Airstream Touring Coach Interstate 19 2023 Tire Inspection and Storage User Manual
Tire Inspection and Storage
Before taking your touring coach on a trip or when removing it from an extended storage period, make it a practice to inspect the overall condition of your tires. Check for any type of condition or damage that might result in failure. A thorough check should include both inside and outside sidewalls, tread area, and the condition of hardware such as valve stems, valve caps, and wheels. The tread should be checked for any unusual wear, cracking, penetrations, and/or cuts. An uneven wear pattern can indicate misalignment or worn suspension parts. Since many touring coach’s are used seasonally and sometimes stored for extended times, it is possible that tires will take many years to wear out. Tires, as any rubber product, will age over time. If tires show cracking in the sidewall or tread surfaces that are more than 2/32-in. deep, they should be replaced before your next trip or vacation. Store your touring coach in a cool, dry area away from major heat sources and extreme cold. An enclosed storage area is best with no exposure to electromagnetic sources such as generators or transformers. If you must keep your touring coach outside, cover your tires from direct sunlight. Take your touring coach to your tire dealer for service to check or correct any of these conditions.
NOTE
California Tire Chain notice: Your motorhome may not be operated with tire chains.
WARNING
For safety reasons, the wheel tightening torque must be checked immediately after changing a tire and again after 30 miles to 140 ft-lbs. The wheels could otherwise come loose.
Lithium Iron Phosphate Batteries (House Batteries)
Your Airstream Touring Coach is factory-equipped with two 100Ah 12V LiFePO4 deep-cycle batteries. The house batteries are located under the coach behind the driver’s and passenger’s step well.
Lithium Technology
Airstream’s lithium batteries require no new hardware, or complicated setup, and are a drop-in upgrade. They are designed to outperform traditional lead acid batteries and offer more usable energy. Lithium batteries have a life span of approximately 3000-5000 cycles. A cycle is determined by a discharge and a charge. How many cycles a lithium battery can sustain is determined by how depleted a battery is discharged, before it is charged. A battery that is only discharged 50% will have more cycles than a battery that is constantly discharged to 0%. Lithium batteries provide longer life and faster charging than lead acid batteries, while still providing 80% of the rated capacity, after thousands of cycles. If the batteries are completely depleted, it will take approximately 8 hours to charge the 200Ah battery bank, at 25 amps. Unlike lead-acid batteries, which require water replacement, lithium batteries require no active maintenance. The use of lithium batteries in Airstream’s Touring Coach also provides the benefit of delivering more energy at typically half the weight of a traditional battery.
NOTE
An owner’s manual for lithium batteries is provided in the Airstream Owner’s Packet. Make sure to read, understand, and follow all information, such as Notes, Cautions, and Warnings, before operating.
Battery Management System (BMS)
A BMS is crucial in ensuring safe operation of any lithium battery. The BMS monitors cell voltages, currents, and temperatures to make sure they are operating in a safe range. The BMS is sealed internally and will shut the battery down should any fault condition occur. The battery will restart once the fault condition is cleared.
The following, are features of the BMS:
- Over/under voltage protection
- High current protection/short circuit
- High-temperature protection
- Low-temperature charging protection
- Cell balancing
CAUTION
Even though the BMS will protect against issues from overcharging, it should be avoided. The recommended specs are 14.4-14.6 bulk/absorb and below 13.6 floats. The BMS will shut the batteries down when the battery voltage drops below approximately 11.5 VDC. When the batteries shut down, due to Low.
Battery Cut Off
(LBCO), both the main battery disconnect switch and the inverter power switch will remain in the positions they were in, prior to the batteries shutting down. To bring the batteries out of LBCO Mode, a voltage of approximately 11 VDC or greater needs to be applied across the battery terminals. There are two ways of doing this:
- Start and run the vehicle engine. This will provide an alternator voltage of approximately 14.5 VDC across the battery terminals and provide a charge current through the DC-DC converter. The DC-DC converter will limit the charge current to the house batteries to approximately 40 amps. This should take approximately 1 minute.2
- Jump the house batteries with an external battery charger (only one battery will need to be jumped).
NOTE
When the inverter/charger display turns on, the vehicle’s engine can be turned off, if the coach is plugged in or the generator is started. Otherwise, the engine will need to be run long enough to fully charge the house batteries. If the coach is not plugged into shore or generator power, to charge the house batteries, the batteries can go back into LBCO Mode soon after the vehicle’s engine is turned off. Bringing the batteries out of LBCO Mode is only “waking up” the batteries and allowing them to take a charge. If wanting to use the generator to charge, the vehicle’s engine will need to be ran for several minutes before the house batteries are charged enough to start the generator.
NOTE
If the batteries are in LBCO Mode and it is below 35°F, turn the “Battery Heater” switch to “ON” before performing the wake up procedure.
NOTE
The BMS will not allow a charging current if the internal temperature is below 25°F and it will not allow a charging or discharging current above 135°F.
Battery State of Charge
The heated batteries consume an average of 1.8 amps. Testing indicates, that at 0°F, with no insulation, the heater would be on about 30% of the time. With no other loads or charging, the batteries would give approximately 185 hours of heat capability before the batteries would go into LBCO shutdown.
| Voltage | Capacity | Amp Hours Remaining |
| 14.4V | 100% | 200 |
| 13.6V | 100% | 200 |
| 13.4V | 99% | 198 |
| 13.3V | 90% | 180 |
| 13.2V | 70% | 140 |
| 13.1V | 40% | 80 |
| 13.0V | 30% | 60 |
| 12.9V | 20% | 40 |
| 12.8V | 17% | 34 |
| 12.5V | 14% | 28 |
| 12.0V | 9% | 18 |
| 10.0V | 0% | 0 |
NOTE
Values are based on a testing environment with the batteries at 100% capacity.
Reference Links
View Full User Guide: Airstream Touring Coach Interstate 19 2023 User Manual
Download Manuals: https://www.airstream.com/owners/manuals/
