PD4560 Power Center - Lithium Batteries

[Highlander-cMac]

We have a 2024 Eagle 321 RSTS. It has the Progressive Dynamics PD4560WI power center with the LA - LI switch. It even has a sticker on the front showing the switch operation and "Lithium Ready". The manual states the LI setting is single stage at 14.4v (not good really for my batteries). The 5W also has OEM Overlander 1 package which is GoPower 30a MPPT and 190w panel on the roof.

I replaced the cheap LA battery that came on the coach this year with two Epoch 105Ah batteries (in parallel). Also added the GoPower MPPT remote so I could add a custom charge profile from solar for the battery specs. The out the box Lithium setting produced Pack Overcharge warnings. Voltage was too aggressive for Bulk/Absorption and Float for the LI batteries.

I spoke by phone with customer service at PD about the LI setting on the power center/converter. They suggested I run the converter in LA mode with Charge Wizard enabled instead of switching to LI. This will give a normal charge voltage of 13.6v and in boost mode 14.4v. The LA "storage" or I guess Float voltage is 13.2v. That's typically going to be below my LI battery nominal voltage. They suggested if we did any off-grid camping, the next time on shore power, manually active Boost mode which puts 14.4v for 4 hours on the batteries. The solar MPPT would top off the batteries with adequate solar available. I believe when I spoke to customer support it was mentioned the newer PD4560 in a 2024 coach should be outputting 14.2v in boost. I guess they stepped down the voltage in newer ones? I need to check voltage on our first trip out.

At least 95% of the camping we do would be on the grid, but I wanted the option to stay at a Harvest Host and not have the Everchill DC fridge kill my LA battery, which it did once already. That said, most of the time our batteries are going to be substantially if not fully charged from shore or solar power.

My question for the forum is if we find the PD4560 just isn't good for the batteries, get overcharge warnings due to the LA storage mode going into sulfation protection every 4 hours at 14.4v or just not charging at all, has anyone disconnected their battery from the PD4560 and replaced it with a Victron IP22 charger? What are the steps?

Does disconnecting the batteries from the PD4560 harm the power center components? Will all the coach DC run from the PD4560 when on shore power or the batteries if the battery is not connected to the PD4560? It's not really clear from online researching, conflicting reports.

 

[Learjet]

yes you can disconnect the batteries and that converter will be fine. My Vatrer batteries have no issues using the Li setting.

 

[Highlander-cMac]

Maybe should clarify the question, if you disconnect the battery from the power center because the charger is replaced with for example a Victron IP22, then battery is no longer connected to the PD4560. So if off-grid, how does the battery get power to the DC house side?

 

[craigav]

You would still need to keep the battery connected to the fuse panel. You could possibly turn off the converter's breaker which would disable the converter when on shore power or pull the reverse polarity fuses. Keep in mind that your PD4560 produces 60 amps which I don't think any of the Victron IP22's can produce.

 

[Learjet]

you don't get 60 amps to the battery though. There is a 50 amp CB on the charge line and the most I've measured from the converter to the batteries is ~40 amps due to resistance of the factory charge wire.

 

[Highlander-cMac]

you don't get 60 amps to the battery though. There is a 50 amp CB on the charge line and the most I've measured from the converter to the batteries is ~40 amps due to resistance of the factory charge wire.

Roger that. It's 6awg wire OEM and guess maybe 10 to 15 feet of that from converter to batteries. Of course there's always the possibility of a big spool of wiring left from build. I'd be happy with 30amps to the batteries. It's only 210Ah so not like a huge bank by any means.

 

[Highlander-cMac]

I guess there is some confidence to be gained by BattleBorn selling Progress Dynamics converters and exactly the 4500 series. Seems like a good endorsement.

 

[F350guy-JAY]

I converted my 2020 Pinnacle to lithium. The PD converter/charger, which was a 4500 series if remember correctly, had Li on the circuit board but no switch. I got a Victron charger for it and disconnected the Charge Wizzard on the PD. I called PD and asked how to disable it since I was going with a separate charger. They had me pull the 3 25amp circuit breakers on the circuit board. Everything worked the same except for the charger which was now handled by the Victron. I used an IP43 smart charger.