Lithium Battery Upgrade

[stevemorris]

i need a new battery for our 26ft tt, the old lead/acid rv/marine battery is virtually dead after 10 years of service.

is it worthwhile to upgrade to a 100 Ah li battery and the necessary new charger?

we do boondock occasionally and probably would do more with a better battery capacity. the old lead/acid battery was rarely adequete for more than one night boondocking running the usual lights, fridge and water heater controls.

[ppine]

The new Ram truck has a 220 amp alternator.
I am adding a 50 amp DC/DC charger to take advantage of all of that power. Then I have solar panels for when the rig is parked.
I am installing the new Renogy charger which also has built in an MTTP solar charger.

[trailrider]

ppine wrote:
Now add the discussion about how to protect your alternator and prevent current flow from your starter battery to your house battery.

If you are adding lithium batteries you must account for these two things.

Simple. I pulled the fuse in the trailer that is in that circuit. No need
to charge the trailer batteries from the alternator with the solar on the roof.

[StirCrazy]

ppine wrote:
Now add the discussion about how to protect your alternator and prevent current flow from your starter battery to your house battery.

If you are adding lithium batteries you must account for these two things.

on a factory vehicle it is a non-issue, although it still won't charge your battery properly. The reason I say it's a non-issue as it will never get enough amperage to cause the alternator an issue as the fuse would blow first. That's why the fuse is there.

Too many people watched a sales video on YouTube and think this is what will happen, that video was set up so this could happen so they could sell their product.

Now having said that I would recommend a dc to dc charger. not to protect your alternator but rather to properly charge your LFP battery. I don't have one as I have more than enough solar to keep mine charged, but I am thinking of adding one to use as an emergency generator if something goes wrong with the solar. for the 150 bucks you can't go wrong.

[ppine]

Now add the discussion about how to protect your alternator and prevent current flow from your starter battery to your house battery.

If you are adding lithium batteries you must account for these two things.

[foxxxnick]

I bought Renogy 12v 100Ah cluetooth LiFePO4 Battery, They recommended me to buy a special charger so I also bought the 159.99 battery charger with this battery It's awesome as well I boondock all the time.

[StirCrazy]

Tom_M wrote:
Just checked and US $299.99 with free shipping. Canada C$459.99 and no mention of cost of shipping.

yup as I did yesterday which is why I said their sail must be over. there is a cdn where house so if I remember right there cdn shipping was free also, but I would have to look again to verify that

[Tom_M1]

Just checked and US $299.99 with free shipping. Canada C$459.99 and no mention of cost of shipping.

[StirCrazy]

stevemorris wrote:

StirCrazy wrote:

stevemorris wrote:

StirCrazy wrote:

LouLawrence wrote:
There is no possible financial advantage to putting Li in your coach as a replacement for a more affordable option like lead acid (not my favorite, but cheap) or AGM (my favorite but a bit more expensive). If you are expecting the World to come to an end and you plan to survive this by having an RV that can support you without any grid of any kind, then maybe the few thousand extra dollars would make some sense.

why do people always compare the sams club 6V to LFP you comparing the bottom of the class to the top of the class. if your going to compare a lead acid at least get close. how about we try comparing a rolls surette 6V at 450.00 cdn for 235AH so two of those will give you 117ish usable AH for 900 plus tax and about 900 cycles.

for 319.00 cdn I can get one of these and have 100AH usable, if you don't want to use 100% of the capacity get two and have 160 AH usable heck you can get three and only pay 60 bucks more than the rolls surette and have 240 usable AH at 80% depth of charge and 4000 cycles so now over the life they are even cheaper.

oh, another thing when a lead acid cycles out it won't hold a charge anymore, when LFP reaches its cycle life it still works as normal just it only has 80% of its rated capacity left. So, it's not necessarily garbage and you could possibly use it for another 4000 cycles or more.

319 cdn? really?

did you click on the link? if you did you wouldn't be asking 😉 but yes really.

i did and it appears to be 319 usd!

ahh the sale must be over it was on sale for 319 cdn for a while. still cheap for what you get. just not as cheap as the sale price haha

[wantabe351]

Good morning, what battery did you got with? I'm from NJ but vacationing in Colorado, Outside of Leadville,Co in a national forest CG and its a 100% service free- not even water.. and were loving it.. Last yr I added a Chins Lithium 200hr battery with a 2500w PSW inverter to operate hi load items( coffee pot, hair dryer and as of now our sm space heater -for above 9,000' our furnace wont cycle right and this morning its 45*outside and woke to 62*inside, so we made coffee and plugged in my heater an hour ago... Since the Chins worked so well I decided and so glad I did, that just before we left I had added a Power Queen 100ah battery in the front frame to run the whole RV's 12v system. To keep them charged we have solar.. We bought along our Gen, but it sits in back of the Truck. So far we havent used it yet in our 18th day of travel.. You hear of spending Thousands to have a Lithium system, but no its not. a 100ah lithium batt. 320$,100w panel 68$-controller 36$, wire and terminal ends I had.. I bought through amazon and on sale plus my time 425$ we spent. Note the 200hr chins/Inverter is a separate setup stored under the bed for our Hi-load needs- as a experiment to learn by.. In the winter the Batteries comes home and rest till spring.. Remember keep it simple and it will work..

[stevemorris]

StirCrazy wrote:

stevemorris wrote:

StirCrazy wrote:

LouLawrence wrote:
There is no possible financial advantage to putting Li in your coach as a replacement for a more affordable option like lead acid (not my favorite, but cheap) or AGM (my favorite but a bit more expensive). If you are expecting the World to come to an end and you plan to survive this by having an RV that can support you without any grid of any kind, then maybe the few thousand extra dollars would make some sense.

why do people always compare the sams club 6V to LFP you comparing the bottom of the class to the top of the class. if your going to compare a lead acid at least get close. how about we try comparing a rolls surette 6V at 450.00 cdn for 235AH so two of those will give you 117ish usable AH for 900 plus tax and about 900 cycles.

for 319.00 cdn I can get one of these and have 100AH usable, if you don't want to use 100% of the capacity get two and have 160 AH usable heck you can get three and only pay 60 bucks more than the rolls surette and have 240 usable AH at 80% depth of charge and 4000 cycles so now over the life they are even cheaper.

oh, another thing when a lead acid cycles out it won't hold a charge anymore, when LFP reaches its cycle life it still works as normal just it only has 80% of its rated capacity left. So, it's not necessarily garbage and you could possibly use it for another 4000 cycles or more.

319 cdn? really?

did you click on the link? if you did you wouldn't be asking 😉 but yes really.

i did and it appears to be 319 usd!

[StirCrazy]

nickthehunter wrote:
What is your definition of “worthwhile”?
My definition of worthwhile includes value; such as: what do I gain by spending 3-4 times more for double the useable power vs. paying 2 times more for double the useable power?
What I value and what you value are probably different. I own many Li batteries and for what I use them for and how often I use them I am willing to pay the price. But to spend $300 plus for 1 more day of camping “occasionally” - I’d just buy another $100 battery if and when I needed it.
But that’s just me and my values.

if value is an important factor for you, as it is for me, then you must be adding in cycle life in there along with usable AH, are you not?

if you are a battery which is 4 times the price costs you 1/2 as much or lower to own per year. double the usable amp hours drops the cost to 2x instead of 4x then 5 times the cycle life drops that number down to o.4 the cost of a regular battery. we don't have a 100 buck batter up here unless its used from a junk yard or a starting battery. so 170.00 cdn is the normal type of price for a bargin 200ah 6v battery with 800 cycle life. that li battery i linked to is 310.00 cdn and rated for 4000 cycle life.

[StirCrazy]

stevemorris wrote:

StirCrazy wrote:

LouLawrence wrote:
There is no possible financial advantage to putting Li in your coach as a replacement for a more affordable option like lead acid (not my favorite, but cheap) or AGM (my favorite but a bit more expensive). If you are expecting the World to come to an end and you plan to survive this by having an RV that can support you without any grid of any kind, then maybe the few thousand extra dollars would make some sense.

why do people always compare the sams club 6V to LFP you comparing the bottom of the class to the top of the class. if your going to compare a lead acid at least get close. how about we try comparing a rolls surette 6V at 450.00 cdn for 235AH so two of those will give you 117ish usable AH for 900 plus tax and about 900 cycles.

for 319.00 cdn I can get one of these and have 100AH usable, if you don't want to use 100% of the capacity get two and have 160 AH usable heck you can get three and only pay 60 bucks more than the rolls surette and have 240 usable AH at 80% depth of charge and 4000 cycles so now over the life they are even cheaper.

oh, another thing when a lead acid cycles out it won't hold a charge anymore, when LFP reaches its cycle life it still works as normal just it only has 80% of its rated capacity left. So, it's not necessarily garbage and you could possibly use it for another 4000 cycles or more.

319 cdn? really?

did you click on the link? if you did you wouldn't be asking 😉 but yes really.

[Durb]

I always get amused as every lithium upgrade thread devolves into who has the most watts of solar, and amp hours, or who is more esoteric such as SiO2 or telcom jars (whatever they are), or bluetooth reporting from your batteries, or shunts, or pure sine wave, or whatever.

To the OP, I installed a single Battle Born Lithium battery and a Progressive Dynamics convertor in my trailer. I know I paid a lot. Do I like it? Yes. I was tired of messing with the heavy lead acid batteries, pulling them in the winter, checking water levels, off gassing concerns, and trickle chargers, plus occasional replacement. I now disconnect my battery at the end of the season and let it sit in the trailer and it is good to go in the spring. There are no corroded terminals to clean. The extra volt plus it provides helps with slide operation and electric dump valve operation. The extended number of duty cycles means I wont have to fuss with battery issues again for my 15 year old trailer. Bottom line, the peace of mind the lithium gives me is worth it. The battery fits perfectly for how I camp and in what temperatures.

[nickthehunter]

What is your definition of “worthwhile”?
My definition of worthwhile includes value; such as: what do I gain by spending 3-4 times more for double the useable power vs. paying 2 times more for double the useable power?
What I value and what you value are probably different. I own many Li batteries and for what I use them for and how often I use them I am willing to pay the price. But to spend $300 plus for 1 more day of camping “occasionally” - I’d just buy another $100 battery if and when I needed it.
But that’s just me and my values.