2018 Cascadia battery run down protection

Discussion in 'Trucking Electronics, Gadgets and Software Forum' started by Semi Normal, May 2, 2020.

  1. Semi Normal

    Semi Normal Bobtail Member

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    I’ve returned to comm driving after being in the military for 25 years. Trucks have come a long way since learning how to drive 30 years ago in a 72 Pete. Apparently there is a battery run down protection thing built in to the electrical. I use an anti snore/ CPAP all night so I sleep at night. I have hesitated to actually trust the battery protection to not kill the batteries so i won’t idle all night. Can anyone please advise me on this so I can gain confidence that it actually works
     
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  3. skellr

    skellr Road Train Member

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    Does it use a 12volt plug or a standard ac cord?
    I will "load shed" and start killing power but if you are plugged into an inverter, the inverter may be wired directly to the battery and will drain it dead.
     
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  4. Semi Normal

    Semi Normal Bobtail Member

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    The sleeper has both house hold outlets and cigarette lighter type. It is all factory. It’s a Penske lease. So then my thought is that because it is all factory....... would it be wired into the batteries from the factory or through the run down prevention switch system?
     
  5. Brandt

    Brandt Road Train Member

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    The computers will monitor the trucks batteries. Once they 12.2v or 12.1v. it should start the engine and run it for 2 hours to recharge them. The load sheding will try and cut the power to sleeper power.

    I had a 2017 Cascadia with Optimized Idle. It also had factory inverter. The inverter had 2 problems when running my CPAP. 1 was the cheaper inverter had a low battery cut of of 12.3v it was the battery protect built into the inverter. Some inverter have adjustable low volt cut out. So the problem was when sleeping the inverter would cut power at 12.3v and the Freightliner computer would not start the engine till 12.1v. so when your sleeping the CPAP is cut off and now power. The 2 problem was when the truck would start. All the power in the batteries is used to start the engine. So the inverter would cut off again because low batteries when the engine it starting and the inverter would not power back on automatically. So you wake up no air from CPAP. Some inverters you can change low battery cut off to like 10.5v or something. So I don't know if that low enough to keep it running when engine starts or if they power back on automatically

    The solution I used is a CPAP rechargeable backup battery. It would plug into 12v cigarette plug. It would recharge anytime it was plugged in from the truck batteries(as long as power shedding did not cut the sleeper power) and anytime the engine was running. It was expensive setup but worked good.

    You can also get 12v plug for some CPAPs and plug it into the 12v plug in dash in front of cad. Because on my truck that always had power if remember correctly. The power Shedding only cut power sleeper. I got tired of plugging it in every night and unplugging it for the day. Plus it was not the best connection. So if the plug was moved it would lose the 12v power from plug.
     
  6. drivingmissdaisy

    drivingmissdaisy Road Train Member

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    As long as you don't attempt to override it it will protect itself against dead batteries. I can't promise that stupid stuff won't happen in the meantime, but the truck will protect itself.
     
  7. Semi Normal

    Semi Normal Bobtail Member

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  8. Semi Normal

    Semi Normal Bobtail Member

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    I looked into the Optimized Idle thing and found out that there is a huge difference between Optimized Idle and Run Smart which the Freightliner Manuel doesn’t elaborate on .... for obvious reasons. Run Smart is garbage and I hope they phase them out on future models. I also looked into cpap battery. That’s the way to go apparently
     
  9. Brandt

    Brandt Road Train Member

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    Run smart and optimized idle use to be two separate things, I think. I had optimized idle way back in the 90s. It just had a thermostat in sleeper. My 2020 truck have combined them together now. It has 8 batteries plus optimized idle. So far it can start the engine and keep the inverter going. That might be because the batteries are still new. Plus drives complain about inverters cutting off on older 2017 truck. So they switched to an Eaton inverter and it's pure sinwave.

    I have the Freedom backup battery you can buy it as 1 battery or you can get 2 battery setup and hook them together. They are kinda crazy expensive $300 for 1 or $530 for the 2 battery setup. The Freedom can be recharged while your using it. Other brands claimed you have recharge them separately. Amazon has it. The only thing I dont like is it's a 12v battery and I have a ResMed CPAP. So you have to get this little extra box that converts 12v to 24v. It's includes in the box on Amazon I think you can see it sure box with vents because it has a mini fan. That fan motor goes bad after 6-12 months and it like $70 to replace it or you just put up with it making noise.

    That only because ResMed is 24V. Phillips Resperonic are 12v systems so you don't need that converter box. It can go like 3 nights just running the CPAP. You turn on heated tube and humidifier you only get 6 hours. That's why I needed one that can recharge while it's plugged in. So it can recharge from the truck batteries. Then when the engine would start in middle of the night and run 2 hours. That would recharge the backup CPAP batteries to 100%.

    So basically the CPAP batteries were a uninterrupted power supply, since I run humidifier and heated hose. If you don't run all that stuff it can run all night without and recharging. You might not need as two batteries.
     
    Last edited: May 5, 2020
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