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Adding a lithium Ion battery to FWC


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#1 cdbrow1

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Posted 27 January 2015 - 02:11 AM

Hi all.

In buying my Hawk one of my concerns was battery life and weight. I don't plan on spending a lot of nights in my Hawk (In a row), but I do need a CPAP, cold beer and I like to use the heater - each one of those hits the battery. Add in laptop and camera chargers, lights and a microwave (hate cooking too) plus my micro freezer and the power drain starts adding up. Besides that there is much better battery technology out there in the world today then lead acid. I decided I wanted to try and push the envelope a bit. That being said I ordered my Hawk with only one battery - so FWC would do the wiring for me and ordered a 100amhr lithium ion battery (iron phosphate chemistry).

While 100 amp hours may not sound like much - this battery is rated for 2000 cycles at 80% discharge. It should be equvilant to 4 similar sized lead acids which should only go to 50% discharge. It also only weighs 29 lbs. voltage drop under load is much lower as well.

Today I confirmed with IOTA that the factory 30 DLS charger will work within the voltage requirements of the battery (nothing over 14.6 for 5 minutes) - or 16.0 instant. The battery has it own high and low voltage shutoff as well as cell isolation and other safety features. The battery is designed to work with a standard car charging system so the IOTA was my only question.

Because of low resistance lithium ion is supposed to charge quicker than lead acid - although some say this is not entirely true. The rate of self discharge is also much lower.

The battery arrives on weds via fed ex I will post in update once I have it installed.
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#2 Samo

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Posted 27 January 2015 - 02:20 AM

Subscribing  :ph34r:


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#3 Happyjax

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Posted 27 January 2015 - 02:20 AM

I am very interested in the outcome:)


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#4 photohc

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Posted 27 January 2015 - 03:02 AM

This is great! I am also in the process of planning to replace my two 75AH AGM batteries with  a 100ah LiFePo4 prismatic cell system (28#'s). I also believe this will easily double my power output due to the efficiency of the Lithiums and last 3 times longer than the AGM's. These batteries are not cheap or easy to get. From the sounds of your post, you'll be getting a ready built battery with the BMS (battery management system) already built in?

 

I would be interested in who you ordered this from as well.

 

My plan is order my cells from here. I also will get this BMS, which is one of the first solar based BMS systems out there. This is a Kickstarter project that was completed last year and I have one order. Call me crazy but I like doing this kind of stuff.

 

Looking forward to hearing more of your installation.


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#5 cdbrow1

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Posted 27 January 2015 - 04:19 AM

Cost for the batt?

Sent from my SM-G900P using Wander The West mobile app

 

The cost at this point is $900. Hopefully that will be the full cost, but if I need to replace the charger I will need to invest the funds. 


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#6 cdbrow1

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Posted 27 January 2015 - 04:23 AM

This is great! I am also in the process of planning to replace my two 75AH AGM batteries with  a 100ah LiFePo4 prismatic cell system (28#'s). I also believe this will easily double my power output due to the efficiency of the Lithiums and last 3 times longer than the AGM's. These batteries are not cheap or easy to get. From the sounds of your post, you'll be getting a ready built battery with the BMS (battery management system) already built in?

 

I would be interested in who you ordered this from as well.

 

My plan is order my cells from here. I also will get this BMS, which is one of the first solar based BMS systems out there. This is a Kickstarter project that was completed last year and I have one order. Call me crazy but I like doing this kind of stuff.

 

Looking forward to hearing more of your installation.

 

I am getting a ready built battery from Stark Power. They SEEM to have a good reputation, but in this business it is hard to know for sure.  I was dealing with another vendor who demanded payment via a wire transfer - at which point I opted out. I wanted to pay with plastic for obvious reasons if there is a problem with follow through. Lithtronics seems to have a very good reputation, but I had a hard time finding a vendor willing to sell me their product (they would not sell direct). 


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#7 takesiteasy

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Posted 27 January 2015 - 01:43 PM

This is of great interest to me as well. Looking forward to seeing some pictures of your installation.


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#8 cdbrow1

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Posted 27 January 2015 - 04:10 PM

This is of great interest to me as well. Looking forward to seeing some pictures of your installation.

 

Ideally the installation should look like a normal group 31 battery - but I will see when it arrives tomorrow. 


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#9 enelson

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Posted 27 January 2015 - 05:06 PM

If your compartment is vented you can seal it off from the outside air.  LiFePo batteries like room temperature best and is important if you want to charge at a higher current.  I charge at low current on cold mornings since the solar isn't doing much of anything then and I'm only getting 6A out of the trailer wiring aux battery power.  I need to bring my IR thermometer to measure the temperature of the batteries during cold morning camping.


Edited by enelson, 27 January 2015 - 05:07 PM.

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#10 cdbrow1

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Posted 27 January 2015 - 06:20 PM

If your compartment is vented you can seal it off from the outside air.  LiFePo batteries like room temperature best and is important if you want to charge at a higher current.  I charge at low current on cold mornings since the solar isn't doing much of anything then and I'm only getting 6A out of the trailer wiring aux battery power.  I need to bring my IR thermometer to measure the temperature of the batteries during cold morning camping.

 

I believe the FWC battery space is not specifically vented. The battery is accessible from inside the camper and not outside.  That being said it is still down low in the camper and close to the bed of the truck (which tends to be cold). I was aware of the cold weather charging issue with LiFePo batteries, but I think it is only an issue below freezing temps. I think that is not going to be a problem in that location. I had not thought about using my IR thermometer to check on the battery, but that is a great idea and I will make it so. 


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