Battery Question

kenkorona wrote:
OP here. Thank you all for some great insights. I read all your posts and did other research and now I understand the pros and cons of the battery types. Now with that information other questions are raised and again I look forward to any insights you can offer.

I am planning on buying a new TC and it will not come with a generator nor with a generator hookup. I am also planning a pretty long trip for next year. Right now it looks like it will be a total of 4 months with at least 2 of them in Alaska. We enjoy boondocking; usually no shore power, so having adequate battery power is important.

To that end, I'm sold on the benefit of the lithium batteries and plan to put at least 2 in the TC. The reasons I'm sold on them are 1) lighter weight, 2) OK to discharge further without degrading its capacity, 3) accepts a charge faster.

So my next question is... is there anything special I need to know or do if I decide to put Lithium batteries in a TC when the manufacturer was planning on it using FLA batteries? The camper will be equipped with solar panels, either 2 or 3 100w panels. But my question is not about whether those panels would be enough to recharge that much battery capacity, rather the question is about the equipment's compatibility.

Thanks

I agree that Lithium sounds like it would be a good fit for your usage scenario (off grid camping, weight limited). As for the equipment, drop in lithium batteries WILL work with 'standard' (ie designed for lead acid) equipment, it just won't be optimized for the performance and longevity of the batteries. If you are not planning on keeping the camper long term, then you may not care about the equipment as you should still get 1000+ cycles even while using lead acid equipment with lithium.

Now if you do want to maximize longevity and performance, then you may want to use programable/lithium compatible equipment. I am not sure which camper you are looking at, and what sort of solar instal the manufacturer does, but you may want to consider purchasing the camper with a solar pre-wire only and installing the solar yourself or through a specialized solar installer. Typically the manufacturers use low quality electrical and solar equipment. If there is a good chance you will end up replacing the factory equipment anyway, so why pay for it?

Victron Energy will be able to provide all you need for a lithium optimized solar install and provides excellent quality and value.