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

As several folks have already mentioned, you may want to consider building a DIY Lifepo4 pack. We purchased 4, 200ah prismatic cells and a 200a BMS from two different US distributors. Total cost was ~$800 for the cells, BMS, and hardware. We ended up with 200ah of capacity in 1/2 the space that two BB or Lifeblue 100ah batteries would have taken---at 1/2 the cost. The 4 prismatic 200ah 3.2v cells and BMS all easily fit inside one Group 24 battery box.

We often use our Lifepo4 to power our 11k a/c in our truck camper when we take short breaks on the road. When we get back on the road we use our 40a dc to dc charger to charge the Lifepo4 to 100% to prep for our next break. Already taken 3, 10-14 day, cross-country trips this summer powering the a/c on a regular basis with zero issues. Have given some thought to building another 200ah DIY pack to bump our capacity up to 400ah. We have enough room in our truck camper for two group 27 size batteries.

As for equipment compatibility, we passed on purchasing a lithium converter. Our OEM 45a 3-stage 14.4v lead-acid converter in our TC charges our Lifepo4 just fine.