15 replies to this topic

[astropuppy]

Any ideas or pictures on where to mount a Victron Orion-Tr Smart DC-DC Charger in a dual battery hawk shell? It appears larger than the BLUE SEA 7611 its replacing.

 

[ri-f]

Any ideas or pictures on where to mount a Victron Orion-Tr Smart DC-DC Charger in a dual battery hawk shell? It appears larger than the BLUE SEA 7611 its replacing.

Don't know what type of batteries or AH capacity of your dual setup are, but If you are using two AGMs, for instance, with an 200 AH capacity,  you may be able to save space and weight and see increased efficiency using one 100AH Battleborn LiFe4PO. It will fit into the battery locker of the tower, where you probably now have your dual battery setup. In the same space you could install the Victron Orion-Tr Smart DC-DC Charger, which will work with a lithium battery. You can see a photo of something similar to this at:

 

https://www.wanderth...ybrid-buildout/

 

I've got 1 Battleborn 100AH battery, a DC-to-DC charger, and an MPPT charge controller in the same space that two AGM batteries occupy.

 

Rich

 

 

[astropuppy]

This is a 2020 Hawk; batteries are whatever came with it. Plan is to wait a couple years before converting to LiFePO4.

 

I may just put in Anderson Plugs on either side of  the Blue Sea so I can patch in the Victron Orion when needed. During the summer, the stock Solar works wonderfully; In winter not so much. 100 watt aux solar panel helps a lot; but effectively turning the truck into a generator sounds better.

 

With Anderson's bypassing the Blue Sea I may be able to plug in one of my hobby charges, they all have a pb mode.  

[ri-f]

This is a 2020 Hawk; batteries are whatever came with it. Plan is to wait a couple years before converting to LiFePO4.

 

I may just put in Anderson Plugs on either side of  the Blue Sea so I can patch in the Victron Orion when needed. During the summer, the stock Solar works wonderfully; In winter not so much. 100 watt aux solar panel helps a lot; but effectively turning the truck into a generator sounds better.

 

With Anderson's bypassing the Blue Sea I may be able to plug in one of my hobby charges, they all have a pb mode.  

OK, got it. Sounds like a dual AGM setup, maybe 150AH total battery capacity with a Blue Seas in between the start battery and camper house batteries. You'll only effectively get about 75AH (50% battery capacity) of run time on your AGMs before needing to recharge. One 100AH lithium batt will provide the full 90-100% of battery capacity before needing to recharge, without hurting the battery - more than doubling your effective AH capacity; it is also a more effective solution when using solar to charge. When you eventually upgrade to the lithium LiFe4 PO and install your B2B charger, you can bypass it by simply leaving the Blue Seas in place and disconnect its fuse, instead of installing Andersen connectors. It's not likely you will be swapping back and forth between AGMs and Lithium on any kind of regular basis, so If you ever want to use the AGMs again you can just switch off the B2B charger and put the fuse back into the Blue Seas. The Blue Seas isn't recommended with Lithium batteries. Good luck with the project.

 

Rich

[astropuppy]

Thanks for the help, I had forgotten it is fuse protected.

[Jon R]

This picture is from the FWC web site and those are the batteries I saw in a new Grandby at the dealer recently.

 

Exide FP-AGM24DP

 

 

You want your DC-DC charger to be very close to the batteries if possible to minimize voltage drop and minimize the run of heavy gage wire you have to run. 

Edited by Jon R, 18 January 2021 - 07:58 PM.

[astropuppy]

On my Hawk shell the batteries are side by side in the rear tower; port side. I need to dig around the wiring, for as little as I need it, I'm just going to use one of the hobby chargers I already own. The big down side to them is they have to be manually turned on every time their energized. Not a big deal sitting in camp or for running down the road for a couple hours. 

 

This all came up a couple weeks before Christmas when we went out into the Idaho desert to see the convergence. It was our first trip using our new Dometic 75L fridge/freezer. The battery draw down after one night running the fridge and the furnace in the morning;  surprised me. Even more surprising was roof solar only; taking two days to bring the batteries back to float level sitting in our driveway under mostly sunny skies. Those flat panels are painfully inefficient up north during the winter. 

 

I've owned generators in the past, I'd prefer never to own another one. They literally stink and I owned Honda's. 

[Wallowa]

OK, got it. Sounds like a dual AGM setup, maybe 150AH total battery capacity with a Blue Seas in between the start battery and camper house batteries. You'll only effectively get about 75AH (50% battery capacity) of run time on your AGMs before needing to recharge. One 100AH lithium batt will provide the full 90-100% of battery capacity before needing to recharge, without hurting the battery - more than doubling your effective AH capacity; it is also a more effective solution when using solar to charge. When you eventually upgrade to the lithium LiFe4 PO and install your B2B charger, you can bypass it by simply leaving the Blue Seas in place and disconnect its fuse, instead of installing Andersen connectors. It's not likely you will be swapping back and forth between AGMs and Lithium on any kind of regular basis, so If you ever want to use the AGMs again you can just switch off the B2B charger and put the fuse back into the Blue Seas. The Blue Seas isn't recommended with Lithium batteries. Good luck with the project.

 

 

 

 

Ri-f,

 

First, very impressed with your sailing adventures and your build..not false praise at all. 

 

I also am going from two AGMs to a single 100AH BB battery in June...but you said this would 'double your effective AH capacity'?  From 75AH [50%] to even 100AH [100% discharge] is 25 AHs more, or did I miss something?

 

The fuse you refer to with the ACR [7611] is the thermal breaker fuse? Or is there a fuse within the 7611?  I believe the plan on my build is to remove the 7611.

 

Any thought of heat from DC/DC charger in battery box with Li battery?

 

Thanks...Phil

[ri-f]

 

Ri-f,

 

First, very impressed with your sailing adventures and your build..not false praise at all. 

 

I also am going from two AGMs to a single 100AH BB battery in June...but you said this would 'double your effective AH capacity'?  From 75AH [50%] to even 100AH [100% discharge] is 25 AHs more, or did I miss something?

 

The fuse you refer to with the ACR [7611] is the thermal breaker fuse? Or is there a fuse within the 7611?  I believe the plan on my build is to remove the 7611.

 

Any thought of heat from DC/DC charger in battery box with Li battery?

 

Thanks...Phil

 

Wallowa, thanks for your kind comments. I'm sure you'll be very happy with the AGM to Lithium swap you are planning..

 

My bad about doubling the AH capacity on the AGM to Lithium swap out you referred to, and no you didn't miss anything. I was probably thinking of a one-to-one swap, that is, swapping one 75AH AGM (37.5AH @ 50% discharge) with one 100AH BB Lithium @ 100% discharge, in which case the increase would be 2.63 times greater in favor of the Lithium battery. With two AGMs (150AH @ 50% discharge = 75AH)  vs one 100AH Lithium.@ 100% discharge, the Lithium battery efficiency would be 1.3 times better than the AGM setup. Either way, at least in my opinion, an AGM to Lithium swap out would work out favorably - efficiency and spacewise. One of the benefits with Lithium is that you won't get the same voltage decrease, as you will with an AGM, as the battery gets more deeply discharged. Your lights won't dim and your equipment will be happier.

 

The Blue Seas 7611 has an external fuse that you can easily remove, which will essentially turn it off (bypass it). You can leave the box in-line, where it is now installed. It hardly takes up any significant space and if you ever had to temporarily replace your Lithium battery and couldn't easily pick up another Lithium battery, in the middle of nowhere, then you could always do a quick swap out to a cheap AGM temporarily, and still utilize the 7611, until you could replace the Lithium with a new one. Just a thought.

 

Regarding the DC-to-DC charger: I use a Sterling 1230, mounted on the inside of the cabinet door in the battery compartment where the MPPT controller and Lithium battery live. The Sterling has a small internal exhaust fan at the top of the unit and a large heat dissapating cover. I had it running on occasion during a heat wave where the outside temp was 103 degrees F. The battery compartment has two vents and good air flow and some insulation. If the temp were to get too hot the unit would shut itself down. I never had that problem. So I guess the answer is that the battery compartment setup works just fine as shown in the photo below:.

 

https://1.bp.blogspo...titled-1-22.jpg

Rich

Edited by ri-f, 19 January 2021 - 12:55 AM.

[Wallowa]

Rich,

 

Your Hawk for some reason [front dinette?] has a different battery box configuration than my '16 Hawk [side dinette]....there would be nowhere to truly vent the box in my Hawk although there is a small vent...it is a vertical box with a neoprene seal on lid in RF corner under dinette seat......did not know that Li batteries have less of a voltage drop at lower end of power range...I was also told that they charge quicker than AGMs....all in all LiFePo4 batteries sound like a wise choice...

 

Phil

Edited by Wallowa, 19 January 2021 - 01:09 AM.