StirCrazy
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Re: What battery do I need?
it isn't. that's still old thinking, the cost of a 100AH Lithium is the same or only slightly more expensive than a ok flooded battery now. and when you figure the life span it is much cheaper than that flooded battery over the long run, even if you only keep that rv 10 years your saving money now. and if you are like me when you trade in that rv on a new one you move the lithium batteries over also the price of "A" grade 100AH cells has dropped so low now, I can probably build a 100amp battery for about 100 bucks if I don't use the expensive BMS brands, so companies are probably doing bulk deals and building them for 50-70 bucks. but the should be going up in price today thanks to teriffs.25Views0likes0CommentsRe: What battery do I need?
the problem is the actual voltage by the time it gets from the alternator all the way back is lacking. I have seen them using the 7 way measuring as low as 10V with load on it, others have said lower but it makes me wonder about their meter haha I don't have power going to either my camper or my 5th wheel from the truck because of this, I use the solar to charge while I am driving. I am adding dc to dc to both for emergency use (its already in the camper, just a 20 amp renogy thing for 100 bucks CDN.) he could do that if he added a cheep dc to dc it would make up for that low voltage by drawing more current so if he got say a 10 to 20 amp dc to dc that would work fine. he also has 200 watts of solar to help with the driving part. I think between the solar and a small dc to dc he would be covered. even if he is at 60% (60AH) a two hour drive with the DC to DC and the solar should be able to keep up with the fridge and make his battery full when he arrives any thing over that he could turn off the dc to dc and only use it as needed.24Views1like1CommentRe: What battery do I need?
did they say how long it takes to send it in and get it back? now you have automatic leveling, so I will add something I would have stated in my first post. If switching to lithium when you have an automatic leveling system, find out what the max amperage that the leveling system can pull is and buy enough batteries to be able to handle that, let me explain. So let say for example your jacks are max 50 amps each and can run all 4 at the same time (mine will only run in pairs, fronts, rears or sides). that would be a max draw of 200 amps. so when buying your LiFePO4 batteries you have to see what the manual continuous amperage is and buy it so your not running at the top of that max. so most 100 amp batteries have a 100 amp continuous output. so for 200 amp possibility I would buy three 100 amp batteries. now if the batteries have 150 amp BMS like I used to build mine I would buy 2. you may never need to use that full capacity but for that one time when you need it and don't want to trip the BMS protection because one of your jacks is acting up, its gold.17Views0likes0CommentsRe: What battery do I need?
the 12V fridge makes it tricky, if your going to be plugged in at the campground or at home then you are running the fridge. what I do with my batteries is the day before I go camping I charge them to full by turning off the converter and changing my setpoints on my solar controller to full charge. but for you, well it depends how many amps the standalone charger can put out. you could turn off your converter at the breaker panel and use that to fully charge it, but then all your 12V would be running off the stand alone charger so you have to make sure its a large enough amperage for that. Ideally you can send your converter in and have it converted by WFCO so you still have warranty, or just get them to send it out if you are conferrable doing it yourself and not worry about the warranty as a new converter is less than 300.00 (for a PD 9360) still that's 300 the average person doesn't want to spend. so if your not leaving right away for camping then send it in, if you are then just try it and see how it does. or make sure you have a large enough stand alone to supply the rv while you are using it.21Views0likes0CommentsRe: Android 8" tablet for navigation
haha ya that would suck. up here they would have signs well ahead saying no rv's or commercial vehicles. or it would have been fixed to a minimum height of 13.6 or what ever it is. any areas that have what could be deemed restricted access are well posted.6Views0likes0CommentsRe: add 2nd battery
being that it is 4 years old already, I will say no. acid battery should be all relatively the same age. if it was 6 months old I would say go for it but not 4 years. how long will that battery last right now if you stop for the night with out power keeping your fridge running? depending on the answer to the last question I would recommend for you is either upgrading to a better battery, either 6V deep cycles or LiFePO4. so deep cycles 6V you can get down there from sams club or Costco for what 89 bucks each, but I found a 232 HA US battery for 159.00US. that will give you double what you have now for power, LiFePO4 is a bit more expensive than bargain batteries, but that's because they are not bargain batteries, kind of compare them to higher end deep cycle batteries. the price of them has come down quite a lot, as low as 139.00 each I have seen people posting from the US for ones that are good. I found wattcycle (decently built LiFePO4 battery) for 159.00 on sale. the missing component is if your converter is Li compatible. now what is the difference between the two 6V and the two LiFePO4, the 6V will give you about 208AH (231 if you get the US battery I mentioned above) but to get any decent life out of them you only want to use about 1/2 of that so that leaves you about 105Ah (115 for the US battery) and some where around there your inverter will start going into low voltage alarms if you have to much draw also. with the lithium, the watt cycles are rated at 5000 cycles at 100% depth of discharge so at 5000 cycles even if you drain them twice a weekend every weekend of the year it will out last 99% of us. so if taken care of that's the last batteries you will have to buy most likely. so what you get is 200AH you can use for the same price as the US battery deep cycles. also because of the way the voltage works on the LiFePO4 it probably won't make your inverter alarm until its down to about 10% so lets say in reality you will get about 180Ah from the LiFePO4. I only use mine down to 10% as that's about where the voltage drops below 12V. so its a decision, go cheep and spend 170ish on two cheep deep cycle, spend a little more and spend 320 on good deep cycles, or buy one LiFePO4 wattcycle battery on sale for 160 now if your converter is compatible, as that will give you twice the capacity you can properly use now, then in a few months buy another one, or just spend the 320 and get two at the same price of the US batteries.5Views0likes0CommentsRe: What battery do I need?
its hard to say, there are other things to take into consideration, you don't boondock, but do you always get powered campsites? do you drive very long distances and have a 12V only fridge? does it have power jacks. etc.. I don't like the LiFePO4 batteries from the dealership, not because dragonfly is a bad battery but it is severely over priced. even people that wanted lithium I would tell then to take the trailer home with no batteries and order one from some where else. for you if you always camp with power and so on, the only way I would recommend a lithium battery is if you have a 12V fridge and travel long days to campgrounds. now having said that, if you can work it into the price of the rv, at the last minute after you agreed on the price of the rv with no battery then I say make sure it has a capable converter and get them to throw in the LiFePO4 battery. if you can't no big deal, but a reasonable priced LiFePO4 battery is worth it just in the extra length of time that battery will last you. now if they won't throw one in, you can get decent 100AH LifePO4 batteries in the US for as low as 150.00 (I think a couple brands might be selling at 130.00) so weight that out with your options, get them to explain your converter to you and if it is Li capable, how to switch it.. if it is a WFCO auto detect, because you have solar it won't work properly with a LiFePO4 battery, there is a fix for it but it involves sending the converter into WFCO for a jumper that puts it permanently into Li mode if you want to keep the warranty, and if not they will send the jumper out. to me that's a bad fix, their jumper cable should have a switch built into it so you can go back and forth easy, but that would cost money and there is a reason WFCO comes in most rv's. so that's what you have to weight out.. if you don't use the battery its self for camping, and you don't have a 12V fridge which is on for long periods while your driving with out charging then it comes down to how long the battery will last and how long you plan on keeping the rv. a normal neglected battery you could be changing every 2 years, if you take care of it every 5 years.. a deep cycle you can get a few more years out of if you take care of it, but a LiFePO4 should easily last well over 10 years if you take care of it. there are some other things, they are lighter, smaller and now I'll say cheaper than lead acid for the same working Ah's so if you put two normal group 27's in you would have about 80AH to play with if you wanted it to last more than 2 or 3 years with two 100Ah LiFePO4 that are treated well you have 200AH to play with and they should easily last more than 15 years if you take care of them, so it all boils down to you and how you intend to use them, and how often you want to change them.2Views0likes0CommentsRe: Has anyone removed their slide toppers and regretted it?
ya I personally just think there are to many benefits to having them. keeps debris off the top of the slide, so you don't have to get up there with a broom before you close them if you camp in forested area. Keeps the rain off minimizing the potential for water leaking in around the seals. Keeps the sun off the slide top reducing some heat inside. Keeps pine cones from landing on the fiberglass roof of your slide and making a horrible noise 😆 And, if you are like me and camp when it could snow, it makes for easy snow removal also 😀13Views0likes0CommentsRe: Android 8" tablet for navigation
actualy you can avoid dirt roads in waze and you can always change it from fastest route to shortest route if you don't want it to recalculate. My concern is hight of overpasses and such. its not to much of an issue ion Canada but from what I read there are lots of low ones in the US, unless its just people making it sound worse than it is.22Views0likes9Comments
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