Battleborn Battery Safety Issue

[jd1923]

3 hours ago, Galway Girl said:

those with the Xantrex Freedom XC2000 inverter…

Great post, Craig!

[Mike and Carol]

Battle Borns gone.  Epoch’s installed.  Hold down straps aren’t on yet.

[jd1923]

46 minutes ago, Mike and Carol said:

Epoch’s installed.

Mike, very happy for you, on your 600 Ah upgrade!

It looks like you used the bolts that came with the Epochs on all 4 posts. I found when the 4/0 lugs were doubled up that the OEM bolts only had a few threads to hold on. Yours might be fine, depends on the thickness of the lugs, but on two I used M8 bolts 5mm longer (see pic).

[Mike and Carol]

56 minutes ago, jd1923 said:

Mike, very happy for you, on your 600 Ah upgrade!

It looks like you used the bolts that came with the Epochs on all 4 posts. I found when the 4/0 lugs were doubled up that the OEM bolts only had a few threads to hold on. Yours might be fine, depends on the thickness of the lugs, but on two I used M8 bolts 5mm longer (see pic).

John, thanks.  I’m using 2/0 cables.  I asked the Epoch guy and he said 2/0 or bigger.  I also have some longer M8 bolts that I ordered just in case.  The bolts that came with the batteries work fine.  I’m happy with the upgrade!

[jd1923]

13 hours ago, Mike and Carol said:

John, thanks.  I’m using 2/0 cables.  I asked the Epoch guy and he said 2/0 or bigger.  I also have some longer M8 bolts that I ordered just in case.  The bolts that came with the batteries work fine.  I’m happy with the upgrade!

Excellent Mike! hard to determine cable size in a picture.

It’s more the load to spec wire gauge and fuse amperage vs. battery type or Ah. If you have a 2KW inverter, 2/0 wire and 250A fuse are fine. 4/0 wire and higher fuse amperage are required to run a 3KW inverter at full capacity. 😎

Edited March 1 by jd1923

[rich.dev]

Ouch for BB…yet another video from Will Prowse, he’s not holding back in this one! 😀

 

[John Dorrer]

17 minutes ago, rich.dev said:

Ouch for BB…yet another video from Will Prowse, he’s not holding back in this one! 😀

 

You beat me to it. Unbelievable.

[Wayfinder]

If it's as bad as it appears, I hope they (BB) don't wait for someone to get hurt or worse, die, from a battery fire.  

What a shame.

[Geronimo John]

On 3/16/2026 at 2:22 PM, Wayfinder said:

If it's as bad as it appears, I hope they (BB) don't wait for someone to get hurt or worse, die, from a battery fire.  

What a shame.

The average vintage of RV owner's is such that Dragon Fly should be worried about just such a tragedy.  

[Wayfinder]

Here are recommended products by Will. He loves EPOCH and Victron. 
 

 

[rideandfly]

We had two newer BB 100AH batteries in Ollie, but recently installed two 105 AH Epoch batteries in parallel. I like the physically smaller/lighter Epoch batteries for our application compared to BB along with Epoch's customer support and Epoch's app to monitor Epoch Bluetooth Smart battery condition. 

Really like the built in Epoch carry handles on the 105AH batteries making it easy to install & remove these 22lb batteries.

We don't have factory solar or an inverter like many folks here. We have a Progressive Dynamics 45 amp charger and also charge with up to two Renogy 100W Portable Suitcase Solar Panels and Renogy Solar controller when away from shore power.

Looking forward to seeing how fast the Epoch batteries will charge with 100W Portable Suitcase Solar Panels during the 2026 camping season.

[mountainoliver]

5 hours ago, Wayfinder said:

 

Here are recommended products by Will. He loves EPOCH and Victron. 

 

Not at all getting on your case because part of my lithium battery research 6 years ago was Will’s channel and still is part of my solar/battery research. I purchased three BB batteries then along with several Oliver friends. Back then BB batteries were the gold standard. Back then Will did all sorts of testing, he went to the BB “factory”, and interviewed the owner. He was as excited about BB batteries as a little kid at Christmas. They could do no wrong back then. Fast forward to today, something changed. Anyway we do the best we can with our research and still…..🤞🤪

[rich.dev]

6 minutes ago, mountainoliver said:

Fast forward to today, something changed. Anyway we do the best we can with our research and still…..🤞🤪

Will obviously now has more and better equipment than he did a few years back, and what really changed is that he discovered some significant problems with BB batteries.