winter projects
just wondering what everyone has planned for repairs or upgrades on their truck campers over the winter.
for myself, I have to finish the new LiFePO4 build, but I keep making it more complicated ...
Forum Discussion
Not sure what brand of campers you guys have but why not just put (2) LifePo4 cell battery’s in the same battery storage compartment that is allready there?
I have a 2019 AF 990 and a couple of years ago replaced my original lead/acid group 29 battery’s with some 280ahr LifePo4 cells giving me 560ahrs total. I was able to fit in a 200a BMS as well as (2) 150a rated terminal blocks for all my branch wiring.
I was also able to install a 1/4” foam box completely around the battery’s as well as having a top cover to provide thermal protection from the elements.
I even placed a temp sensor inside the battery’s compartment as well to a display that I can monitor the actual temp inside and last but not least cut in a small vent cover to allow heat and a small circ fan to circulate ambient warmer cabin air into the battery’s as well box if needed.
Never have needed it and have camped in snow conditions a few times.
Nice, the plan was to upgrade my camper this year so I was just going to do exactly that, seal off the battery compartment from the outside and cut a vent hole to the inside so the camper heat can get into it, but do it in a manor that I can reverse it if I ever go to sell it. but I had to buy a new car for work last fall so now the new camper is on hold for a year or two until the wife's car is paid off.
I quite often camp in the winter where the temps are getting well below freezing, may not be snow all the time but I have tested the limits of my furnace haha, its not hard with 1" of fiberglass pink for insulation and no air barrier. If we are keeping it for a few more years, I may try to get it into the shop one winter and pull the skin off and change the insulation to block foam and seal it up real nice. wont help the bathroom any though.....
so what I have now is a 1991 slumber queen and for the battery compartment it is a tiny one outside as no one back then used anything more than a single car battery I guess. so the small hatch on the top of the back is the battery compartment, but originally when I got it I converted the bottom hatch into a compartment for two 6V batteries, then I had my 280 watt lifepo4 in the top compartment and that's all I could put there. as for insulating it it wasn't deep enough to add insulation after the battery was in it and behind that is the fiberglass for the shower stall and it isn't a heated bathroom or anything. and by putting the battery in side in the bottom foot of the closet we gain back both outside compartments as storage. the top one holds my jack handles a small water hose and my pack of leveling blocks and that is all you can stuff in it. the bottom one will let me take my outdoor stove and griddle out of the closet and put it in there. plus it is open to air from the rv, so I don't have to take any other measure to heat the battery and greatly simplifies the wiring.
oh and by placing it where I am it also allows me to borrow a second battery from the 5th wheel if I am going on a especially long trip or I want to put an inverter in that is going to see some use for some reason.
