Battery up grade

[CAMPINGFOOL]

Hey everyone I have a 2022 337rls fifthwheel. I am looking to up grade the one 12 volt battery that it came with. We do a lot of Boondocking and my refrigerator runs only on 12 volts. I have solar but it doesn't seem to get the battery back to a complete charge during the day. I usually have to run my generator as long as I can before bed so my battery isn't almost dead by morning and that's without using the Furness at all. I was thinking about going to a lithium battery but my wife has read and heard a lot about them blowing up or catching fire. my other alternative would be two 6 volt golf cart battery's. I had the 2 6 volts on my last trailer and they worked great but my refrigerator did not run off 12 volts so at night nothing was on unless we had to run the Furness. If anyone has some input I would really appreciate it. I would really love to hear anyone's input on the lithium battery's as well.

[ncitro]

I would definitely recommend going with a lithium battery. Do some reading on lithium iron phosphate, you’ll find the fire issues are mostly with lithium ion (such as lithium cobalt). They say you could throw a lithium iron phosphate into a fire and it would not catch fire.

There are a lot of drop in 12v options out there, Brattleborn is probably the most expensive with Lion energy behind them. Recently some less expensive options have become popular with LITime being one. I’d recommend Will Prowse (YouTube), he does a lot of video tear downs of batteries.

I personally run the Lion energy, but I bought several years ago when the choices were not as numerous. That said I’ve been very happy with the capacity and charge rate (less generator run time to charge) from LiFePO4.

[acoleman43]

Hey everyone I have a 2022 337rls fifthwheel. I am looking to up grade the one 12 volt battery that it came with. We do a lot of Boondocking and my refrigerator runs only on 12 volts. I have solar but it doesn't seem to get the battery back to a complete charge during the day. I usually have to run my generator as long as I can before bed so my battery isn't almost dead by morning and that's without using the Furness at all. I was thinking about going to a lithium battery but my wife has read and heard a lot about them blowing up or catching fire. my other alternative would be two 6 volt golf cart battery's. I had the 2 6 volts on my last trailer and they worked great but my refrigerator did not run off 12 volts so at night nothing was on unless we had to run the Furness. If anyone has some input I would really appreciate it. I would really love to hear anyone's input on the lithium battery's as well.

It is very rare that any lithium battery catches fire or blows up. When one does, it is plastered all over the news...which doesn't represent the millions of lithium batteries that have never caught fire or blown up.

I agree with Neil about LifePO4 batteries. Make sure it has a solid BMS and you should never have an issue. The LifePO4 batteries have more usable power, have 10x more charging cycles, Less voltage drop, and more. The additional cost is well worth the extra life and more usable power.

With our 12v fridge and a 300W panel, we were running our battery dead in about 5-6 hours after the sun went down. About 1 AM the fridge would start beeping with a low voltage error because the battery voltage dropped below acceptable levels for the fridge.

This started us down a rabbit hole of more solar and more battery. Assuming we get good sun exposure during the day, we can literally boondock indefinitely. This forum has a lot of smart people who can answer any question about solar and batteries.

[Country Campers]

There are plenty of owners on here with Lithium batteries that have not had any issues over the years. I have a 12 v dc fridge as well and the lithium does excellent at keeping all things in the RV working, I even think they work better with the lithium batteries, slides, jacks, refer. I have 6 of the Lion brand but would definitely go with the LiTime brand today, get 2 there small and light weight.

Brian

[howson]

Hey everyone I have a 2022 337rls fifthwheel. I am looking to up grade the one 12 volt battery that it came with. We do a lot of Boondocking and my refrigerator runs only on 12 volts. I have solar but it doesn't seem to get the battery back to a complete charge during the day. I usually have to run my generator as long as I can before bed so my battery isn't almost dead by morning and that's without using the Furness at all. I was thinking about going to a lithium battery but my wife has read and heard a lot about them blowing up or catching fire. my other alternative would be two 6 volt golf cart battery's. I had the 2 6 volts on my last trailer and they worked great but my refrigerator did not run off 12 volts so at night nothing was on unless we had to run the Furness. If anyone has some input I would really appreciate it. I would really love to hear anyone's input on the lithium battery's as well.

What most people use in campers is a LifePO4, or lithium iron phosphate battery (very safe) not one of the types of lithium used in autos or tools. See https://dragonflyenergy.com/types-of...tteries-guide/ for an indepth explanation.

[Yoda]

Hey everyone I have a 2022 337rls fifthwheel. I am looking to up grade the one 12 volt battery that it came with. We do a lot of Boondocking and my refrigerator runs only on 12 volts. I have solar but it doesn't seem to get the battery back to a complete charge during the day. I usually have to run my generator as long as I can before bed so my battery isn't almost dead by morning and that's without using the Furness at all. I was thinking about going to a lithium battery but my wife has read and heard a lot about them blowing up or catching fire. my other alternative would be two 6 volt golf cart battery's. I had the 2 6 volts on my last trailer and they worked great but my refrigerator did not run off 12 volts so at night nothing was on unless we had to run the Furness. If anyone has some input I would really appreciate it. I would really love to hear anyone's input on the lithium battery's as well.

Neil ncitro Is spot on with his advice. While I don't have the 12v fridge (yet) I do run 2 CPAP units off of my 12v power at night. I have 4 Crown CR260 6V batterys in series/parallel config to give me a 520AH of battery bank, and I still put a good dent in it over night. My solar does keep up. I think I have about 560W of panels on my roof now.

For your situation first check if your solar controller has a Lithium setting. Your current converter may or may not have a Lithium setting - if not it will get a Lithium Iron Phosphate battery to 80% charge and the solar will top it off. My recommendation for research. First consider upgrading your solar panels by adding more, or even carry a portable suitcase unit of 200W or more. If you solar controller is not lithium compatible consider an MPPT unit from Victron.. If you add more panels get a second controller unit - you can run both at the same time.

As for batterys LiTime has some great prices and deep sales from time to time as well as others.. Will Prose likes them. He has a list of his recommended brands on his site too. I dont think Battle Born is on his current list. SOK has been having a lot of BMS issues currently. When on sale they can be cheaper then the equivalent usable AH flooded batterys. I will be switching to LiTime when my 6v give out - going on over 4 years now. Remember you can't use more than 50% on a flooded battery or you will damage it. Lithium can be fully discharged without damage. Now as for fire as Neil pointed out the Lithium Iron Phosphate will not catch fire if damaged, unlike the Tesla (lithium cobalt?) . I believe Will Prowse has a video discussing that. Also a flooded battery can explode under certain conditions as the gases released are highly flammable/explosive in confined spaces if not properly vented. The damage can be quiet extensive. Please do your own research on this - lots of information out there. Use your good judgement though.

There are numerous good threads here on adding solar panels and changing to Lithium batterys, so happy reading.

Hope this helps
Keith

[BobinICT]

I'll just say this in regards to LifePO4. I was in your same situation a couple of years ago when I wanted to upgrade from one FLA battery. Never left the driveway with that thing. I knew Lithium costs were coming down but at the time, I went with two, very heave 6 volt AGM batteries and they did us decent on 12 volt needs. Then came the inverter. Couldn't even make a pot of coffee. Went with Lion, two 1300's. Have served us well but, now. want more power and to double them, it's around $1,200 or more.

Battleborn is the IBM of LifePO4, first in the market with premium batteries that are known to be reliable and last. That said, others have now entered the market. And quite frankly, BB has dug themselves a hole on pricing. Similar to Tesla. Tesla dropped pricing to move EV's and totally ****** off their customer base. Resale tanked. I believe BB would go out of business if they dropped their pricing to somewhere around companies like LiTime.

In a nutshell, Litime, Chin and others are moving good quality batteries at an affordable price. They seem to be safe to use, and preform just as good as BB. Who knows what the future brings but, for now, there are pretty good lower cost choices and options available now. All the cells are made in China anyways. It's the builder that makes the price point now.

[rtrainer]

Neil ncitro Is spot on with his advice. While I don't have the 12v fridge (yet) I do run 2 CPAP units off of my 12v power at night. I have 4 Crown CR260 6V batterys in series/parallel config to give me a 520AH of battery bank, and I still put a good dent in it over night. My solar does keep up. I think I have about 560W of panels on my roof now.

For your situation first check if your solar controller has a Lithium setting. Your current converter may or may not have a Lithium setting - if not it will get a Lithium Iron Phosphate battery to 80% charge and the solar will top it off. My recommendation for research. First consider upgrading your solar panels by adding more, or even carry a portable suitcase unit of 200W or more. If you solar controller is not lithium compatible consider an MPPT unit from Victron.. If you add more panels get a second controller unit - you can run both at the same time.

As for batterys LiTime has some great prices and deep sales from time to time as well as others.. Will Prose likes them. He has a list of his recommended brands on his site too. I dont think Battle Born is on his current list. SOK has been having a lot of BMS issues currently. When on sale they can be cheaper then the equivalent usable AH flooded batterys. I will be switching to LiTime when my 6v give out - going on over 4 years now. Remember you can't use more than 50% on a flooded battery or you will damage it. Lithium can be fully discharged without damage. Now as for fire as Neil pointed out the Lithium Iron Phosphate will not catch fire if damaged, unlike the Tesla (lithium cobalt?) . I believe Will Prowse has a video discussing that. Also a flooded battery can explode under certain conditions as the gases released are highly flammable/explosive in confined spaces if not properly vented. The damage can be quiet extensive. Please do your own research on this - lots of information out there. Use your good judgement though.

There are numerous good threads here on adding solar panels and changing to Lithium batterys, so happy reading.

Hope this helps
Keith

What problems is SOK having with their BMS? I am looking at them over the LiTime because the BMS is replaceable as are the cells.

[Sandridge4]

Hey everyone I have a 2022 337rls fifthwheel. I am looking to up grade the one 12 volt battery that it came with. We do a lot of Boondocking and my refrigerator runs only on 12 volts. I have solar but it doesn't seem to get the battery back to a complete charge during the day. I usually have to run my generator as long as I can before bed so my battery isn't almost dead by morning and that's without using the Furness at all. I was thinking about going to a lithium battery but my wife has read and heard a lot about them blowing up or catching fire. my other alternative would be two 6 volt golf cart battery's. I had the 2 6 volts on my last trailer and they worked great but my refrigerator did not run off 12 volts so at night nothing was on unless we had to run the Furness. If anyone has some input I would really appreciate it. I would really love to hear anyone's input on the lithium battery's as well.

I switched from FLA to Lifepo4 in December my only regret is not doing it sooner. We were in Quartzsite in February boondocking and they worked great. For the change over I replaced the converter to a Powermax and purchased 2 LiTime 100ah batteries. We were able to run all day and our solar produced enough to also recharge the batteries. At night we ran a cpap and the furnace (fridge runs on propane) and batteries were at about 70% in the morning, with the inverter running we would make coffee in the morning watch a little tv and the batteries would be down to about 50% or so and then back to 90% or more with the solar during the day. We have a generator but never used it.

[Yoda]

What problems is SOK having with their BMS? I am looking at them over the LiTime because the BMS is replaceable as are the cells.

Google "SOK BMS problems" and sit back and start reading. https://www.google.com/search?client...K+BMS+problems
There is a Facebook SOK page too. https://www.facebook.com/groups/2950255091767614

From what I know they changed thier BMS - they make thier own I believe- an were having charging and wake up issues and output cut off below ratings. I know they are working on it. I used to be a fan of SOK as you could service the components - until the issues popped up. I am still in the research and watching prices, but I am betting come Black Friday I will be replacing my 6V flooded. with LiTime. Check out Will Prose reviews. https://www.youtube.com/@WillProwse

There are LITime issues, but much less and it was the older Ampere Tim units in most cases. https://www.google.com/search?client...+problems#ip=1

To me its important to research what your interested in and form your own educated position and not depend only on others opinions.. BTW flooded batterys, including AGM fail all the time too.

That's one thing that sets this site apart from others - the exchange of facts and wanting folks to form thier own opinion. I may not agree 100% with what folks say (and it's OK here to politely disagree) , but it makes me think and look into things more and I have learned I could be.....................................gulp....... ............................WRONG

Keith

[rtrainer]

Yoda I saw a few of the articles but they are mostly a year old or older.

[Scott'n'Wendy]

Good advice above. For your wife's peace of mind explain the difference between Li-ion and LiFePO4. The latter does not overheat and catch fire like a cell phone or EV car-even those are rare and blown out of proportion imo.
You will need to add a panel or two to get the battery charged up without the generator though. For your camping style, probably a very good investment.

They say you could throw a lithium iron phosphate into a fire and it would not catch fire.

Soooo...do you think Will Prowse will do a burn down rather than a tear down?? You know, in the interest of advancing science and knowledge.

[ncitro]

Good advice above. For your wife's peace of mind explain the difference between Li-ion and LiFePO4. The latter does not overheat and catch fire like a cell phone or EV car-even those are rare and blown out of proportion imo.
You will need to add a panel or two to get the battery charged up without the generator though. For your camping style, probably a very good investment.


Soooo...do you think Will Prowse will do a burn down rather than a tear down?? You know, in the interest of advancing science and knowledge.

I would watch that lol.

[reubenray]

If I were to upgrade my Group 24 AGM battery what would be the max I could do without changing anything else? My current battery is very heavy and a PITA to remove during the winter. I have a single 370 watt solar panel and a Progressive PD55K106 converter 50 AMP solar package. I don't plan on boondocking, but I want something to keep the 12v refrigerator running in case I get stranded somewhere.

[howson]

... and a Progressive PD55K106 converter 50 AMP solar package.

??? The PD55K106 appears to be a Power Center ("box"), not a converter. https://www.progressivedyn.com/wp-co...on_options.pdf

Knowing what model converter is in your unit will determine if a replacement is required to get the full potential out of a LifePO4. (Most likely your '24 model has a lithium-compatible charger, but a wise man once said "trust but verify".