Brought her home

[DonkeyFluffer]

Replaced my original (and only 6 month old AGM house batteries) with four 100ah Weize LifePO4 lithium batteries. Going from four 6 volt AGM batteries wired series to parallel, to four lithium wired parallel only was intimidating but straightforward after some thought. I did have to make a couple of my own 2/0 cables, but I have a crimper and, being a Jeeper, plenty of experience with making battery cables since I dual battery all my Jeeps.

The battery tray had to be modified. It was about 1/4" too short with the latitudinal dividers. So I cut the dividers out, grinded everything smooth, and painted the tray to prevent rust. The longitudinal dividers were fine as they were. Then the new batteries fit perfectly.

I swapped out the BIM for the LiBIzm that Rustynuts told me about. Easy day there

Switching the converter to the Lithium setting was also easy.

What I do need help with is the VegaTouch. I want to make all the settings correct but I don't want to adjust the wrong batteries. Are the house batteries considered battery #1 or battery #2?Attachment 83106Attachment 83107Attachment 83108Attachment 83109Attachment 83110Attachment 83111Attachment 83112Attachment 83113

[DonkeyFluffer]

And my Onan 10k generator was past due for its first oil/filter change. 80.2 hours. Easy job. 22mm drain plug, 1.5 gallons Rotella, Feetguard filter.

[Rustynuts]

One critical thing with Lithium is to make sure the all your cables between your batteries are the exact same length. It is also important that tour main negative and positive feeding your system are of equal length. When I did my system, I upped all my cables to 4/0

[DonkeyFluffer]

How do you do that if the distance between them varies? Do I just make extra long cables for the short distances?

[DonkeyFluffer]

As far as the leads, I don't really know how to measure them since the other end disappears into the RV's never never land.

But I will do my best to change all cables from 2/0 to 4/0 and get their total lengths as equal as possible. Thanks again

EDIT: Figured it out. By rearranging the batteries and making a few more cables (discarding others), I'll get them all even. Thank Rustynuts.

[Semix-Hex]

Originally Posted by DonkeyFluffer

And my Onan 10k generator was past due for its first oil/filter change. 80.2 hours. Easy job. 22mm drain plug, 1.5 gallons Rotella, Feetguard filter.

Since I did all of the solar work, I seldom need my generator. I do run it for two hours twice a month under load, I'm almost at 34 hours though at it's one year anniversary, I'll be changing the oil and filter Also installing my Fumoto valve with adapter.

[Jmorenz]

Originally Posted by DonkeyFluffer

Replaced my original (and only 6 month old AGM house batteries) with four 100ah Weize LifePO4 lithium batteries. Going from four 6 volt AGM batteries wired series to parallel, to four lithium wired parallel only was intimidating but straightforward after some thought. I did have to make a couple of my own 2/0 cables, but I have a crimper and, being a Jeeper, plenty of experience with making battery cables since I dual battery all my Jeeps.

The battery tray had to be modified. It was about 1/4" too short with the latitudinal dividers. So I cut the dividers out, grinded everything smooth, and painted the tray to prevent rust. The longitudinal dividers were fine as they were. Then the new batteries fit perfectly.

I swapped out the BIM for the LiBIzm that Rustynuts told me about. Easy day there

Switching the converter to the Lithium setting was also easy.

What I do need help with is the VegaTouch. I want to make all the settings correct but I don't want to adjust the wrong batteries. Are the house batteries considered battery #1 or battery #2?Attachment 83106Attachment 83107Attachment 83108Attachment 83109Attachment 83110Attachment 83111Attachment 83112Attachment 83114Attachment 83113

Only one attachment showing. Would love to see the others.

[DonkeyFluffer]

Originally Posted by Jmorenz

Only one attachment showing. Would love to see the others.

That keeps happening to me. I attach 9 pics and they show, and then the next day it has been cut down by several pics. In this case down to one. I do everything on my Samsung phone (don't own a computer). It's frustrating.
Attachment 83130Attachment 83131Attachment 83132

[DonkeyFluffer]

Originally Posted by Semix-Hex

Since I did all of the solar work, I seldom need my generator. I do run it for two hours twice a month under load, I'm almost at 34 hours though at it's one year anniversary, I'll be changing the oil and filter Also installing my Fumoto valve with adapter.

That's the goal. On my last motorhome I added solar and AGM batteries and significantly reduced my generator usage. And now with the SoftStart installed on both A/C's, I'll be bringing one of my two little Ryobi inverter gensets to recharge batts on the rainy days or run one of the A/C's. But I will say that 10k diesel is quieter than my previous 4k gas generator.

[DonkeyFluffer]

All cables are now the same length (13").

On another note I was able to recondition the original AGM's and they held up the a load test at 6.6 volts. Sold them on Craigslist for a buck fifty.

They weighed a combined 230lbs, the 4 lithiums I replaced them with were a total of 104lbs, so that's a big bonus right there.

[DonkeyFluffer]

Added 2x190 watt panels to the factory 190. Pretty straightforward install. Thoroughly cleaned my entire roof first with a brush and Murphy's Oil Soap. Panels were both VHB taped and screwed, as well topped with Eternabond and Dicor. Sealed my front and rear caps with Eternabond also. Soon I'll go back and Eternabond all other openings.

[Jmorenz]

Originally Posted by DonkeyFluffer

Added 2x190 watt panels to the factory 190. Pretty straightforward install. Thoroughly cleaned my entire roof first with a brush and Murphy's Oil Soap. Panels were both VHB taped and screwed, as well topped with Eternabond and Dicor. Sealed my front and rear caps with Eternabond also. Soon I'll go back and Eternabond all other openings.Attachment 83252Attachment 83253

Are the go power overlander expansions? Did you get them online anywhere?
Thanks, batteries look great!

[DonkeyFluffer]

I went with the HQST. Same specs as the GoPower, but $199 each and just above the $1 per watt that's considered a fair deal these days. The Go Power's were $434 each!

[Jmorenz]

Originally Posted by DonkeyFluffer

I went with the HQST. Same specs as the GoPower, but $199 each and just above the $1 per watt that's considered a fair deal these days. The Go Power's were $434 each!Attachment 83261

I was reading the same good choice.

[DonkeyFluffer]

Installed the Victron 712 battery monitor and set it up to watch my house and chassis batteries. I'll have pics of where I put the gauge and the setup involved with that later. What I has to do was make a supported platform that sits above my batteries but doesn't touch them. Then I was able to add the Victron shunt, a heavy duty battery cutoff that actually shuts off everything coming off the house batteries, and heavy duty busbars to declutter my battery posts. I was concerned that the shunt wouldn't be protected from the elements so I put it in a plastic box and fit grommets in the holes I drilled. I'm going to silicone them today.

Everything works great

[DonkeyFluffer]

The Victron 712 monitor. I installed it under the Xantrex remote. Programmed it as best I could using the Bluetooth app.

[DonkeyFluffer]

Hung a little sign on my ladder so you could contact me if you were behind or passing me. I run a 2m ham, CB, and GMRS mobile units while traveling. Already got contacted by the trucker behind me at a Love's the other day, asking me how crowded it was inside the store.

[DonkeyFluffer]

The awning extension was a definite win this past week at Devils Backbone Campground. It really adds to our shaded area and unzips quickly if a storm were to roll in

[DonkeyFluffer]

We have 3 Shepherds and they are very well behaved. I've always trained my dogs to a high level. But just in case our youngest, not quite 5 months, wanted to get a little wild, I added the Lippert Screen Defender to my door. He never showed any interest, but it still added some rigidity to the door and might stop me from accidentally putting my hand, or stray griddle tool, though the door.

[Learjet]

congrats....very nice