Supertramp Flagship LT pop-up slide-in pickup camper

[roamie]

@SimplyAnAdventure I'd love to hear back on what the upgrade process was like for you. That's awesome though that you can do that. And yes, I was so happy I didn't have to try to figure out my own lockable water fill solution, that was a big one for me.

@Chadx I hope that works out for you getting a new one! Are you doing that change to use the Pro Power alternator on your existing setup? And if so, are you doing it or having SuperTramp do the work?

 

[Chadx]

I talked with SuperTramp today, and they reached out to Victron to confirm things as well. I fortunately purchased the Victron IP65 10A charger which arrived this morning (thanks @Chadx for the idea, everyone should probably have one of these handy). The basic process is:

• Disconnect the battery for both power connections as well as BMS connections
• Put the charger in Li-ion mode and set it at 3A
• Connect to the battery and let it charge
• Repeat one at a time for each battery
• Reconnect the batteries to power and BMS

I was expecting it to take quite a while for each battery to recharge, but so far it's gone from 2.9V to 11V in about 30-40 mins at that 3A setting. We'll see how long it takes to level off at ~14.1V which is full charge, I'm thinking it may slow down as it gets closer to that point. Also, somewhere around 9v the battery bluetooth re-enabled and showed back up in the app.

All signs so far are the system did what it was supposed to do to protect against any damage. I'll report back once everything is completed. As a side note, this experience has forced me to learn the power system in far better detail than I originally did, which I'm glad to now understand better.

Great! Glad you are up and running.

I think those instructions are conservative and there isn't really a need to disconnect anything. You are working with in-spec charging profile for all components and I see no downside to simply clipping on the chargers alligator clips to positive and negative battery cables and letting it wake up all the batteries and bms at once. Then, as soon as they are awake, you turn on your shore power charger and get them charged up quick. If you are 400AH, absolutely no risk from cranking up your Intelli-Power PD9360 charger which is 60amp output. On 400Ah battery bank, 60A is only a 0.15C charge rate which is very slow and easy on the batteries. Anything up to 0.5C charge rate (200A in the case of a 400Ah battery bank) is nice and easy on the battery pack. I'd crank it up and get juice into those things rather than trickling them with 3A. With a battery bank of 400Ah, a 60amp charge is pretty much a trickle charge to that size battery bank.

Also, don't go by your battery monitor to know when you are at 100% SOC this first charge because it may be off. Just run your chargers (shore power, DC and/or solar) until they shut off based on their charge profile (likely 14.4v). Then you know you are 100% and good to go and the Battery Monitor will be calibrated correctly.

 

[Chadx]

@Chadx I hope that works out for you getting a new one! Are you doing that change to use the Pro Power alternator on your existing setup? And if so, are you doing it or having SuperTramp do the work?

I'm not making any changes to the current camper or charging system until I know if we are replacing the camper. It is MUCH easier to spec these changes on a new build rather than retrofit. For the DC charger upgrades, the truck wiring is the easy part. But you also have to upgrade the truck-to-camper connector (big Anderson connector) and the wiring that runs from that connector into the camper, and then the DC chargers, then run output from those to your busbars. I was going to do a single 50A DC myself, but with this new plot, I'm waiting to see if we order another and will just spec if from factory.

In the case of a single 50amp DC charge, you go from 8awg wire to 6awg wire for both the truck and into the camper electronics cabinet which lands directly on the single 50amp charger.
In the case of duel 50 amp DC chargers, they go to 1/0awg wire for both the truck and into the camper electronics cabinet but to a dedicated busbar that then splits the circuit to smaller gauge (6awg I think) to each DC charger.

 

[SimplyAnAdventure]

I 100% agree with all those upgrades plus, on our list, A/C and induction cooktop. A/C is the only thing that cannot be retrofitted so still plotting to order a new Flagship LT in spring of 2027, with A/C and all the other upgrades we want, and sell our current Flagship LT. Wish list and still running the numbers and saving up to see if we can make it happen.

I don't recall, does your Superduty have Pro Power Onboard? Just mentioning it because you can run the two DC chargers off of the 24v alternator if so. You just need the Victron XS 1400 DC charger rather than the Victron XS 50 DC charger. The good thing is the XS 1400 can be programmed to input 12v or 24v and output 12v or 24v or any combination, so even if you have a 24v alternator failure, in the field you just move the conductors to your 12v battery, reprogram the XS 1400 for 12v input rather than 24v input, and good to go.

This makes use of your 24v alternator that otherwise goes unused except when you use the pro power onboard inverter. I'll be having my DC chargers run off the 24v alternator.

No pro power on board for me. I did order dual alternators (410A or so of charging) dual XS1400’s should do the trick of the batteries can take it.

 

[SimplyAnAdventure]

@SimplyAnAdventure I'd love to hear back on what the upgrade process was like for you. That's awesome though that you can do that. And yes, I was so happy I didn't have to try to figure out my own lockable water fill solution, that was a big one for me.

@Chadx I hope that works out for you getting a new one! Are you doing that change to use the Pro Power alternator on your existing setup? And if so, are you doing it or having SuperTramp do the work?

I’ll let you know…. I asked for late April install but I’ll definitely report back how it goes.

 

[Chadx]

Blue Smart IP65 Charger | Victron Energy

The Blue Smart IP65 Charger is the new professional battery charger with built-in bluetooth. Find a Victron Energy dealer near you.

www.victronenergy.com

I don't have an IP65, but I do have two Victron IP22 (12v 30amp) for other uses. And a Victron IP67 Waterproof (24v 17amp) for 24v boat trolling motor battery bank. They have been very handy for all kinds of other projects besides their original. I have two generic LiFePO4 10amp chargers, too, that are hand, but not near as versatile as the Victrons. The Power Supply feature has proven particularly handy. Don't have a 12v battery handy? Just use one of the 12v Victron in Power Supply mode.

 

[roamie]

@Chadx just FYI I have the 800ah setup (with the dual 50a chargers). I agree we are being conservative here, and I did ask about what you suggested so SuperTramp was going to check back with Victron. It was getting towards end of the day already for them so probably tomorrow before I hear back on that. In the meantime, I'm ok just letting it charge one at a time and worst case I should be back up by the end of the week. My impression is that SuperTramp is still learning best path for this situation, so that's probably why they want to do it this way.

Or maybe they're just trying to ensure the end user who got themselves into this situation in the first place can't mess anything up fixing it.

 

[Chadx]

No pro power on board for me. I did order dual alternators (410A or so of charging) dual XS1400’s should do the trick of the batteries can take it.

I've mentioned it before, but in hindsight, I would have skipped the pro power and done the 67B option (250A + 160A dual 12v alternators) like you. When I ordered, I didn't know the Pro Power meant a dedicated 24v alternator and I found out when my truck was already in production. I use Pro Power occasionally, but not enough to warrant it and would have preferred dual 12v. But I'm "making lemonade" now that Victron offers the XS 1400 which will run off 12v or 24v input. That will leave my single 250A 12v alternator to do other twelve-volty things rather than my DC/DC charging. In reality, even my single 250A alternator has so much overhead, I could run 100amp of DC charging off it and come no where near capacity, even at idle output, but hey, if I have a 24v alternator just sitting there, might as well utilize it. Bonus is 24v, over the same conductor size, will have much less voltage drop, so that might make up for the low voltage of our "smart alternators" that, in my opinion, are too smart for their own good. Ha.

STC uses the Victron XS50 12v DC charger but I expect you can ask/pay to change to XS1400. In 12v mode, they both have the exact same throughput (50 amps which is about 700watts). The XS 1400 are only $25 more expensive street price. I think it would be nice to have them should the camper ever go on a pickup (current owner or future) where 24v would be available. Gives options.

Both are 98.5% efficient, but the XS 1400 has nice big heat sink fins where the XS 50 has flat back aluminum heat sink. That is because, with 24v input and 24v output, the XS1400 can output 1,400 watts rather than 700 watts like when using 12v input (and like the XS 50). AT 700 output, probably doesn't matter, but hey, for $25 extra, one might as well have the extra cooling from the fins which can only help longevity.

Both the XS50 and XS1400 are worlds better than the huge and inefficient (heat maker) 30amp DC charger. I've voiced my opinion to STC many times that the 50amp should be standard equipment. 50amps of charging is still well within charging spec if a single 100Ah battery. And, realistically, very few spec that or if they do, they throw in another one at some point. My opinion is they should fold the tiny price increase (in the big picture of overall camper price) of the larger conductors and DC charger into the base price and scrap using the undersized 8gauge wire and huge, inefficient 30amp charger (that usually only output 15 to 20 amps) and make the standard equipment one of the small, efficient 50amp chargers. Premium camper deserves 50amp charger and wiring to support it. The large conductors slow the install process, because it's so hard to work with, but that is about the only con and the 50amp charger will be a lot more satisfying long term.

 

[2Toyotas]

I only posted the link to make it easier for any readers.
I have nothing to add here.

 

[Chadx]

@Chadx just FYI I have the 800ah setup (with the dual 50a chargers). I agree we are being conservative here, and I did ask about what you suggested so SuperTramp was going to check back with Victron. It was getting towards end of the day already for them so probably tomorrow before I hear back on that. In the meantime, I'm ok just letting it charge one at a time and worst case I should be back up by the end of the week. My impression is that SuperTramp is still learning best path for this situation, so that's probably why they want to do it this way.

Or maybe they're just trying to ensure the end user who got themselves into this situation in the first place can't mess anything up fixing it.

Well, once it's awake, at least change charger to output 10 amps instead of 3amps. At 3amp, it will take 66 hours (not including charger inefficiencies) to charge each 200Ah battery. So 264hours to charge 800Ah (Four 200Ah batteries)! Ha.

Is it correct that you've removed all the conductors between all the batteries and are waking and charging each one independently? In my opinion, you want to get each battery awake and charged to 10% - 20% SOC as quickly as you can. Meaning, don't wait for one battery to get to 100% before waking up and charging the next one at the expense of the others sitting there dead, which is not good for them. Get some current into all of them ASAP. Then you can go back through and charge them up the rest of the way. Or, better yet, just get them awake, hook them all back up as originally wired and get that Intelli-Power PD9360 60amp shore power charger working on all four of them at once.

It's far better for them to all get awake and a good amount of current into them ASAP rather then sitting there dead or spending time below 20%. It takes a bit of mindset shift because we are all used to "trickle charging/slow charging" to be better for lead acid batteries to avoid boiling them because they have such high internal resistance, but LiFePO4 have are different animals. A 0.5C charge rate, which means the charger amp input is 0.5 times (half of) the battery's Ah rating. For LiFePO4, that is a slow, easy charge rate. A 0.5C charge rate on a 100Ah battery is 50amps. You have 800Ah, so a 0.5C charge rate is 400Amps which would be very easy on your batteries. So get those batteries awake, hook them up, and get that 60amp shore charger pushing current into them to get them all above 20% SOC ASAP.
And, a 60amp charger will only take around 14 - 15 hours to charge up your 800Ah battery bank rather than 264 to 280 hours with a 3amp charger.

 

[Chadx]

I only posted the link to make it easier for any readers.
I have nothing to add here.

It was a helpful post! I was just trying to say that, while I only have experience with the other two models I mentioned, all the small Victron chargers are great and handy to have around.

 

[2Toyotas]

I am humbled by the clear exchange of information.

 

[twowheels19]

Just submitted a request to ST to upgrade my camper with a few of the new options.

100aH charging (dual 50’s)
Guzzle H2O purifier and faucet
External solar port
Lockable water fill
Dimmer switch

These are all non negotiable as far as I’m concerned….. I love my ST but this fixes any and all of the shortcomings it has. Price from ST isn’t cheap but I have to be out there for my actuator upgrade anyway. Once this is done my camper will be north of $90k but should be perfect…. I can’t believe that’s the price but I guess you can’t put a price on comfort.

Good options to go with. You’ll enjoy using it more for sure.

 

[twowheels19]

I talked with SuperTramp today, and they reached out to Victron to confirm things as well. I fortunately purchased the Victron IP65 10A charger which arrived this morning (thanks @Chadx for the idea, everyone should probably have one of these handy). The basic process is:

• Disconnect the battery for both power connections as well as BMS connections
• Put the charger in Li-ion mode and set it at 3A
• Connect to the battery and let it charge
• Repeat one at a time for each battery
• Reconnect the batteries to power and BMS

I was expecting it to take quite a while for each battery to recharge, but so far it's gone from 2.9V to 11V in about 30-40 mins at that 3A setting. We'll see how long it takes to level off at ~14.1V which is full charge, I'm thinking it may slow down as it gets closer to that point. Also, somewhere around 9v the battery bluetooth re-enabled and showed back up in the app.

All signs so far are the system did what it was supposed to do to protect against any damage. I'll report back once everything is completed. As a side note, this experience has forced me to learn the power system in far better detail than I originally did, which I'm glad to now understand better.

Battery defibrillator ️

 

[SimplyAnAdventure]

Good options to go with. You’ll enjoy using it more for sure.

Definitely, my camper basically had every option that ST offered when I ordered it, except for the side window which Indefinitely do not like but these new upgrades should make it even better! We’ve had ours two years now and really can’t imagine a different camper. I was even in a Rossmonster and don’t think I’d make the switch. The ST just really hits the specific useage we have for it.