How to Find Happiness With LiFePO4 (Lithium-Ion) Batteries - Solacity article

[John E Davies]

This is most excellent, if you want to understand why lithium batteries are so cool.

"You have just sold your first-born into slavery, remortgaged the house, and bought yourself a lithium-ion battery! Now you want to know how to take care of your precious new purchase: How to best charge lithium-iron batteries, how to discharge them, and how to get the maximum life out of your lithium-ion batteries. This article will explain the do’s and don’ts."

How to Find Happiness With LiFePO4 (Lithium-Ion) Batteries

John Davies

Spokane WA

EDIT: That is a pdf that doesn't print well. I made a Pages doc out of it, that can be printed and added to your Ollie records, if you like. JD

How to Find Happiness With LiFePO4 (Lithium-Ion) Batteries - Solacity .pages

EDIT 05/16/23. Thanks to Jim and Francis for converting the article to a PDF:

How to Find Happiness With LiFePO4 (Lithium-Ion) Batteries
 

 

[carnivore]

John, thanks for sharing. This is concise and very informative.

[AlbertNTerri]

Thank you John, that answered several questions I had on my list to track down and a whole bunch more on top of that. Now the thread about venting the battery box is making sense as to why it should be considered important. 

 

From that article, it sounds like the battery box would be better off sealed to the outside, vented to the interior to be allowed to be maintained at the TT's interior temp (assuming it stays between 32-86F)

 

Your Thoughts?

[John E Davies]

4 hours ago, albert said:

From that article, it sounds like the battery box would be better off sealed to the outside, vented to the interior to be allowed to be maintained at the TT's interior temp (assuming it stays between 32-86F)

 

Your Thoughts?

My thoughts are yes, definitely. I suspect that in a few years RVs will be designed with lithium batteries located in inside compartments or under the floor like electric cars, vented to the inside. There will be no need to access them routinely…. It will be time to get rid of that sliding tray too. IMHO.

John Davies

Spokane WA

[topgun2]

34 minutes ago, John E Davies said:

It will be time to get rid of that sliding tray too.

NO, No, No!  Think of it as a "dumb waiter" so that the pizza and beer delivery person can simply drop it off and you can access dinner and beverage directly from the interior.  No more opening the door, no more running out into the rain for the essentials of life.😁

[Jim_Oker]

6 hours ago, topgun2 said:

the pizza and beer delivery person

Or Amazon delivery drone...

[AlbertNTerri]

Drone launch pad

[Liana]

I found the post super informative, thank you for sharing it!

So many of us are upgrading our dying AGMs to the LiFePO4s (or starting with them!) and I have seen references to disabling the 12v input from the tow vehicle.  I've been told that the TV should have a circuit protection (breaker? fuse?) to keep the Li batteries from overdrawing from the TV.  But some have said they didn't disable their 12v  and have no issue.  I *think* I've seen somewhere that Oliver disables the 12v input when installing a Li system.

Under what circumstances/configurations does the 12v input from the TV need to be disabled?

[Mike and Carol]

I replaced my 4 AGMs with 3 Battle Borns and did not disable the 12V from my truck.  We’ve been from south Texas to Maine and back and also to Arizona and Utah and back.  No issues.  I would also be interested in the pros/cons of disabling the charge from the TV.  Mike

[Geronimo John]

On 5/4/2022 at 4:28 AM, topgun2 said:

running out into the rain for the essentials of life

I thought that IS an essentials of life!!!!!!!!  

Got you!  🙂

 

 

[Geronimo John]

I agree that having litho's under the trailer would have advantages.  On the other hand, if there was a fire, I would prefer they were accessible from the outside where the fire fighters roam.  Even though our Litho's are inherently safe, one still see's Litho's burn on occasion.

 

[Teaney Hull 292]

On 5/11/2022 at 2:14 PM, Liana said:

I found the post super informative, thank you for sharing it!

So many of us are upgrading our dying AGMs to the LiFePO4s (or starting with them!) and I have seen references to disabling the 12v input from the tow vehicle.  I've been told that the TV should have a circuit protection (breaker? fuse?) to keep the Li batteries from overdrawing from the TV.  But some have said they didn't disable their 12v  and have no issue.  I *think* I've seen somewhere that Oliver disables the 12v input when installing a Li system.

Under what circumstances/configurations does the 12v input from the TV need to be disabled?

I will follow this as I’m not sure. If need to disconnect, how do you figure out which wire in the trailer is the 7 pin power wire? 

[jd1923]

On 5/11/2022 at 3:40 PM, Mike and Carol said:

I would also be interested in the pros/cons of disabling the charge from the TV.  Mike

2 hours ago, Teaney Hull 292 said:

I will follow this as I’m not sure. If need to disconnect, how do you figure out which wire in the trailer is the 7 pin power wire? 

Wow, it's been 3 years since Mike asked this question (before my time), unanswered back then in this older thread from @John E Davies. Although Mike did not get an answer in this particular thread, he certainly knows the answer now.

Gary, please allow me to point you to another thread where this was asked/answered more recently. Another Oliver owner @tallmandan started the post below and like you, he has recently worked a LiFePO4 upgrade.😂

See my March 15 comment in the post below, in how to resolve this.

@Derek B suggested another method in disconnecting it at the the hitch terminal. Bill @topgun2 suggested in some tow vehicles, you could pull a fuse for this connection. However, professionally speaking the best way is to disconnect it at the Oliver bus.

Most of the time, leaving it connected would not cause harm. But if/when your LiFePO4 batteries are low in SOC and connected to the tow vehicle harm could be caused. When towing the smaller 12 AWG wire could overheat if the house batteries were pulling too many amps. When camped and you left the trailer connected to the TV (which I often do for 1-night stays) and the house batteries got very low in SOC (running A/C), they would drain your starter batterie(s) keeping you from starting the engine the next morning.  

[Mike and Carol]

1 hour ago, jd1923 said:

Wow, it's been 3 years since Mike asked this question (before my time), unanswered back then in this older thread from @John E Davies. Although Mike did not get an answer in this particular thread, he certainly knows the answer now.

I simply disconnected the power wire at the 7 pin connector and bent it back.  I was experiencing intermittent trailer brake disconnect messages on my dash and part of my trouble shooting (while camping in Colorado) was to open up the 7 pin connector and check the trailer brake wire.  While doing that I took care of the charging wire.  There are other threads on the trailer brake disconnect issue.  BLUF, it was the wire inside the axle that connected the brake pairs, it had frayed and was shorting the connection.  This has happened to several Oliver’s owners with early hull numbers.  Mike