[rheavn]

Glad you found the forum and yes you are welcome! Almost every one here owned SOB at some time.

[folivier]

Welcome Don. My purchase with Balqon was an extreme test of patience. They are the USA distributor but aren't very up on customer service. I spoke with the CEO and he was very knowledgeable and extremely helpful but as you can imagine it was difficult to catch him. They don't seem to answer the phone, it often goes to voicemail. I had Mr. Samra quote me on 4 cells with a BMS system and the connector straps. These are available through other suppliers but with Balqon supplying them I knew that I would get the correct ones. I'll pm you his phone number so you can contact him.

[acousticart]

Thanks for the helpful reply and the PM. I look forward to hearing more about your experiences with this technology. Technomads have 4 groups of 100AH cells in parallel and have experienced more reduced capacity in the 2 1/2 years since their install than they anticipated. I think having fewer higher capacity cells will make it easier to keep them balanced. Perhaps a benefit of waiting for the technology to mature is the availability of these high capacity cells On the other hand, it is hard to know when to jump in (like the stock market...). I have been the early adopter all too often, so why change now

P.S. I think I saw in another thread that you would be meeting up with Rudy (trainer?)... if so, tell him hi from acousticart. Although we have never meet in person, I have known him as a helpful presence on the foreforum (Foretravel forum). He may remember my obsessive compulsive "bulkhead separation" restoration project...Some pictures of my restoration project

[encantotom]

Don, we are glad to have you on the forum. Our last rally had a number of foretravels at it. we are all gearheads, so keep jumping in

tom

[whatsnewell]

Sometimes the leading edge turns into the "bleeding" edge.

[Lance]

I am very impressed especially since I am considering this exact same changeover. I had just spoken to a gentleman that has a new Marathon coach and he said they did the changeover for him at the factory in Eugene and charged him $36,000 more, claiming that there was some type of box to prevent overcharging of the batteries that added the extra cost. I'm not so sure about that, seems like a bit of gouging to me.
I had chatted with a gentleman from Lithionics a year or two ago and he stated it should only cost around $8,000 but your price and the fact that as the technology gets used more the price comes down, sounds much more acceptable now.
I'll be very interested to follow your progress and your opinion of the changeover. It certainly seems like the way of the future. I spoke to one owner that has made the change and he said he loves it. No more float or intermediary charging. If the price is the same, this seems like a no brainer. The batteries should have the same or longer lifetimes?

[encantotom]

i am guessing my agm batteries will last another 4-5 years. at that point pricing on the lithiums and experiences in installing them and choices will be much larger and i will change out then.

tom

[folivier]

No one knows just how long the LiFePO4s will last since they haven't been out long enough. The testing results I've read about seem to match the manufacturers claims of 2000+ cycles. I'll be too old to worry about them by then
Hopefully some day in the near future they will be cheaper than AGM batteries. My final total cost to convert is about the same as AGM's. This is building the system yourself with individual cells. Which took research and some skill and knowledge. But not more than most people on the forum already have. The biggest problem was putting all of the research together in order to make the charger do what I needed it to.
Basically the best charger would be one that puts out maximum amperage (my batteries could handle 500 amps charge rate without causing damage!) at a maximum voltage of 13.8 to 14.0 voltage, then switches off. If I could find one that would just monitor the voltage then start a charge cycle again at a preset state of charge (SOC) or set voltage rather than float charging. But most chargers want to switch to float which is NOT recommended for these.

UPDATE: The Balmar voltage regulator on my engine worked well. Charge rate was about 150 amps which is very easy on the belts and alternator. We haven't dry camped overnight yet but plan to Tuesday night. I'm anxious to see how the Balmar handles the charging when the batteries are down after overnight.

[JCTex]

OK Forest,

Disregard all previous transmissions from that guy of the same name who was going to put a Lit. system in a van. That project stopped and the 7.3L Ford RB van is for sale.

Instead, I bought a 2008 Country Coach 470 Allure 37' and will be driving to Minnesota next week to do final inspections and drive it home to Texas. Therefore, I'm now in the same ball game as you and the other MH owners. The OO's did not opt for an all-electric coach. So, I'm going to rip out their 2-8D AGM's, their 2000W inverter, and a bunch of too-small cables. Both AC and DC distribution panels may be replaced with marine grade. Additional circuits must be added for the new residential refrigerator, and others.

Mr. Samra is very nice but very frustrating in their total lack of customer service. He owes me a quote from emails we exchanged last week.

Here's what I THINK but have not confirmed: Their new Battery Management System began production and sale in March to RV and boat manufacturers. I do NOT think it's a separate box. Rather, I think they build it into every battery pack they sell. It's spec'd just for the size of the bank. If this is true, that's why we haven't been able to get an information about the new BMS. This is subject to his response to my emails. That response was supposed to be here by now. Not so much. I'll ping them again Monday.

It's obvious they are not very interested in selling to general single-buyers; but I haven't given up hope.

If, and right now, it's a BIG if, their BMS is proprietarily built-in, the I may get lucky and receive a plug-and-play battery pack, already banded, tied electronically among cells, and possible leveled. Wouldn't THAT be a game-changer for the wanna-be Lithium RV'ers?

If that ends up being true, I'm just a catastrophe fuse, some Pergo switches, a neg-side shunt, and cables away from attaching it to my central terminal blocks.

Then, it's a matter of my local mobile power expert (and Victron dealer) and I to make the Victron 3000 play nice with the batteries. Since it's designed to do that, I don't anticipate a problem if I can get that far. My guy has direct-line contact with their US techs. I think it may be a matter of some more breakers, switches, and cables. We're going to get a monitor from Victron, too; but I donno which one.

While that's being hooked up, we'll attach a MPPT solar controller from Victron. If all this results in getting AC into the 120V distribution panel and DC into the 12V panel, then I'll proceed to add the other DC in from the coach alternator and the AC in from the surge protector/shore power. At my latest count, I've got 5 major cables going into each of the pos and neg main terminal blocks (bus).

I'm going to see if the alternator on the coach needs to be bigger and will consider the regulator-device you added.

I can't determine the Amp hours I need to buy of batteries until I get the coach home and measure available space on the roof. I'll install as many 160W panels (from AC Solar) as I can; but given its overall 37', I'm not holding out much hope for more than 6, or 960W. Lithium systems will tolerate not being fully charged by my solar. Plus, I have an 8.0 generator and road-driving, too. So, I'll be willing to oversize my battery bank above solar a little bit.

That may limit me to a 1,000Ah bank; that's not so bad considering when full they'll give me ~800Ah. Balqon has that size in stock now. What are your thoughts about putting my entire storage in one factory-combined pack (versus paralleling 2 or 3 together? One big "battery" is cheaper a little but it will save lots of money in cables.
On a lark, I may opt for 2-700Ah packs (which they also stock) an see if I can charge 1,400Ah. OTOH, 1,120Ah does seem a little overkill for my size coach--even for a 2-week-long boondock.

Let me hear from you.

JC
McKinney

[folivier]

Congrats on the new coach. Too bad it's not a Newell, we'll let you hang around with us anyway
If the refrigerator is propane then it's like my '93 was with 2 8Ds. 1000 amp hours would be great for boon docking. You may only use 100-200 amp hours/day if that much. If that's the case then you may want to rethink your solar panels. You should only have to replace the amp hours you're using each day + a bit more for cloudy days. But verify this yourself.
If you're taking the time to re-wire a lot of the 12v and 120v systems it would be nice to have the capability of running an air conditioner for a few hours.
Using Victron for the charger/inverter and solar controller should make a nice system and should be compatible with LiFePO4s.
Yes, Balqon is frustrating to deal with. It would be nice if they would at least appoint a retailer to handle small sales. It would almost be worth paying a small premium for better customer service.
If you have the time try and come to the rally in June. You can see my system and maybe get some ideas. A lot of great people will be there.