Midwest Designs Sprinter TypeB In-Depth Review - Mike Mas

[GTSeattle]

Originally Posted by Idleup

Hello IRV2 Users - For the past few months, I have been compiling my In-depth review of my Midwest Automotive Designs 4x4 “Patriot”. This type B offering provides a classy looking conversion which doubles as a RV when needed. One of the main reasons I choose the Midwest conversion is because unlike some other builders, they retain a stock "Panel Van" look on the exterior. I use my Midwest coach for play and work as well as for occasional traveling for business. Motels are now a thing of the past, no longer do I have leave my vehicle in a motel parking lot with my valuables and try to sleep in a motel room.


Link to Review:

http://www.rotory.com/sprinter/midwest/

Mike Mas

Hello Mike:

Thanks for the great Midwest Patriot review. Extremely helpful and informative. Is there any way I can get the article in a format I can excerpt portions from? (Cannot print it nor save it using my Mac computer - I think it is all graphics and only the pictures will print.)
We have a 2018 4x4 Midwest Passage that appears virtually identical to your Patriot regarding the systems. I would like to take a portion of your article to my RV dealer's technical staff and explain to them why it answers the frustrations/questions we have had over the last 14 months and they have not been able to fix! Our Zampf Solar controller often shows full while the house battery is nearing empty! What good is that for boon docking? It is clear that you have had much much better luck dealing with the Midwest factory than we have. Most of our calls are never returned, and the one callback was handled in a very curt and unhelpful manner. If you have a secret to getting basic information out of MAD please advise.
Thanks again for your excellent article.

[GTSeattle]

Originally Posted by lincoln-irv2

This looks almost identical to the American Patriot. I have a 2020 American Patriot MD 2. This looks like an MD 4. Mike took the right hand seat in front of the sliding door out.

Earlier today, I messaged Mike from his web-site review, to ask about how he installed a switch so that the solar panel would also change the house battery, which I discovered it does not. I deduced, that the chassis battery is the only battery charged by the solar panel,

In order to switch between the chassis battery and the house battery, Mike says he installed a 3 pole switch between on the battery side, that allows him to switch between routing power to the chassis battery and the house battery.

The question now, is how to get to a house battery hot wire to the control panel area. Any information on that would be very helpful.

Thanks!

Earlier today Midwest told me that our Passage van Zamp Solar controller was by mistake wired to the chassis battery or perhaps both. They say it should be wired only to the house battery and they will take care of correcting it.

[lincoln-irv2]

Originally Posted by GTSeattle

Thanks for your information. We have a Midwest Designs Passage on a 24 foot Sprinter chassis, along with the same Zantrex inverter/charger and Zampf Solar panel and controller you have. We struggle because the Zampf solar panel often reports the "battery" fully charged but the house system gauge and the inverter indicator show the battery at less than 20%. Often, even though it is very sunny and very small loads have been run, the house power will fail even though the Zampf Solar says full. Were you able to learn if Midwest wired the solar to the chassis battery instead of the house battery?

I have gotten no more information. But I have complained to the dealer, stating that I consider this a warranty issue. I would accept an A/B switch or 3 pole switch solution so at least I could manually switch to charging the house battery. Someone, possibly Mike Mas, said they had added such a 3 pole switch, but I never got any detailed information on how they did it.

Last I talked to the dealer, they said they can't even get a wiring diagram from MidWest. :-( I really want a wiring diagram, and a plumbing diagram, with location and access information.

Also, IMO, the on-demand hot water heater in this rig is terrible. It wastes an enormous about of water (into the grey tank) before it gets hot... then it gets and E6 error (pressure switch fault). I did figure\ out how to make it marginally useful for showering, by dialing the temperature back to 105 degrees (and showing with all "hot" water). This is really only good, when one has full hookups, given the amount of water it wastes. I'm going to ask the dealer about installing a hot water tank with re-circulation, so that when its on, it instantly delivers hot water.

[GTSeattle]

Thanks for updated info. I did have a very helpful conversation with a warranty tech at Midwest and learned the following:
—- on a group of vans when assembled in 2018 the Zamp Solar system was incorrectly wired to BOTH the chassis and house batteries ( with no switch between them). This would explain the full charge readings but dead house battery. This was done by an assembler no longer with Midwest. Midwest recommends, (and will cover under warranty) that the system be re-wired only to the house battery in order to function properly.
—- Zamp does make a dual battery controller with which you can control which of the house or chassis batteries you want charged by Zamp and can easily switch between them. It also gives you status info on each battery. Zamp indicated it will work and Midwest made it sound like it should work also.

[lincoln-irv2]

Originally Posted by GTSeattle

Thanks for updated info. I did have a very helpful conversation with a warranty tech at Midwest and learned the following:
—- on a group of vans when assembled in 2018 the Zamp Solar system was incorrectly wired to BOTH the chassis and house batteries ( with no switch between them). This would explain the full charge readings but dead house battery. This was done by an assembler no longer with Midwest. Midwest recommends, (and will cover under warranty) that the system be re-wired only to the house battery in order to function properly.
—- Zamp does make a dual battery controller with which you can control which of the house or chassis batteries you want charged by Zamp and can easily switch between them. It also gives you status info on each battery. Zamp indicated it will work and Midwest made it sound like it should work also.

Thank you! I'd love to know the name of the tech you talked to at Midwest, if you recall. Please private message me.

I guess one could test this by simply detaching one set of wires at a time to see what happens. I suspect what Midwest is probably recommending as a fix is to just detach one of the wires (after figuring out which is which).

If this is accurate and the wires on the Zamp go to each battery, then another solution might be to put a 3 pole (dual position) switch (or a dual battery selector switch) between the dual wires coming off the Zamp controller,and the terminals on the battery side of the Zamp controller. But this would require mounting an additional switch in the cabinet.

I looked up the Zamp dual battery controller (and it is about $170). So it appears this solution would replace the existing battery controller with the dual battery controller. I may ask my Dealer for this solution, as it would presumably give full status of both batteries. This seems like the most elegant solution, that does not require mounting new hardware in the cabinet.

Which way did you go? And, did it work?

[GTSeattle]

We are going with the re-wiring of the Zamp controller to just the house battery per MAD recommendation. They arranged to have it done in a couple weeks and I will post how it all works when completed. Excited to finally have a solar charged house battery for boondocking!