Our previous trips to Boston had been plagued by the serpentine belt coming off, which not only prevented the batteries from charging via the under-hood generator/secondary alternator, but also resulted in the engine fan failure and subsequent overheating. This situation occurred when we picked up our son in May (see Trip #6--Part II) and when we brought him… Continue reading TRIP #9–BOSTON AND OUR E-TREK
After two failed services at Mercedes-Benz, and a month at the Roadtrek factory, it was finally time to put our newly-repaired E-trek to the test. We are happy to report that we actually made it through two nights without any catastrophes. As on previous trips to Gettysburg, we drove 80% of the way there after dinner… Continue reading TRIP #8–GETTYSBURG AND OUR E-TREK
Exactly four weeks after our E-trek was picked up for service at the Roadtrek factory, it was delivered back to us. We were very excited to see our old friend, and it was the one bright spot on this rainy first weekend in October. We had actually been expecting the delivery since Wednesday, since it was… Continue reading WELCOME HOME, E-TREK!
Yesterday we confirmed that all of the work has been completed on our 2015 Roadtrek E-trek. After installing the battery balancer, replacing the secondary alternator, and correcting the solar control setting to allow the solar panels to charge the batteries, the service technician advised that the batteries are now functioning properly. Our E-trek is now on… Continue reading OUR 2015 ROADTREK E-TREK IS HOMEWARD BOUND!
Our Roadtrek E-trek has been at the factory for nearly three weeks. We have been getting periodic updates from the service technician, and it sounds like all of the work will be completed today, so we will have our E-trek returned to us next week. Following are the results: The service team performed the battery load… Continue reading GOOD NEWS FROM THE ROADTREK FACTORY!
After our Roadtrek E-trek had departed for Canada on Friday, September 4th, we were anxious to verify that it had been safely delivered to the Roadtrek factory. Due to the Labor Day holiday, it was not received by the Roadtrek factory until Wednesday, September 9th, and the service technician inspected it on September 10th and informed us that it… Continue reading ROADTREK E-TREK SERVICE UPDATE
If you have been following our blog, you may recall that our 2015 Roadtrek E-trek nearly broke down when we picked up our son from college in Boston in May. Since then we have had the secondary alternator (under-hood generator) repaired twice--due to the serpentine belt coming off--at Mercedes-Benz as discussed in our posts Finally Some… Continue reading TRIP #7–BOSTON DEJA VU
After spending nearly two weeks at Mercedes-Benz, we finally picked up our 2015 Roadtrek E-trek late Thursday afternoon, August 20th. In our post titled Finally Some Answers--Part I, we detailed the first replacement of the serpentine belt which must have come off the pulleys (and subsequently shredded) sometime in May. After that belt replacement, we tested… Continue reading OUR E-TREK’S BACK!
Back to Mercedes-Benz for service According to Roadtrek, idling charges the Roadtrek E-trek battery at a rate of 2000 watts at 24 volts @ 1000 RPM. On Friday, August 7th, we ran down the batteries from 85%/25 VDC to 20%/21 VDC to see if we could fully charge the batteries by idling. We started the test at 11:00 AM… Continue reading ROADTREK E-TREK BATTERY CHARGING BY IDLING TEST INTERRUPTED
Results inconclusive During our difficulties is May and June, we were trying to clarify the charging times for the Roadtrek E-trek battery. According to Roadtrek, "while driving, the under hood generator will be providing 3300 watts at 24 volts with 2000 RPM." (This is slightly different than the Roadtrek E-trek Owner's Manual which states 3500… Continue reading ROADTREK E-TREK BATTERY CHARGING BY DRIVING TEST
