2019 Carado Axion owner - Electrical Issues

[Boca-RV]

I can not get my lithium batteries to charge, and when I plug into a 30amp plug at RV site - I still have no power in my RV. Does anyone know the first step to locate a repair shop that understands the Ecotrek battery system? I live in Boca Raton, Florida (Palm Beach County). I need to find someone to fix the problem.

bill.comiskey@exclusiveprograms.com

Thank you

 

[markopolo-ClassB]

I can't help with your request for locating and getting service but maybe you can solve this.

I'm fairly certain that the inverter in those RV's needs to be "on" to pass shore power through to the coach. For the inverter to be "on" it needs to "see" a battery so at least one ecotrek module would need to be turned "on". For an ecotrek module to be turned "on" there's a supporting AGM battery that needs to be above a minimum required voltage.

I'd first locate that supporting AGM and charge it.

See this post for info and reset procedures: https://www.classbforum.com/forums/f23/no-dc-power-hymer-v2-10442-2.html#post111637


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[mumkin]

There is one exceptional service department in Florida. It is in Gainesville... no idea of Florida geography. It is Sunshine State. They have sold Carado and still sell Roadtrek. Their service department knows the system.

https://www.sunshinestatervs.com/service/

 

[PaulB 2006 T4R]

I can not get my lithium batteries to charge, and when I plug into a 30amp plug at RV site - I still have no power in my RV. Does anyone know the first step to locate a repair shop that understands the Ecotrek battery system? I live in Boca Raton, Florida (Palm Beach County). I need to find someone to fix the problem.

bill.comiskey@exclusiveprograms.com

Thank you

First I will assume you have this .pdf
https://www.roadtrek.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/HOWTO-EcoTrek-Battery-Guide-April-24-2017.pdf

Shore Power
The inverter must be on to charge the batteries using shore power. It is best if you turn on only one battery at a time for fastest charging. If the batteries have shut off due to high state of discharge, to turn them on, start the engine.

La Mesa RV understands the Ecotrek batteries, there is a service center in Port St. Lucie and Ft. Myers. Good luck.

 

[stevegoldfield]

That happened to me on my first trip. I also have a 2018 Carado Banff so our electrical systems are probably similar. First, turn on the inverter before you plug in. Second, check the light on your charging cable to see that you are getting electricity. I use an RV surge protector which has lights which tell you whether the source is acceptable. Third, Hymer did not wire those systems correctly. If you have a 2019, you probably have type L batteries which have built-in overcharging protection and draw less power, but you still want to rewire per KS2's recommendation. If you have type H batteries as I do, then you want no connections to the discharge terminal of either battery because that provides a backdoor for overcharging which will damage the batteries. You can find all that information in the relevant Facebook groups. There's one for Aktiv owners, one for Hymer and Roadtrek owners, and one for Carado and Sunlight owners. I belong to all three because I pick up good information in all of them. Look in the files section for the rewiring diagrams. One of the benefits of the rewiring is that when you turn off the lithium batteries, you can see the voltage on the AGM, which should be about 12.9. I have a very knowledgeable and good tech here in California, though I had to convince him to remove the discharge connections. He was convinced and did. I have no idea where to go in Florida.

 

[stevegoldfield]

One thing I left off my list is this. Every time you turn on a lithium battery, hold the reset switch for at least a few seconds.

 

[stevegoldfield]

One more thing. If your batteries (blue light) don't come on at all, do they charge while driving? If you are unable to turn on your inverter (or battery disconnect), they should charge while driving. Once you get them charged up enough to at least turn on and power the inverter, the rest of the recommendations should help. Hymer told me (before they went bankrupt) that charging while driving through the underhood generator is the most effective way to charge the lithium batteries.

 

[Joebecky]

I had the same happen on my 2018 Axion (manufactured sometimes in the last half of 2017) when I left the Lithium batteries on by mistake and they ran down. After reading the posts on this site, I removed the AGM battery from under the Axion. Took pretty much all day, had to jack up rear passenger side so I could crawl under and get access to the 8 bolts holding the battery up. Used a floor jack to slowly lower the battery until I could remove the cables. Battery looked pretty bad, 2 of the six caps were missing. Battery heavy, about 70 pounds. Hooked up a small 12 volt mower battery I had using jumper cables and started the underhood generator to start charging the Lithium batteries. Plugged in to shore power and everything worked, including the Solar charge. I plan to replace the AGM battery with a smaller (25 pound, 35AH) AGM battery. It appears that as long as the Lithium batteries are kept charged up, the system (inverter, solar, and UHG) work even with the AGM gone.

 

[markopolo-ClassB]

.................. Battery looked pretty bad, 2 of the six caps were missing...................

The "caps" on an AGM battery are safety valves that blow when their rated pressure (psi) is exceeded. (VRLA = valve regulated lead–acid) Battery explosion was averted but that's still a dangerous situation. Flammable hydrogen gas and I'd assume corrosive sulfuric acid would have been released.

Ideally the root cause would be determined and corrected if charging system or fusing etc. related. A severe overcharge would be one cause of that type of event for example so preventing that type of overcharge from happening again would be very important if that was the proximate cause.

 

[GeorgeRad]

The "caps" on an AGM battery are safety valves that blow when their rated pressure (psi) is exceeded. (VRLA = valve regulated lead–acid) Battery explosion was averted but that's still a dangerous situation. Flammable hydrogen gas and I'd assume corrosive sulfuric acid would have been released.

Ideally the root cause would be determined and corrected if charging system or fusing etc. related. A severe overcharge would be one cause of that type of event for example so preventing that type of overcharge from happening again would be very important if that was the proximate cause.

Agree, in addition two gases are generated - hydrogen and oxygen in the stoichiometric ratio, which means highly explosive combination. This gas mixture in a confined space can be deadly if ignited.

 

[StevieV]

where is the inverter reset switch? ty

 

[Hisbelovedlizc]

I had the same happen on my 2018 Axion (manufactured sometimes in the last half of 2017) when I left the Lithium batteries on by mistake and they ran down. After reading the posts on this site, I removed the AGM battery from under the Axion. Took pretty much all day, had to jack up rear passenger side so I could crawl under and get access to the 8 bolts holding the battery up. Used a floor jack to slowly lower the battery until I could remove the cables. Battery looked pretty bad, 2 of the six caps were missing. Battery heavy, about 70 pounds. Hooked up a small 12 volt mower battery I had using jumper cables and started the underhood generator to start charging the Lithium batteries. Plugged in to shore power and everything worked, including the Solar charge. I plan to replace the AGM battery with a smaller (25 pound, 35AH) AGM battery. It appears that as long as the Lithium batteries are kept charged up, the system (inverter, solar, and UHG) work even with the AGM gone.

I have the same issue with my Carado Banff. I had my RV mechanic spend half a day yesterday trying to get the bolts off of the cage where the AGM battery is mounted. He only got half of them off and doesn’t know where to go from there because the bolts are rusted. can anyone please help with this situation?