Roadtrek introduces the RS E-TREK

mumkin wrote:
Back to the idling question... I found this on another Sprinter oriented board from a poster who usually makes sense and gives good advice:

The most authoritative answer I got was through the shop manager at the MB dealer. He contacted MB USA. They directed him to MB Germany because they could not find an official policy(!). MB Germany finally replied and said:

"A limit of one (1) hour idle time at the stock idle speed, or 1.5 to 2 (two) hours with the 'high idle kit' is recommended."

That is direct from MB Germany.

This would suggest that Roadtrek had confirmed that their idle time recommendation to top the batteries follows MB Germany's advice.

Technically, Roadtrek conforms to that spec, but they keep saying that all you need to do is run the engine 30 minutes a day to stay charged up. The spec you quoted is missing a vital piece of what, from what I have read, MB is saying. MB doesn't want you to go beyond the idling amount stated without subjecting the engine to a full heatup cleaning cycle, which means a sustained drive. This puts you into taking the van for a full drive every day of boondocking, which is not what Roadtrek implies in their statements.

The spec doesn't mean you can idle the engine every day, without driving it, as long as you stay within the time limits each day.