Roadtrek Mercedes Sprinter Chassis idle question

[HawkTX]

I currently have a Winnebago View with the Mercedes Chassis and I'm looking at the Roadtrek Class B with the Mercedes Chassis, but one of the things my dealer told me when I purchased the VIEW is to not let the rig idle for very long due to DEF exhaust system, etc. My question is if you are boondocking and your batteries get low and the VOLTSTART system turns the engine on to charge the batteries back that equals at least 30 to 40 mins of idle time. Over time are you asking for issues on this? Thanks in advance for your thoughts on this.

[BBQ]

Originally Posted by HawkTX

I currently have a Winnebago View with the Mercedes Chassis and I'm looking at the Roadtrek Class B with the Mercedes Chassis, but one of the things my dealer told me when I purchased the VIEW is to not let the rig idle for very long due to DEF exhaust system, etc. My question is if you are boondocking and your batteries get low and the VOLTSTART system turns the engine on to charge the batteries back that equals at least 30 to 40 mins of idle time. Over time are you asking for issues on this? Thanks in advance for your thoughts on this.

All the new RT Sprinters come with the High-Idle option.

You are covered.

[avanti]

The most important thing is to follow any significant period of idling by a period of driving at highway speed. This permits a proper DPF regen to occur.

[HawkTX]

Thanks! I’ve been really happy with my sprinter chassis so far, but most of my driving is highway with little to no idling.appreciate the info.

[mlts22]

I wish there were a way to force the Sprinter to do a DPF regen, just to ensure the particulate filter gets cleared out.

[avanti]

I have a Chinese-clone MB Star Diagnostic system. A while ago, I used to to generate a DPF regen history of my Sprinter. Quite interesting:

regenLog.jpg

We, too, run almost entirely highway miles, so this is a pretty healthy regen regimen. It would be interesting to see an example of a city van. I suspect your dealer might be willing to run such a report for you.

[Davydd]

I had my B in for service at about 50,000 miles because of DPF build up. It turned out to be faulty computer electronics wiring that needed fixing that was not triggering DPF regeneration. It was all fixed under warranty that was good for 100,000 miles. That's why MB previously said DPF problems would not show up before hand. They wouldn't warrant it otherwise I would think.

Anyway, they said DPF regens were suppose to happen about every 600 miles driven. After fixing, they had a way to force DPF regen in the shop before letting it go. They had a way but I suspect it was computerized shop diagnostic tools.

They seem to be comfortable with idling up to 2 hours between driving up to at least 40 minutes. I never idle for charging anyway but I can program when Autogen starts based on SOC and how many minutes to idle for up to 115 minutes. If the batteries fully charge while idling then they shut off automatically regardless of the stated minutes programmed. If I don't program Autogen then the batteries will shut down at 20% SOC and in order to turn the batteries back on I simply have to turn the engine on and hold down a button to force charge the batteries back up to 21%. That by the way is a pain to hold a button down and that's why I have my Autogen to come on at 30% SOC. This is all in testing the system. 30% is because if you are running air conditioning or other high power stuff you can overshoot the shut off before it kicks in. With an 800ah battery bank that would be an extremely rare occurrence unless you were attempting to run air conditioning over about 5 hours. I've never done that either.

This is Advanced RV's Autogen. I have no idea what Roadtrek does in Voltstart.

[avanti]

BTW: A lot of Sprinters owners have a ScanGauge II, which is a simple monitor and code-reader that plugs into the OBD2 port. This device can be programmed to display a number of parameters beyond what it does out of the box. I am told that among these is the DPF temperature. Since the filter gets very hot during a regen, it is obvious when one is occurring. This can give you a pretty good idea when regens are happening, and gives you the option of not interrupting an in-progress regen (although this really does no harm unless it is done frequently).