We have been experiencing classic summertime weather throughout the month–hot, hot days, broken up by occasional rain and thunderstorms. We have not taken any trips to speak of, other than a few day trips. On July 3rd, we drove to Princeton Battlefield, about an hour from our home. To call it a day trip is an exaggeration–we left about 11:00 AM and were home by 1:30 PM. However, we did pack lunch and eat in the E-trek, so at least it was worth filling up the fresh water tank! Plus, the dogs always enjoy an outing!
We ended the month just as we started–with a day trip. On Sunday, July 31st, we went to visit our son Ryan, who is working as a camp counselor at Blair Academy again this year. We packed lunch and left about 11:30 a.m. After about an hour of visiting with Ryan, we were on our way about 1:30 p.m. and home by 2:30 p.m.
Putting the AC to the test
The hot weather did give us an opportunity to test the battery performance while running the AC. Since having our E-trek serviced at the Roadtrek factory last September, we had never officially tested the AC. We take most of our trips in the fall and spring, when the weather is moderate, so we didn’t really need to use the AC for more than an hour or so. While parked at home, we keep the E-trek cool with our new sunshades, and we also open several of the windows.
With temperatures exceeding 100 degrees, we wanted to see how long the AC would run, now that we have the battery balancer and VoltStart. In previous trials (e.g., E-trek Battery Log-May), the AC would run between 3 and 4 hours; during the fourth hour, the inverter would alarm signaling that the batteries were too low.
Last Saturday, after nearly 5 hours, the AC was still running. Even when the battery strength was at 11%/21 VDC, the VoltStart did not turn on the engine nor did the inverter alarm sound. At that time (approximately 4:45 PM), we turned off the AC and shut off the inverter, because we did not want to keep running down the batteries. We plugged in the E-trek to shore power (20 Amp), and the batteries were fully charged by the next morning.
We recently learned that there are additional instructions for activating VoltStart, so we are planning to retest with the new instructions, now that we have the updated manual. We will follow up shortly with new test results…
