I wanted to thank all that have replied so far. I'm 99% sure you have converted me to LiFePo4. I'm not sure which brand of LiFePo4 to go with. BattleBorn appears to be a good value with a good warranty. Based on the number of products they seem to be a relatively large company. I'm also guessing that being in Sparks, NV they may have an edge being near Tesla and also lithium mines in the state. I also like that they sell battery warmers that fit their product and that they are on a thermostat. That solves my wife's complaint of not being able to charge in very cold weather. She is very hung up on that even though we have never run out of battery power in those temps. Expion360 is recommended by Best Converter. Being an OEM option on Airstream suggests it is a good product provided their engineers knew enough about LiFePo4 and tech has not changed since then. I like the extra 20ah from them. The replaceable BMS is either a nice feature or a feature that tells me their BMS fails too often. How often do BMS systems fail? I like reliability but I'm not on a sailboat in the middle of the ocean. I will also have solar and a generator. It would be an inconvenience, not an emergency I can set the high idle on the truck and charge off it. In general once I get something working correctly I prefer not to tinker with it. Any more opinions on batteries? With any relatively new technology you have to wonder which companies will still be in business in 5 years.
My rough draft spec list is:
Boondocker adjustable converter. Not sure on 60 vs 75amp
Bogart Tri-Metric 2030RV
Bogart SC-2030 Solar controller
At least 2 100w Renogy flexible panels (Thanks adamis!)
Appropriate shunt
Bus bar
Various wires, connectors, 3 languages of curse words (for running wire under the refrigerator), etc.
In speaking with BattleBorn they recommended charging at 14.2-14.6 charging voltage and after pushing on converter information the person volunteered the Boondocker 3 Stage (Boondocker claims 4 Stage but one of those stages appear to be the Off mode) would be a good match.
The biggest selling features for me on the LiFePo4 are weight and being able to be stored long periods uncharged. Where Bigfoot has the batteries they are behind the end of the bed. Losing weight here certainly helps CG.
Thanks again for the advice. I'm guessing around $2-2500 total cost.
