Lithium Now vs wait for lower cost

[Sofaman]

I am trying to decide whether to keep our Oliver that we haven’t had time to use. If we keep it we must get the Truma AC. The 640ah lithium will only last 4.5 hours in the hot climates which means a generator is a must.

Why spend the big bucks for Lithium when the Lithium mining in the USA is just around the corner.

What am I missing?

[ScubaRx]

1 hour ago, Sofaman said:

I am trying to decide whether to keep our Oliver that we haven’t had time to use. If we keep it we must get the Truma AC. The 640ah lithium will only last 4.5 hours in the hot climates which means a generator is a must.

Why spend the big bucks for Lithium when the Lithium mining in the USA is just around the corner.

What am I missing?

I’m just as confused as you seem to be?

[Patriot]

@Sofaman
I have AGMs. I just inspected them last evening and all looks fine. My plan is to let the AGMs run their course and take a look at what’s available when the time comes to replace them. I hope I have a few more years until that happens.

If I was unsure about keeping my Oliver or not using it, I would not be spending another dime on it. 

All the best in your decision!

 

[Mike and Carol]

Assuming you have AGMs now, I would wait until they’re at end of life and then replace with lithiums.  That’s what I did.  It would be nice to source our own USA lithium and make our batteries here.  Mike

[John E Davies]

3 hours ago, Sofaman said:

I am trying to decide whether to keep our Oliver that we haven’t had time to use. If we keep it we must get the Truma AC. The 640ah lithium will only last 4.5 hours in the hot climates which means a generator is a must.

What exactly are you asking? Do you want to run the AC off the batteries for long periods? That is physically impossible. You HAVE to carry a large enough generator to run the AC from it if you are not plugged into shore power, there is no way that the solar panels alone can recharge that huge battery bank when it is depleted. Running AC or the microwave, AKA Battery Killer, consumes VAST amounts of electrical power. 

If you don’t use your Olllie, why keep it, that is very costly. Sell it so someone else can enjoy it.

John Davies

Spokane  WA

[SeaDawg]

On 6/5/2023 at 2:27 PM, Sofaman said:

I am trying to decide whether to keep our Oliver that we haven’t had time to use. If we keep it we must get the Truma AC. The 640ah lithium will only last 4.5 hours in the hot climates which means a generator is a must.

Why spend the big bucks for Lithium when the Lithium mining in the USA is just around the corner.

What am I missing?

If you never use your Oliver, honestly,  put it up at a fair price, and let someone else enjoy a beautiful trailer.

Few people actually  "need" lithium, but many, many  folks benefit from them. We still use agm. But, honestly,  I'd rather install my own, than wonder about the prior care and maintenance, and installation,  if I were buying a used trailer.

Unless you need to replace your current batteries, I'd kick the can down the road. Buy a nice, quiet inverter generator that will run your a/c, and call it done. Especially if you're waffling on keeping the Ollie. You can always keep the genset for other uses.

My opinion. Others will vary.

[Shawna and Scott]

This is just my opinion.

At some point you have to make decisions.  At some point you are going to say "man if I just waited". I have a 2022 Oliver, sure we wish the Truma was available when I purchased mine but the one I have does the job. I also learned on here about alternatives if I wish to upgrade. We are still using our Oliver in the summer even with the Dometic, we just run it alittle before we come in for the evening to cool off the place.  When we purchased our Oliver we made a decision to change the "status quo" for us and begin to discover things and places we always heard about but have never experienced.

I cant imagine owning an Oliver and barely using it. We both still work and yet spent many weekends in state parks near us enjoying the Oliver and outdoors.

If you are looking for reasons to sell it then sell it.  

[jgilliam1955]

This is a great subject. I never thought about how long the AC would run just on  lithium. It kind of changed my mind about cost for lithium vs AGM.

My wife and I do not have a Oliver yet. We have a Casita and we have been talking about upgrading. We carry a propane 2000 watt generator. It runs 16 hours. Our AC has a soft start so no issues running. We live on the east coast and very rarely need the Generator.

We spent one summer on the road in 2020. We plan to head to Alaska and Canada one summer. Would love to have a Oliver by then.

[MAX Burner]

We've had a couple Airstreams and a Casita (as a placeholder until we bought our Oliver).  We carry a Honda EU2000i and it rarely leaves the back of the truck bed - but with our MicroAir Soft Start, it has no problem energizing the Dometic Penguin AC unit.  The 340 watts on top plus our Renogy 200W suitcase keeps our 300amp-hr battery storage topped off nicely during good weather, the Honda becomes the battery charger during multiple-day foul weather conditions...  

In any case, you'll love your Oliver should y'all decide to go that way...  Good luck!

Cheers!

[Jim and Chris Neuman]

We have found in hot summer weather our Dometic AC will cool our trailer to habitable level in an 1/2 hour or so.  We do so on battery in the evenings to allow comfortable sleep.  That said, on the West Coast, we do not typically have the humidity issues found elsewhere and our solar panels will recharge our 390 AH hour Lithium bank with ease.  We have not yet had need to use our 2200i generator although we pack it around just in case. 

We find we have to abandon the trailer while the AC is in operation as hearing loss is likely severe within a campsite or two of the screaming Dometic.  We use the time to walk around and apologise to our neighbors for the racket.

Looking anxiously at the newer, supposedly quieter, options which are coming available.

[Steph and Dud B]

I just posted a trip report on our last 2-week dry camping run. It was HOT and HUMID most days here in CT. We have the factory Platinum lithium package and found we could run the Dometic A/C for about 45 minutes at night while watching TV before going to bed. (We use the ARC input to connect the TV audio to the Furrion amp and speakers. With doors and windows closed, it was not audible outside the trailer.) That was enough to significantly cool and dry the cabin. We did that on the worst days, maybe 4 nights. If there was full sun the next day, rooftop solar refilled the batteries. If not, we lost maybe 4-5% SOC. We never used our Honda genny. Even with some cloudy days we could go a LONG time that way, probably a month. 

Last year we tried running A/C most of the afternoon. That definitely required the generator to run the A/C, recharge the batteries, or both. Not worth it. 

Also note, the Truma A/C requires a larger generator than the Dometic with soft-start, which runs fine on a 2000W Honda.