hummingbird lithium ion battery

[thv]

Has anyone replaced battery with battle born lithium ion battery on a jayco hummingbird. if so do we need to replace the charger and monitor and inverter. Where us the charger and inverter located

 

[muckinfuss]

I don't know anything specific to the battery brand you mentioned, so here's what I know of Lithium batteries. There are three different chemistries, and they don't each respond to the same type of charge/discharge cycle. I have replaced the lead acid batteries in several custom motorcycle builds with Lithium due to size and weight. However, I also had to replace the charging system regulators with electronic solid state versions. Extra cost beyond the battery cost. Also, I have a Lithium specific battery charger/minder and NEVER use an automotive charger on them to freshen. Once dead, they don't come back to life....ever. That said, the chemistry called LifPO (sp) is the only one I've settled on. Good luck as you decide.

 

[hummy]

there's a kick panel near the sink floor, that's were my charger and inverter is located on my hummy rb. from what i have read when you go to a lithium battery you need to change out the charger and inverter. Unless you do a lot of boon docking I would go with two 6v. cheaper! We don't dry camp and my class 27 battery is 3 years old on my hummingbird.

 

[01tundra-JAY]

Your Hummingbirds came from the factory with an inverter?

 

[hummy]

Your right no inverter, sorry

 

[01tundra-JAY]

Your WFCO converter will charge the BattleBorn, but possibly not to 100% because it will come out of bulk charge mode too quick. You can call BattleBorn and they can walk you through everything, they are very helpful and have great customer service. You could upgrade the battery and then upgrade the converter later.

I replaced our WFCO converter with a PD4655L Wildkat, since our factory converter was 55 amps, you would need to check the model number on yours to determine the proper amperage required. Changing the converter is very easy since with this one you can keep the factory 12V fuse panel. With this converter it charges our BattleBorn batteries at 14.6V until it gets them up to 100% SOC when set to Lithium mode.

The bigger issue is the wire size that the factory ran between your converter and battery, which is likely 8 AWG max. So even with an upgraded converter you're still going to get some substantial voltage loss through the small factory charge wire. This is why I moved our batteries inside to the back of the trailer about a foot away from the converter and used 1/0 cable for all of the positive and negative wiring. We get a full 55 amps when the converter starts charging and then it tapers off once it approaches 100%. We can recharge very fast. Smaller charge wire will just result in slower charge times.

With a LiFePO4 battery I would highly recommend some sort of battery monitoring system, we use a Victron BMV-712 and are very satisfied with it.

 

[jpurple]

Hummingbird Lithium battery

Sorry if I am posting this request wrong but I am new to the forum use. Has anyone replaced the battery In a Hummingbird with a lithium battery? What brand is recommended? People have mentioned the BattleBorn and LiFePO4 battery.

 

[AppraiserJoe]

Check out the Hobotech YouTube channel - HOBOTECH

There is great info on that site about all kinds of topics including batteries. It's a great learning channel.

 

[IamSpartacus]

Sorry I'm late to the show but I did.

I went with 2 x 100 amp battle burns. They are fantastic but I also had to rewire the infrastructure of the electric system.

1. Cut out the wfco converter/charger cords, run new 120 vac cord to front pass through storage.
2. Build insulated box, with computer fan on a switch to pull conditioned/heated air as necessary to maintain batt temps.
3. Mount lithium specific charger near battery to save $ on heavy gauge dc wiring and prevent voltage drop. Then run dc wires back to wfco dc bus to power dc system.
4. Install victron batt monitor.

It takes 3.3 hrs gen time or plug in time to fully charge my batts. I leave it for 4 just to ensure fully leveled batts. I put in 2 quick disconnects, 1 for converter, I like to disconnect it and cycle the battery, and 1 for the battery itself, to pull it out when I store the battery. I put it on drawer slides so it is easy. Storage, it just goes into my closet with a trash bag over the top of the batteries to prevent an accidental terminal to terminal from something or other.

Because i did this, my solar installation will be super simple because all the wiring is already setup now. Although, to be honest, I may not do solar because the generator every couple of days or every 5 after light use is so easy to do.

 

[Seaninnj]

Sorry I'm late to the show but I did.

I went with 2 x 100 amp battle burns. They are fantastic but I also had to rewire the infrastructure of the electric system.

1. Cut out the wfco converter/charger cords, run new 120 vac cord to front pass through storage.
2. Build insulated box, with computer fan on a switch to pull conditioned/heated air as necessary to maintain batt temps.
3. Mount lithium specific charger near battery to save $ on heavy gauge dc wiring and prevent voltage drop. Then run dc wires back to wfco dc bus to power dc system.
4. Install victron batt monitor.

It takes 3.3 hrs gen time or plug in time to fully charge my batts. I leave it for 4 just to ensure fully leveled batts. I put in 2 quick disconnects, 1 for converter, I like to disconnect it and cycle the battery, and 1 for the battery itself, to pull it out when I store the battery. I put it on drawer slides so it is easy. Storage, it just goes into my closet with a trash bag over the top of the batteries to prevent an accidental terminal to terminal from something or other.

Can you share a few pictures of your build? I'm curious what it looks like and exactly where it is. Thanks

 

[IamSpartacus]

I dont have any pictures, but it sits right in the middle of the forward pass through.