsite. I turned the fridge on as we were leaving and I towed about 75 miles with the 7-pin plug connected.

We got to the site and I hooked up shore power for the first time through a Prog Ind 50A EMS. Everything worked fine, but the Sealevel battery voltage reading never wavered from 13.6V. I was under the impression that the 8955-AD would go into 14.6V bulk mode for at least one hour, no matter what.

Is that not true? Would the Seelevel show the 14.6V I expect out of the converter?

I thought maybe the voltage was low due to the loads on the system so I hit the battery disconnect and then my Seelevel wouldn't work. I thought the entire rig was supposed to work while on shore power no matter the state of the battery disconnect switch?

[markuscis]

Originally Posted by malligator

We took our '23 GT25FBT out for its (and our) first trip this past weekend. I'm not 100% sure our converter is working in lithium mode, but it could also easily be user error.

It took us a couple of weeks to prepare the GT for our first trip. In that time I ran the batteries down by mistake trying to learn how to use everything while it was sitting in storage. I had no way of charging the batteries through the Smartplug so I removed the batteries, charged them with a Victron wall charger at home, then reinstalled. In other words, we should have been pretty well topped off when we got to the campsite. I turned the fridge on as we were leaving and I towed about 75 miles with the 7-pin plug connected.

We got to the site and I hooked up shore power for the first time through a Prog Ind 50A EMS. Everything worked fine, but the Sealevel battery voltage reading never wavered from 13.6V. I was under the impression that the 8955-AD would go into 14.6V bulk mode for at least one hour, no matter what.

Is that not true? Would the Seelevel show the 14.6V I expect out of the converter?

I thought maybe the voltage was low due to the loads on the system so I hit the battery disconnect and then my Seelevel wouldn't work. I thought the entire rig was supposed to work while on shore power no matter the state of the battery disconnect switch?

You state that you "hit the battery disconnect" what exactly is that? If it is the green power button for the entire trailer then you turned off the entire trailer with only the jack and propane sensor connected, I think that is all that remains anyway. Need to know what disconnected implies exactly.

[malligator]

Originally Posted by markuscis

You state that you "hit the battery disconnect" what exactly is that? If it is the green power button for the entire trailer then you turned off the entire trailer with only the jack and propane sensor connected, I think that is all that remains anyway. Need to know what disconnected implies exactly.

Yeah, the store/use button or storage button or whatever you call it. I guess I've never learned the official name.

[markuscis]

Originally Posted by malligator

Yeah, the store/use button or storage button or whatever you call it. I guess I've never learned the official name.

That is the "Battery Guard switch" that works in conjunction with the "Battery Guard 1000" which monitors the voltage of the battery and will disconnect it if the voltage drops to low. There are 2 settings: Chassis and Coach each with a voltage level to disconnect look it up online and you'll find both the installation and configuration instructions.

If the switch is off and you are not connected to shore power then the only thing working should be the jack and propane sensor at least that is my experience.

if shore power is connected and the switch is on then everything should work. I don't have my converter/charger at the moment as it is getting a firmware upgrade but everything is working with shore power.

The WFCO 9855-AD, according to Larry the tech at WFCO, when the converter is first powered on you should see over 14 volts out of it for the first 30 seconds. The best way to test is to undo the battery cables going into it. I never saw that and with my batteries half drained never saw more than 13.6 volts at 8 amps on my BMV-712 with shore power connected and solar disconnected.

With shore power disconnected and charging with solar my batteries would get to 14.1 volts and full charge but takes longer with only 2 panels.

I should add that when shore power is disconnected and battery guard on and inverter off all of the 12 volt stuff works as expected, i.e. running off of the battery.

I'm not an expert but with these debug points and talking to Larry a firmware update was needed. He is a very pleasant person to talk with so give him a call.

[malligator]

Originally Posted by markuscis

That is the "Battery Guard switch" that works in conjunction with the "Battery Guard 1000" which monitors the voltage of the battery and will disconnect it if the voltage drops to low. There are 2 settings: Chassis and Coach each with a voltage level to disconnect look it up online and you'll find both the installation and configuration instructions.

If the switch is off and you are not connected to shore power then the only thing working should be the jack and propane sensor at least that is my experience.

if shore power is connected and the switch is on then everything should work. I don't have my converter/charger at the moment as it is getting a firmware upgrade but everything is working with shore power.

The WFCO 9855-AD, according to Larry the tech at WFCO, when the converter is first powered on you should see over 14 volts out of it for the first 30 seconds. The best way to test is to undo the battery cables going into it. I never saw that and with my batteries half drained never saw more than 13.6 volts at 8 amps on my BMV-712 with shore power connected and solar disconnected.

With shore power disconnected and charging with solar my batteries would get to 14.1 volts and full charge but takes longer with only 2 panels.

I should add that when shore power is disconnected and battery guard on and inverter off all of the 12 volt stuff works as expected, i.e. running off of the battery.

I'm not an expert but with these debug points and talking to Larry a firmware update was needed. He is a very pleasant person to talk with so give him a call.

I appreciate the response. It just seems weird to...

1. ...have to send in a device to have the firmware updated in 2022.
2. ...have to update the firmware for the main selling feature of the device to function.

[markuscis]

Originally Posted by malligator

I appreciate the response. It just seems weird to...

1. ...have to send in a device to have the firmware updated in 2022.
2. ...have to update the firmware for the main selling feature of the device to function.

I completely agree and I'll bet there is a standard process to do the upgrade in which they could send instructions along with the binary via email or a download location, oh well.

[Merlintiaga]

malligator: this is the exact same issue I am having with my WFCO. It stays in its lower voltage mode to maintain the battery but does not pop up to 14.4 to charge. The batteries will eventually charge, but it takes a day or more depending on the how low they are depleted. Mine goes in on 12/10 for service. I will let the group know what they say.