2019 Oliver elite ii lithium upgrade.

[Gene G.]

Beginning to research what I need to do to upgrade to lithium batteries.

 

starting from zero. So don’t even know what I don’t know yet.

 

I am pretty handy. I manage power plants for a living.  So I think I can do it myself once I know what needs swapping out.

 

any help would be appreciated!

Edited November 29, 2025 by Gene G.

[jd1923]

@Gene G. Most here have gone to Epoch (15% OFF ended yesterday! 🙃) or LiTime. Search for these keywords.

Install new batteries, get rid of extra wires in bay in preference of new internal busses. Change charger configuration or replace charger for LiFePO4 type. That’s all.

I installed 600 Ah Epoch summer of 2024. Just purchased on sale another 300 Ah Epoch Essential and soon we will have 900 Ah snug in the bay! 😎

Edited December 3, 2025 by jd1923

[topgun2]

Gene - 

There are a bunch of posts here on the Forum about anything ranging from minimal (me) to substantial Li overhauls  that were done by anything ranging from rank novices (me) to certified professional outfits.

Have fun reading!

Bill

[Mike and Carol]

Some of what is necessary depends on what solar controller you have.  We have Bluesky, so I had to do some reprogramming which was fairly simple to do.  We replaced our four AGM batteries with three BattleBorn 100Ah batteries.  We did do some wire/cable cleanup, but it was not difficult.  300Ah has been plenty for us when we’re camping without shore power. As Bill suggests, do a search, there’s been a lot of information posted on lithium upgrades.  Mike

[Gene G.]

Just got 2 230 amp hr Litime with blue tooth. Charged 1 to 100%. Will do other tommorrow 

[Ronbrink]

11 hours ago, Gene G. said:

Just got 2 230 amp hr Litime with blue tooth. Charged 1 to 100%. Will do other tommorrow 

Both @topgun2 and I have installed dual 230Ah LiTime (w/o BT) LFPs and I myself am very pleased with the performance of these batteries. We both have posts of our respective installations for you to glean.

[Geronimo John]

On 12/3/2025 at 7:27 AM, jd1923 said:

Install new batteries, get rid of extra wires in bay in preference of new internal busses. Change charger configuration or replace charger for LiFePO4 type. That’s all.

I'm with TopGun2 and Mike & Carrol in using a minimalist approach.  JD's approach is a good start for cleaning up the cabling and that's good too.

If you want to do a 100% upgrade to current technology then there are 2 in 1 Charger/Converter units, computer interfaces with gizmology way over my  Pea Brain.  So I'll leave it to you to respond back as to your goal.

Several of us though like keeping things simple.  Personally I LIKE have seperate charging and inverter systems.  The combo units, best one is Victron's, is in our opinion overkill in the gizmology zone.  Have a blip and you could lose both 120V and 12V capability.  Is our world if we lose one, we are still in business in many ways.  

I suspect that our 2019 hulls were built with the same PD Converters.  They likely have the same LI switch that can work with many Lithium Battereis.  If you are in the less is better group, then reusing the Converter is a good cost reduction... if you have the switch on the PD mother board.  Below is one of my DIY's on this topic.

Up to about two or three years ago, the #1 Litho battery was the Dragon Engergy Battleborn's.  Now as stated above thee are some higher power density units with good quality too.  

Finally, if you desire info for minimalist approach, you for sure need a way for keeping track of your SOC.   If so, send me a PM and I can provide you with some handy info.

So, welcome to the OTT Family and good luck in your project.

Geronimo John

 

 

 

Progressive Dynamics PD4045 LiCSV Upgrade.docx

Edited December 4, 2025 by Geronimo John

[topgun2]

5 hours ago, Ronbrink said:

I myself am very pleased with the performance of these batteries.

Ditto for me.

Relatively speaking, our installs are at the lower end of the scale of difficulty.  Without additional monitoring devices (think Victron stuff here) there is some requirement for having a bit of experience with energy usage.  Speaking for myself - while using my "old" lead acid batteries I never had an occasion where the batter charge of those was below 83% FULL!  So, when I got my LiTime Li batteries that had even more amp hours of capacity AND they could be discharged much lower than the 50% limit of the old lead acid batteries, I found myself virtually bathing in a wonderful supply of energy.  I should note here that I VERY RARELY have a need for air conditioning and I am VERY conservative of even using the furnace (think blower motor using electricity here).

But, if you are in a similar boat, you too can do this conversation VERY easily.  But, if you want/need more bells and whistles then adding what you need is really not too difficult.

Bill 

[Geronimo John]

Ditto.  Love our Battleborns.  

But knowing what's out there now, as posted many times by many owners, the cost of three of them (300AH) and the cabling could lead me today to another larger single battery.

PS:  In addition to the SOC capability, our 2019 OE2's do not have a master 350 amp shut off switch.  Yes there are lots of opinins as to where to mount it, but 95% see the need to ba able to stop the source of power in an emergency QUICKLY.  So please add that to the need to do list.  Below is John Davies' approach.

John Davies Master Battery Switch.docx

Note that his install was for 200 amps and inside the cabin basement.  I suggest using the 350 amp version as it is higher than the fuse in the 4/0 cabling.  Also, I suggest mounting it in the battery box to not delay exiting a smoke filled trailer in an emergency.  Get out and shut it off outside.  Always grab your fire extinguisher and have it handy. But get the family out first.

Edited December 4, 2025 by Geronimo John

[jd1923]

On 12/3/2025 at 8:32 PM, Gene G. said:

Just got 2 230 amp hr Litime with blue tooth. Charged 1 to 100%. Will do other tommorrow 

Let us know if you have questions getting ready to install! Good upgrade for you! 😂

[Gene G.]

So my 60 amp resettable fuse keeps tripping when charging. Was not issue with the 45 amp set up. But now that I’ve switched the setting to lithium I can only charge for 5 minutes or so before resettable fuse throws.  Watching the amps the the battery bms it is 58 to 59 amps being pulled. 

[jd1923]

38 minutes ago, Gene G. said:

So my 60 amp resettable fuse keeps tripping when charging. Was not issue with the 45 amp set up. But now that I’ve switched the setting to lithium I can only charge for 5 minutes or so before resettable fuse throws.  Watching the amps the the battery bms it is 58 to 59 amps being pulled. 

What charger are you using? Can you set the charge amps in some setup or configuration menu? If you can, set charge rate to 50A.

[Gene G.]

Nah. It is the the 60 amps from the PD charger that came with the unit. Had a 45 amp setting for agm and a setting for 60 amps with lithium setting.  No other settings

[Ronbrink]

16 hours ago, Gene G. said:

So my 60 amp resettable fuse keeps tripping when charging.

I suggest you replace the breaker with a quality Blue Sea Systems 285-Series Surface Mount component. 

[Gene G.]

On 12/7/2025 at 8:28 PM, jd1923 said:

Let us know if you have questions getting ready to install! Good upgrade for you! 😂

 

13 hours ago, Patriot said:

Gene G, I have to admit that’s a first and very creative thinking!  
Looking forward to your pics on cover removal. 👍🏻😊🇺🇸

 

On 1/9/2026 at 12:10 PM, Gene G. said:

So my 60 amp resettable fuse keeps tripping when charging. Was not issue with the 45 amp set up. But now that I’ve switched the setting to lithium I can only charge for 5 minutes or so before resettable fuse throws.  Watching the amps the the battery bms it is 58 to 59 amps being pulled. 

Bumped up to 70 amp and works great.  I think the 60 amp made sense for the 45 amp agm.  But for 60 amp Li, not so much

[jd1923]

6 hours ago, Gene G. said:

Bumped up to 70 amp and works great.  I think the 60 amp made sense for the 45 amp agm.  But for 60 amp Li, not so much

Yes, "According to the NEC, the general rule of thumb is that the circuit breaker size should be rated at 125% of the ampacity of the cable and wire for continuous loads."

45A x 1.25 = 56A, round up to 60 as a 50 would be too low.
60A x 1.25 = 75A, but your 70 should be fine at 10A over.