Ark Pak - Questions and Queries

austintaco

Explorer
You probably won't find a plug and play 12v to 24v aftermarket. I bought the transformer below and did my own soldering and set the connectors from the old unit. About 15 minutes of work. Make sure you fuse it as well. The amperage is higher on this which will keep it from burning up like the stock one because of overdraw. DROK DC-DC Waterproof Car Boost Power Converter 12V to 24V 12A Voltage Regulator 288W Volt Step up Transformer Module for Battery Solar Energy LCD TV https://www.amazon.com/dp/B018XBH2GW/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_jGSqzbVGQQN99

Sent from my SM-G935P using Tapatalk
. Thanks! I ordered one up and it's waiting for me at the house. Amazon love.
 

Brett From Ark

Supporting Sponsor - ARK
Hi Brett,
I have had no luck on finding the DC to D.C. Charger for the Ark Pak. I can't order it online and none of my calls or emails have been returned. It fried last year while we were out in the camper and I am hoping to get a new one before we leave next week.

Thanks!
Patrick

Hi Patrick

Thank you for the reply my direct email address is brett@arkcorporation.com please email me your contact phone number and the best window to call you pls remeber to advise what state you are located in as i will be calling you from Sydney from Australia i want to call you at a time that suits you.

look forward to your email coming thru and sorting this out ASAP.

Regards

Brett from Ark
 

Brett From Ark

Supporting Sponsor - ARK
Glad to hear ArkPak is still around. I mispoke (miswrote?) when I called the Battle Born battery Lithium Ion...it is Lithium Iron (not ion) Phosphate...or LiFePO4. The question I tried to get answered by ArkPak tech support was whether or not it was normal for the fan in the ArkPak to be running even when the unit was turned off. The ArkPak is in the enclosed bed of my truck and it has been in the 100s lately so it is well over 100 in the truck bed. I've been able to hear the fan running with the unit off, and if I turn on the display, it reads -1W when the fan is running.

HI Moabian

thanks for following up with additional information this is much appreciated, the internal fan is temp controlled and once it senses the air temp at approx 35 to 40 degrees Centigrade the fan will kick in and run until it drops below that set temp, the reason is it wants to keep all the electronics cool and stop them from heat fatigue.

seeing the -1W this is the power consumption to run the fan and LCD screen in terms of real world power consumption it works out to be approx 0.083 A/h or as you can see it -1W this is not going to have any impact on your battery capacity or its ability to operate please see below examlpe formula for some one who has a 130A/h battery in there Ark pak

130A/h battery capacity X 12Volts = 1560 watt hours of power in that battery to power an item so using -1W in this way you would have to leave it in that state for a minimum of 65 days before your battery was flat.

if you have any more questions please ask and its great to see others sharing there story i really encourage this.

Regards

Brett from Ark
 

austintaco

Explorer
Hi Patrick

Thank you for the reply my direct email address is brett@arkcorporation.com please email me your contact phone number and the best window to call you pls remeber to advise what state you are located in as i will be calling you from Sydney from Australia i want to call you at a time that suits you.

look forward to your email coming thru and sorting this out ASAP.

Regards

Brett from Ark

Thanks, Brett! I received the charger today at my house. Thank you for looking in to my situation and helping me out. In the interim, I used the Anderson connector while driving that I could switch on and off while driving and monitor the voltage of the battery while driving and when the switch was off. Worked very well to get a faster charge between long stays. Thanks again!
 

Monroe

Monroe
My 730 is blowing the fuse in the DC power cord and nothing appears to happen on the display when I try charging with the AC power supply. I'm guessing a problem in the brains of the unit as the battery will take a charge from my solar set-up. I've checked the fuse under the lid also.

If anyone has any suggestions as to trouble shooting, I'd be most interested.

I emailed ArkPak through their website around 10 days ago and and Brett at his email address above last week and have not received any response.

Thanks in advance.
 

Brett From Ark

Supporting Sponsor - ARK
My 730 is blowing the fuse in the DC power cord and nothing appears to happen on the display when I try charging with the AC power supply. I'm guessing a problem in the brains of the unit as the battery will take a charge from my solar set-up. I've checked the fuse under the lid also.

If anyone has any suggestions as to trouble shooting, I'd be most interested.

I emailed ArkPak through their website around 10 days ago and and Brett at his email address above last week and have not received any response.

Thanks in advance.

Hi Monroe

sorry for the very late reply i have been very busy i just wanted to touch base and confirm have you made contact with us and has or is your issue being addressed.

i dont want you thinking we have forgot about you.

take care

Regards

Brett from Ark
 

Brett From Ark

Supporting Sponsor - ARK
Hi all

i hope all is well just wanted to advise that Ark will be at the overland east 2017 expo we will be sharing a stand with a company called GFA trailers at site 85 so if you have any questions or want to come down and check us out please do

OverlandExpo-East2017-728x90.jpg

a link is also below for the overland east 2017 expo

https://www.overlandexpo.com/east/

hope to see you all there

Regards

Brett from Ark
 

moabian

Active member
After having the Battle Born 100 Ah LiFePO4 battery in the ArkPak for less than a year, I have to say that I would not recommend the battery. I've had problems with it and their tech support has been less than stellar.

One afternoon last summer, the ArkPak indicated 68% battery capacity with my ARB fridge running. Less than 2 hours later, it showed 0% and the fridge had shut down. There's no way the fridge drained the battery in 2 hours. Thankfully, the battery accepted a charge at that time.

Last month, I charged the battery and it showed 100% on the ArkPak display. Ten days later, with the ArkPak off and nothing having been plugged into it in the 10-day period, the battery showed 0%. A separate meter confirmed that the battery was dead. I brought the ArkPak inside, let it warm up overnight, and then plugged it into the charger. Within minutes, the ArkPak display read 100% and indicated it was on Float Charge. As soon as I disconnected the charger, the ArkPak display would not even turn on.

I emailed Battle Born and they called back right away. They said there was a defect in Battle Born batteries shipped around the time I received mine that when the battery was discharged and got cold at the same time, a "logic circuit" would prevent the battery from accepting a charge. They told me they would "make it easy" on me by shipping a new battery to me and I could use the new battery box to return the defective battery. That was 10 days ago. I have emailed them 3 times in that period asking for a tracking number or a ship date and the emails have been ignored. When I initially ordered the battery, it was shipped the same day and arrived 2 days later. The battery currently shows as in stock on their website. I'm not sure what is going on or if they intend to follow through on their promise to ship a new battery. The battery supposedly has a 3-year warranty.

In the meantime, I have had to re-install the original Odyssey battery since the Battle Born battery is completely dead and will not re-charge. I never had a single problem in the two years or so that I had the Odyssey battery in the ArkPak.
 
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pdxfrogdog

Adventurer
After having the Battle Born 100 Ah LiFePO4 battery in the ArkPak for less than a year, I have to say that I would not recommend the battery. I've had problems with it and their tech support has been less than stellar.

One afternoon last summer, the ArkPak indicated 68% battery capacity with my ARB fridge running. Less than 2 hours later, it showed 0% and the fridge had shut down. There's no way the fridge drained the battery in 2 hours. Thankfully, the battery accepted a charge at that time.

Last month, I charged the battery and it showed 100% on the ArkPak display. Ten days later, with the ArkPak off and nothing having been plugged into it in the 10-day period, the battery showed 0%. A separate meter confirmed that the battery was dead. I brought the ArkPak inside, let it warm up overnight, and then plugged it into the charger. Within minutes, the ArkPak display read 100% and indicated it was on Float Charge. As soon as I disconnected the charger, the ArkPak display would not even turn on.

I emailed Battle Born and they called back right away. They said there was a defect in Battle Born batteries shipped around the time I received mine that when the battery was discharged and got cold at the same time, a "logic circuit" would prevent the battery from accepting a charge. They told me they would "make it easy" on me by shipping a new battery to me and I could use the new battery box to return the defective battery. That was 10 days ago. I have emailed them 3 times in that period asking for a tracking number or a ship date and the emails have been ignored. When I initially ordered the battery, it was shipped the same day and arrived 2 days later. The battery currently shows as in stock on their website. I'm not sure what is going on or if they intend to follow through on their promise to ship a new battery. The battery supposedly has a 3-year warranty.

In the meantime, I have had to re-install the original Odyssey battery since the Battle Born battery is completely dead and will not re-charge. I never had a single problem in the two years or so that I had the Odyssey battery in the ArkPak.

I’ve never had trouble getting support from Battle Born by picking up the phone and calling the number that is easily found on their website...
 

john61ct

Adventurer
And ArkPak has stated very definitively their box is designed for lead, not compatible with any lithium battery.

The term "drop-in" is, shall we say optimistic marketing spin?

Not saying Battle Born doesn't make a great product, but you still need to know what you're about to get decent longevity out of them, starting with ignoring the charging specs for daily cycling.
 

pdxfrogdog

Adventurer
And ArkPak has stated very definitively their box is designed for lead, not compatible with any lithium battery.

The term "drop-in" is, shall we say optimistic marketing spin?

Not saying Battle Born doesn't make a great product, but you still need to know what you're about to get decent longevity out of them, starting with ignoring the charging specs for daily cycling.

ArkPak offers a battery box & charger, model 730 that advertises the ability to charge LiFePO4 batteries. It isn't listed on Battle Born's recommended charger list but that probably isn't a big deal as long as the ArkPak falls within the recommended range of charge voltage (14.4), float voltage (13.6) and no equalization. The BMS should take care of the rest.
 

moabian

Active member
Excerpt from an email I received from Battle Born before I purchased the battery:

"This application is perfect for our battery.

http://arkcorp.com.au//Content/manuals/ArkPak AP730 manual 120315.pdf

On page 5 you can see there is a LiFePO4 setting for the charger and 14.6 volts is acceptable for our battery."


They were quick to respond to my emails before I purchased the battery. I have still heard nothing from them since they promised 2 weeks ago to send a new battery to replace the defective one...despite repeated emails. At this point, the Battle Born battery is an expensive doorstop.
 
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pdxfrogdog

Adventurer
Excerpt from an email I received from Battle Born before I purchased the battery:

"This application is perfect for our battery.

http://arkcorp.com.au//Content/manuals/ArkPak AP730 manual 120315.pdf

On page 5 you can see there is a LiFePO4 setting for the charger and 14.6 volts is acceptable for our battery."


They were quick to respond to my emails before I purchased the battery. I have still heard nothing from them since they promised 2 weeks ago to send a new battery to replace the defective one...despite repeated emails. At this point, the Battle Born battery is an expensive doorstop.

Have you picked up the phone and called Battle Born tech support about your missing replacement?
 

moabian

Active member
Have you picked up the phone and called Battle Born tech support about your missing replacement?

Not yet and I don't need to be lectured on the subject. This is the 21st century. They have gotten my emails. They have responded within minutes to every previous email. I have very politely asked for a tracking number or an estimate as to when the battery will ship. It would only take a few seconds for them to reply. I have no idea why they promised to ship a new battery to me more than 2 weeks ago, have not followed through, and have ignored 4 emails since. It will most likely be Monday before I am able to call them.
 

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