[Richard]

I happened to first in line for the LFA batteries when Forest removed them from his coach. That was good for us since the
AGMs were 8 1/2 yrs old and would barely run the coach through the night. Also, it was lucky that we were heading back east right now, so it wasn't too hard to swing through Louisiana to pick them up.

Forest helped me put them in and setup the charger. Sounds easy, right? Of course not.

First off, after removing the batteries from the large bay, and the battery rack, we discovered that the battery bay was slightly more shallow than Forest's. Uh Oh. The batteries would not fit. A bit of measuring, figuring, and creativity indicated that with careful positioning, they would fit if turned 90 degrees. So after an entertaining trip to Home Depot to get a new plywood floor for the bay (Riddle: how many HD employees does it take to turn on a saw?), the batteries went in. After it took two of us to lift the 160 lb 8d's out, it was quite amazing that I put the 90 lb cells in alone.

The second moment occurred when Forest discovered the batteries were not charging. After an hour of fiddling with charger settings, we discovered a glitch that really through us off path. That still unresolved glitch is that somewhere in my coach, the house and chassis batteries are inadvertently connected. It has to be a small wire since the connection does not transfer the full voltage. I had a hint of this when I was working on the generator when I had to turn off both the house and chassis disconnect switches to kill power to the starter. Anyway, that little problem had us chasing the wrong issue.

The real problem with charging was the word ASSUME. You know when you assume something without verification, it really throws the problem solving off. The issue originated with the design which consists of two battery bays. Obviously the two bays are electrically connected by a positive and negative cable. We disconnected what we that was the positive cable to the rear bay. An hour of head scratching revealed that the cable we disconnected was NOT the cable to the rear compartment; it was the cable to the charger. Duh huh, what a Homer Simpson moment. Amazing that the batteries started charging when we turned the system back on after connecting that cable.

My first impressions are:
1. after spending some time with Forest, the setup is not as complicated as it first seemed
2. the batteries will take a heck of amp charge in.
3. the link controller for the inverter is a lot more programmable, and provides more info than I realized
4. I haven't dry camped with the Aquahot running overnight yet, but I will report as soon as I do
5. You can't use voltage at all to determine the state of charge with the batteries, it took me a while to get that in my head

Of course the real test will be the test of time. How long will they continue to perform at a high level. The more I read about the techonology, the more convinced I was that it will become the technology of future RV power storage. Forest, and now I, may be on the leading edge. I hope it doesn't turn out to the be the bleeding edge. :-)

I saved the best part till last. Just like, when I have worked side by side with other Gurus, I had a fantastic time working with Forest on the install. It was like we had worked together for years. It was a great two days.