ProPower and engine running full time for RV use or any use

[HammaMan]

For those that have had the engine run hang, do you use eco idle? Of all of the mentions of it, nobody seems to have ascertained if that plays a part or not. The ~1250 RPM eco idle works in PPOB mode. This also makes it louder due to the RPM so may disturb camping neighbors.

For the uninitiated the eco idle option increases "idle" RPM to recharge the batt faster resulting in less run time. I'll setup a test to see if I can pull any data on it. It's activated in the APIM screen. (settings, vehicle)

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[Snakebitten]

Yes HammaMan, I do use Eco idle.
Which Ironically is not what I want if the motor is going to be stuck running. Lol

If it happens again, I'm not going to be in a hurry to intervene, but rather gather all the information I can to record what settings the truck has, as well as what the PIDs are reporting.

Looking for clues.

 

[HammaMan]

Yes HammaMan, I do use Eco idle.
Which Ironically is not what I want if the motor is going to be stuck running. Lol

If it happens again, I'm not going to be in a hurry to intervene, but rather gather all the information I can to record what settings the truck has, as well as what the PIDs are reporting.

Looking for clues.

I was playing around with it and in hybrid mode / low use it will use eco idle. I pulled 3kW from it and ICE remained off, turned on HVAC / w AC on and truck started and locked to 1k RPM. Turned off HVAC, 3kW draw on and 1k RPM locked. Dropped load to 1.5kW and ICE shut off. Turned 3kW load back on and ICE remained off. Upon depleting the HVB SOC and ICE turning on, locked back to 1k RPM (eco idle on). Dropped back to 1.5kW load and hybrid / eco idle operation returned.

Not sure what the HVB only load is before turning on for locked 1k RPM mode. Above 1.5kW (no means to gradually ramp) and it will run in 1k locked mode. It's not really easy to test the values as at 1.5kW load it still takes ~ 15 minutes between ICE cycles. Lowest I could get 12v load to was 22 amps. No clue what was being powered. Found that one of the rad fans will turn on if temps warrant. This was early AM before sun was up. Not sure why it needs 22 amps of 12v draw with nothing else on in the truck.

 

[Oakstone]

Couple notes after my trip.

• on the second day I had the idle hangs so I turned the truck off for a bit and then back on later. From there on in it turned on/off for two days without hanging
• I noticed that the engine temp was reporting 1/2 way on the gauge on day two. That seems high considering the truck was only idling 2 mins every hour?
• If you do have to power cycle the truck to stop the idle hang, remember to turn your headlights back off from Auto haha. Came back to the site (thankfully it was just evening not late) and the lights were beaming away. Didn’t even think of that when I reset the truck before lunch
• I have silent mode activated in forscan but it doesn’t kill the gauge cluster. I can manually turn off the sync display but it would be great to be able to kill the whole thing so there wasn’t a blue glow all night.
  
  
  

 

[HammaMan]

• I noticed that the engine temp was reporting 1/2 way on the gauge on day two. That seems high considering the truck was only idling 2 mins every hour?

That's the rather efficient exhaust heat scavenging device folks love to hate. Due to hybrid nature, keeps the engine warmed up. Makes quick winter heat too which is nice. However the valve can malfunction while you're in the desert and then it's adding quite a bit of heat depending on failure mode -- not good if you're towing hot / heavy.

 

[Davexxxx]

I was playing around with it and in hybrid mode / low use it will use eco idle. I pulled 3kW from it and ICE remained off, turned on HVAC / w AC on and truck started and locked to 1k RPM. Turned off HVAC, 3kW draw on and 1k RPM locked. Dropped load to 1.5kW and ICE shut off. Turned 3kW load back on and ICE remained off. Upon depleting the HVB SOC and ICE turning on, locked back to 1k RPM (eco idle on). Dropped back to 1.5kW load and hybrid / eco idle operation returned.

Not sure what the HVB only load is before turning on for locked 1k RPM mode. Above 1.5kW (no means to gradually ramp) and it will run in 1k locked mode. It's not really easy to test the values as at 1.5kW load it still takes ~ 15 minutes between ICE cycles. Lowest I could get 12v load to was 22 amps. No clue what was being powered. Found that one of the rad fans will turn on if temps warrant. This was early AM before sun was up. Not sure why it needs 22 amps of 12v draw with nothing else on in the truck.

Just throwing this out there but could some who are having the hang, have the electric portion of their water heaters turned on and it being a sort of out of sight, out of mind thing?

We know the ICE is supposed to shut off, when able but also that at a certain load, it won't.

Just kinda brainstorming. You'd know if the AC was on, or the microwave etc. but a fella could forget about a silent heating element.

 

[60R]

I have been testing my PB generator with my travel trailer running the trailer 15k btu ac. For the most part the truck ICE cycles on and off and runs in ECO idle 1.3 K rpm. I generally turn off as much in the truck as I can. SOC ranges from 40% to 63%. That said, sometimes the ICE will begin to idle at 1K rpm instead of the eco idle setting and run constantly charging the Lithium battery to 67% and not cycling off to allow a draw down. Different things seem to trigger this. Yesterday the engine was cycling normally and in electric only mode when I turned on the truck AC. As I watched the SOC come down to the 40% level the ice cycled on at 1K rpm and charged to 67% and would not cycle off. I turned the generator off and back on and the normal cycle returned. As mentioned in other post I tried to trick the computers by increasing the rpm but this did not help.
The trailer electric system is 30amp. The trailer draws about 480w when the ac is not running which is the load of the refrigerator and converter. When the ac fan comes on it jumps to about 1500 watts and back immediately to 900 w. When the ac compressor comes on the watts increase to 2250-2300 w or about 19 amps total drawing off of the B side of the 30 amp connection.

 

[don.mullins]

Did a long weekend in the cool weather last month, so without AC, but with tank heater on all night, the engine kicked on about 4-5 times per hour for about a minute or so each time. Remember to shut off lights, climate control, and even the display in the truck. Saves on the lithium battery and therefore, engine run time.

Engine idle uses about 1 gal per hour, so if the engine is only running 7 minutes an hour, I calculated I used about .10 gals per hour at night and less during the day without tank heater and AC. Taking into consideration that I didn’t have the trailer plugged in for a good part of the day. I probably used less than 4 gals during the three day trip.

And because it’s so quiet the boondocking experience is significantly enhanced without a noisy generator.

Game changer indeed.

I would recommend leaving the truck climate control on; there is an inverter inside the cab which will generator a good deal of heat when running an RV.

 

[Snakebitten]

I have been testing my PB generator with my travel trailer running the trailer 15k btu ac. For the most part the truck ICE cycles on and off and runs in ECO idle 1.3 K rpm. I generally turn off as much in the truck as I can. SOC ranges from 40% to 63%. That said, sometimes the ICE will begin to idle at 1K rpm instead of the eco idle setting and run constantly charging the Lithium battery to 67% and not cycling off to allow a draw down. Different things seem to trigger this. Yesterday the engine was cycling normally and in electric only mode when I turned on the truck AC. As I watched the SOC come down to the 40% level the ice cycled on at 1K rpm and charged to 67% and would not cycle off. I turned the generator off and back on and the normal cycle returned. As mentioned in other post I tried to trick the computers by increasing the rpm but this did not help.
The trailer electric system is 30amp. The trailer draws about 480w when the ac is not running which is the load of the refrigerator and converter. When the ac fan comes on it jumps to about 1500 watts and back immediately to 900 w. When the ac compressor comes on the watts increase to 2250-2300 w or about 19 amps total drawing off of the B side of the 30 amp connection.

Excellent post.

I think you provided at least anecdotal evidence that one sign that the truck is now experiencing "the glitch" is that it suddenly started to idle as if the Eco Idle setting was disabled, when in fact it isn't.

Gotta be a software bug?

 

[HammaMan]

Excellent post.

I think you provided at least anecdotal evidence that one sign that the truck is now experiencing "the glitch" is that it suddenly started to idle as if the Eco Idle setting was disabled, when in fact it isn't.

Gotta be a software bug?

I posted these findings in my little test regarding idle RPM, probably in this thread, I dunno, I get around.

 

[Snakebitten]

I posted these findings in my little test regarding idle RPM, probably in this thread, I dunno, I get around.

My bad.
I usually look for every tidbit or nuance in your posts regarding.

 

[HammaMan]

I suggest campers with neighbors to disable eco idle to allow lower frequency idling. Sure it takes slightly more recharge time, but it's at a lower exhaust frequency. With any luck it's achieved with the exhaust scavenger on which really makes the truck quiet.

 

[60R]

Excellent post.

I think you provided at least anecdotal evidence that one sign that the truck is now experiencing "the glitch" is that it suddenly started to idle as if the Eco Idle setting was disabled, when in fact it isn't.

Gotta be a software bug?

The more important part of this is not that it is not idling at 1.3k rpm but that it will not cycle off and charges beyond the normal SOC not allowing a draw down. Glitch for sure but what's new about that with these trucks .

 

[imnuts]

I would recommend leaving the truck climate control on; there is an inverter inside the cab which will generator a good deal of heat when running an RV.

I'm pretty certain that the inverter is outside of the cab on Powerboost trucks. Regardless, there's still a lot of stuff inside that can generate heat, so even if you set it to like 80°F, that's still better than completely off.

 

[HammaMan]

I'm pretty certain that the inverter is outside of the cab on Powerboost trucks. Regardless, there's still a lot of stuff inside that can generate heat, so even if you set it to like 80°F, that's still better than completely off.

Yes, the trucks we've been discussing here are the powerboosts, and the inverters are water cooled and located outside of the truck.

The 2kW system in the non hybrid trucks should just be avoided.

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