Lithium Battery Upgrade

[Overland]

On our recent trip we had two BBs fail and had to rewire the bank to diagnose the problem, and ultimately take the two bad ones out of the loop. Essentially exactly what John is describing.  So maybe a backup plan like what you’re describing would be worth some prep work, to have in your back pocket just in case. 

[mjrendon]

1 hour ago, Overland said:

On our recent trip we had two BBs fail

Overland, 

Could you describe the failure symptoms, if any?  If the BMS was working correctly, a failure would result in the two of the four batteries going offline, leaving you with functional system but with 50% lower capacity. Even if  three of your four Battleborns had failed in this manner, you would still have a functioning system. 

DId Battleborn provide you with any insight into the failure mechanism yet?

Thanks,
Mike

[JRK]

Bioenno has a 300 AH battery,  20.7 in. x 10.4 in. x 8.6 in. dimension,

$2650.

https://www.bioennopower.com/collections/lifepo4-batteries-for-rv-applications/products/12v-300ah-lfp-battery-abs-blf-12300as

[Overland]

8 hours ago, mjrendon said:

Overland, 

Could you describe the failure symptoms, if any?  If the BMS was working correctly, a failure would result in the two of the four batteries going offline, leaving you with functional system but with 50% lower capacity. Even if  three of your four Battleborns had failed in this manner, you would still have a functioning system. 

DId Battleborn provide you with any insight into the failure mechanism yet?

Thanks,
Mike

I don’t know why the batteries’ BMS didn’t disconnect them, but they didn’t. They both had an open circuit voltage of around 13v, if I remember correctly, but a near zero voltage under even tiny loads. I suspect an internal short of some sort since there was something rattling around in each. Battleborn could only tell me that they each had a bad BMS. 

[John E Davies]

3 hours ago, Overland said:

something rattling around in each

That doesn't make you feel very inclined to go bombing down a washboarded ranch road, does it? ; Battery failure is yet another reason we should be able to order a better factory installed suspension for our Ollies....

Did Battle Born pay shipping for both directions and did they use FedEx? Thanks.

John Davies

Spokane WA

Edited February 3, 2021 by John E Davies

[Overland]

24 minutes ago, John E Davies said:

That doesn't make you feel very inclined to go bombing down a washboarded ranch road, does it?

Nope.

They did pay shipping and FedEx, but slow boat FedEx.  I think it was a week each way, and adding in a lot of diagnosis they asked me to do plus the holidays, I was out of commission for a while.  No problem since our trip was over, and still had two good batteries, but it would have been tough for a full timer - probably easier to drive to Reno and sit in their parking lot.  

[BackofBeyond]

Interesting - the insides of the Battle born

$950 "Battle Born" Battery Tear Down - YouTube

[John E Davies]

That video is wonderful, the guy is so enthusiastic. He was wondering about the “wierd foam stuff” in the bottom of the case. I wonder if that is intended to dampen road vibration and shocks...? It would be cool if they would offer an extreme duty model with even more padding.

Thanks so much for posting that! I love knowing what is inside things.

John Davies

Spokane WA

 

[Overland]

He's good, and I've given thought again to building a battery or two, or six, after watching many of his videos.  He also has a video tour of the Battleborn factory, which shows a bit more of the battery insides.  

[John E Davies]

And here he discusses with the head of Battle Born a whole, bunch of issues that any lithium buyer should at least be exposed to, even if he doesn’t understand everything. 

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=ywn-vBjKblI

John Davies

Spokane WA

[SeaDawg]

I've been subscribed to Will's channel for a long time. And, occasionally drop into his forum. 

He's so darn smart. And genuine. 

[ScubaRx]

He stated in one of his videos that  he makes $80K per month off his you tube channel.

[SeaDawg]

1 minute ago, ScubaRx said:

He stated in one of his videos that  he makes $80K per month off his you tube channel.

And, everyone who wants to, watches him for free.

I don't begrudge him his revenue. 

At one time, he lived on his van, pretty much homeless.

He's done the work, and if he makes money from ads, I'm certainly ok with that.

[ScubaRx]

I think it's great, I tried to get one of our single daughters to go find him.

[mossemi]

And for people who like books instead of PDF's and soft books, Will also has a book about Solar Power that is a great resource and it is available on Amazon.  And like SeaDawg, his forum is another resource I use regularly.

These are links to his forum and website for additional solar information.

https://diysolarforum.com/members/will-prowse.1/

https://www.mobile-solarpower.com/

Mossey

 

 

 

 

[BackofBeyond]

I too thought about building my own battery - that is how I found Will. As for $80 K a month - more power to him. 

I have way too many irons in the fire as it is - but just learning about and  understanding the technology is cool - and I will say from what I've found - Battle Born is very transparent and open with customers and the industry - my kind of business. I understand why they have a ten year warranty - experience. 

RB

 

[choied]

Seems like many of you have gone the Lithium route.  My 1st two AGMs petered out this past month, so I am glad to read here that many of you successfully retrofitted.  I will likely follow the trail blazed here and do the same.

[geO]

Once my Trojan lead sealed batteries go down I plan on getting Lithium. For now I'll keep feeding them when they are thirsty. Great install and it looks very clean!