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Battle Born Batteries?
One of my Aqua Hot customers had a U320 Foretravel and she had Two 8D 270 Ah 12 volt LiFePO4 Deep Cycle Lihtium Batteries What does everything of these Batteries?? She had a clean set up with solar and a lot of Victron equipment
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18 Replies
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Following this thread. I, too, am curious.
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It’s almost time for batteries, and we’re also considering Battle Born, trying to find and fix all of the gremlins before we make the investment.
Blog post on Prevost from Battle Born.
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Over the last two years i wrote a series of articles for Bus Conversion magazine on how to safely and properly convert from lead acid to Lithium based house batteries. In that series I had the opportunity to directly experience the many benefits of lithium batteries from different manufacturer/suppliers in house banks up to 1200 amp hours. Recharging from the alternator without modification, from the generator, from shore power or from solar can be done properly without any user interaction. I do not have direct personal experience with Battle Born batteries, but they have a strong reputation and I would not expect anything but positive results from using their products. Same for Victron. I do strongly recommend following the steps outlined in this series of articles or hiring a professional to implement the conversion as there are several things you must do for safety and longevity. This is no place to wing it……
Jerry
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I had them in my 2022 Renegade Ikon with Victron inverters and Victron solar equipment. I only had that coach for 4 1/2 months, but it was flawless. Lots of capacity and the Victron stuff is very easy to use and the remote app was very good too.
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Battleborn are severely overpriced. I have 2x400ah 12V EG4-LL batteries connected to a Victron Quattro 5000w inverter. 1800w solar with victron MPPT and 50DN with wakespeed ws500 controller.
Victron is by far the best inverter and equipment. I’m having an issue with my EG4 batteries not providing enough power and resetting when using AC so I wouldn’t recommend the EG4.
I just ordered a couple SOK 48v 100ah batteries and another 5000w Quattro 48v inverter. Plan is to connect the shore and genny to the 48v inverter inputs then connect that to the 12V input with power assist function, giving me 10k watts on inverter. Hopefully I can add a 48v alternator so I can charge while driving.
The more volts the better the throughout and thinner wiring needed.
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My customer Had a lot of Victron Equipment Inverter-solar-2nd Victron inverter just for newly installed Residential Refrigerator from RV Refrigerator and some kind of Victron box for Blue tooth, Lot’s of expensive equipment, I installed 2 brand new Magnum 2812 inverters 4 or 5 years ago, I would not want to replace with Victron Inverters, I thought the Magnums would handle Lithium, If I could just replace my 4 8D Lifeline batteries with 2 Battle Born 8D batteries without a lot of changes I might do that, I think those Batteries were around 2300 bucks a piece but all the other equipment looks like big bucks, We don’t live in the bus just do some traveling.
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I agree Captain, my Victron equipment is working great!
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Our Magnum Inverters are a great match with Renogy lithium house batteries.
Installed the Magnums 6+ yrs ago
Installed the 3x200ah lithium batts 1 1/2 yrs ago.
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That’s good to hear, I like the Magnum’s Don did you have to heat your Batteries? when it’s cold ?
Jeff and Lindsay
91 Marathon XL -
A battery charger is a battery charger so long as its charging profile can be set for what the battery manufacturer/seller says is the profile correct for that specific battery. Lithium Iron Phosphate batteries operate at a higher voltage than their lead acid cousins whether called flooded LA, AGM, Gell Cell or sealed LA. That difference in voltage is why you should never allow a lead acid battery and a Lithium based battery to be connected together. It is also why the charging profile is different. Most of the quality inverter/chargers can be set for the profile required for either LA or Lithium based batteries so no reason to swap one for the other.
The alternator charging story is a bit different. It takes a very experienced person to safely and properly alter the charging profile output by the stock alternator/voltage regulator to provide what a lithium based battery needs. That is not a DIY project for most. Fortunately, there are now inexpensive devices that will do that for you. They are called Batter-to-Battery chargers and are connected between lead acid and lithium based batteries of the same nominal voltage. In addition to automatically altering the charge profile internally, they also prevent the flow of voltage from the lithium to the lead acid battery when there is no charge current present thereby acting as a battery isolator and they also limit the amount of amperage that can be drawn from the alternator by the lithium batteries to protect the alternator from over heating. That is less of an issue for Prevost conversions given the size and duty cycle of the very large alternators most of us have, but is a major issue for van and smaller motor home conversions. As the size of the lithium house battery bank is increased it can become an issue that must be addressed even for our Prevost conversions.
Jerry
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Art, here’s a thread I did about my install:
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Nice write up Jerry!
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Jerry, I’d disagree a BIM like the one below simply connects and disconnects the battery banks together every 15M or so to prevent the alternator from overheating. Its a horrible device and doesn’t really help.
https://battlebornbatteries.com/product/lifepo4-battery-isolation-manager/
The real solution for us is a WS500 or other smart controller. This controls the alternator so it’ll charge at a specific amperage and limits the current based on the charging profile, as well as the temp of the alternator. This is by far the best option for us since we all should have a separate alternator for house batteries. Many other coaches don’t have separate alternators so using a WS500 with a BIM is another solution.
https://www.wakespeed.com/product/ws500-advanced-alternator-regulator/
With the WS500 I’m able to pump all 270 amps of 12V (I have a 270a 24V DN50 converted to 12V) into my batteries as long as alternator temp is under 200deg then it’ll ramp down based on temp or the state of charge of the battery. Its also CANbus so integrates with my Victron using a special cable and I can see the amperage, voltage and temps the WS500 reports.
Unfortunately my alternator is basically useless as I have a 48V battery system now and my 48V inverter plugs into my 12V inverter and battery system so it should always be charged. Still thinking of a way to program the systems so I can use alternator power and have 12V inverting while driving
Jeff and Lindsay
91 Marathon XL -
Yes, temp limiting (like the Wakespeed) and amp output limiting (like the BtoB chargers) are both good strategies to protect these alternators. Both are better than the time slicers (like the BIMs) which just limit the alternator to a set pattern of on/off times to try to prevent the alternator from over heating. I like the BtoB charger approach because they are quite inexpensive and by deploying multiples of them provides a level of redundancy that I find appealing.
Jerry
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Generation 2 on my bus was 4 8-D AGMs and dual inverters. Just did a conversion to a single 320ah Lithionics and a 3000w inverter.
I chose lithionics because it has a metal case, UL certification, built-in heater, and built in Bluetooth with a helpful app.
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