🔋 Use code LHW5 and save 5% off Enduro Power Batteries 🔋 Same specs with a 25% smaller battery case and save HUNDREDS over the big brand battery 😉 www.endurobattery.com/discount/LHW5 Equipment from our upgrade project: - 200ah 12V Lithium Iron Phosphate battery: www.endurobattery.com/discount/LHW5 - Victron Smart Shunt: www.victronenergy.com/battery-monitors/smart-battery-shunt - WF-9855LiS Converter: wfcoelectronics.com/product/wf-9855lis/
Thank you so much... wanted to start with a couple lithiums off the bat with some portable solar because it is just so expensive... who knows with this cost savings I just might be able to add the solar to the roof after all.. Thank you for the heads up! :) Retiring 6 months from today!! Woo-woo!
That’s awesome to hear, Jeanette! We upgraded to 600ah this week and spent a bunch of time with the Enduro Power owner… it’s an awesome company! We had our original battery in for almost 3 months now and it has performed flawlessly 🤩 Keep us updated!
The ultimate battery: Internal battery monitor shunt. Internal disconnect switch. A built in Anderson Power pole SB175 inverter connection and a separate Anderson Power pole connection for the charge controller. A case that can be opened if a cell or the BMS needs to be replaced. Provisions for mounting it to a floor or a wall.
Just received our 300 amp hour EnduroPower batteries this week. Looking forward to installation which will be simple cause we’re replacing existing batteries. Drop in and attach cables. 340 pounds replaced by 130 pounds.
Came across your video after a local solar tech recommended I look at swapping out our 100ah "big battery company" LiFePo for 200ah Enduro Power batts. Wondering how you are feeling about this battery 3 years later? Quality build? Customer service? Great video, and thanks for any insight!
Wish I had seen this a couple of months ago. Just got 3×200ah renogy batteries, which are great and less expensive but these would have been a better fit in the available space.
I'm going to add a small bit of "Food for Thought" to this video. If you wish to keep your Lead Acid batteries in good working condition for the longest period of time, then as stated in this video, you shouldn't discharge them below 50%. But that doesn't necessarily mean you have 50% for usable energy. See, you think you know where I'm going with this, but I promise you, you (probably) don't. From 80% to 100%, your Lead Acid batteries go into an "Absorption Phase" where the battery charges MUCH SLOWER. It takes many Hours, trust me, more hours than you have in a day of typical charging while camping, to go from 80% to 100% capacity. So let me lay out a typical camping scenario. Let's say that you're going to be in a camp ground with no hook ups for a 5 day stay. You have a 200 watt solar suitcase and a portable generator. In a best case scenario, you have full sun for the five days and you can run your generator 2 hours in the morning and 3 hours in the afternoon. On the first day you pull into the park, your 2 100ah batteries (200 total ah) are at 100%. You have 100ah of usable stored energy. With typical usage, on the first night you watch a bit of TV and maybe your Furnace runs a bit because it gets down to 60 degrees overnight, you charge some phones, laptops, your on the internet etc. In the morning, you have used 30 amp hours. Effectively, your down to 70% of your total 200ah left. You have 200 Watts of solar but even during the day there is a small draw on the batteries so your battery bank is either holding steady or only charging very slowly. So, you run the generator for the full 5 hours of allowed time. At dark on the second night, you start with with 80ah of capacity. Note, you were only able to put 10ah back into the battery bank because at the 80% mark the battery charging slows way down. In the morning you have used 30ah and you're bank is down to 50ah. Same charging parameters as before (a bit oversimplified just for this example) and you head into the third night of your stay at 65ah. Note, this time you were able to get 15ah into the batteries because your within the battery banks bulk charge range. In the morning you wake up having used another 30ah to a battery bank with 35ah in the tank. Same charging parameters as before and you head into the 4th night with 50ah. In the morning you wake up having used another 30ah and your now down to 20ah in the tank. Same charging parameters as before and you head into the fifth and final night of your stay with 35ah. In the morning on the day of your departure having used another 30ah, you wake up with just 5ah of useable stored energy. Barely enough to pull the slide in before dipping into the danger zone. It's a good thing you're leaving because your battery bank can't handle another night of use without a complete full charge which could take a day or more of full charging. If you're staying for 7 nights, you're going to have to effectively stop using any power and just charge. The moral of the story in case it's not clear is: While camping, the effective usable range for your Lead Acid battery bank is between 50% and 80% (of your total possible amp hours). If you have a 200ah Lead Acid battery bank of which you can effectively only use 100ah, and you can only effectively bulk charge between 50% and 80% (of the total capacity), you only really have 60ah of effective energy to use. Ideally, you would want to have the ability to charge your Lead Acid Batteries 60ah each day if you want access to your full (Real) capacity. Under a typical daily usage of 30ah, you should be able to at least jack 30ah each day into your Lead Acid battery bank. 30ah isn't an extravagant expenditure of power for typical RV's. We're not talking running the AC or Microwave or hair dryers or coffee pots. We're talking about lights, charging phones and computers, maybe some TV use, maybe the furnace fan, water pump and parasitic battery draws. Where I live we get plenty of cloudy rainy days and we primarily camp in the woods under partial tree cover. We have 400 watts of solar power and we are lucky if we pull in a MAX of 80 watts. Averaged through out the typical day, we pull in around 20 watts of power per hour on average. I have a 70 amp Progressive Dynamics PD9270 converter charger. I have NEVER seen my battery bank draw more than 15 amps of power while charging the batteries and you can only run your generator 5 hours a day in most parks. Believe me, it's not as easy as it might first seem to jack 30 amp hours a day into your Lead Acid battery bank. While upgrading to Lithium is anything but straight forward,,,,,, in fact let me say this first. Anyone who says you can "Simply swap the batteries and upgrade the converter charger" DOES NOT KNOW WHAT THEY'RE TALKING ABOUT, PERIOD! Lead Acid and Lithium are two different echo systems and even the most modest 2 battery 200ah Lithium battery upgrade will require updating your RV's echo system. If you don't know what I mean by echo system, then you need to do your research because there are lots of considerations that many of these UA-cam videos are not telling you about. But, as I was saying, while upgrading to Lithium batteries is anything but straight forward, they are superior in every way to Lead Acid. There are two major advantages in particular out of loads of advantages that make a huge difference. First, they charge MUCH FASTER in that you can pound up to their rated charge current into them from empty to full. In many cases, you could potentially jack 100 constant amps into a 200ah lithium battery bank until full charge. So the time you have each day to charge is worth a lot more. Second, you can reliably pull 80% of the battery banks full capacity out of them without significantly impacting their longevity. That's 160ah out of a 200ah lithium bank. There are loads of videos that say you can fully discharge a lithium battery or pull out 100% of it's capacity out. And sure, you can do that, but doing so will cut the life cycle of your batteries in half. If your batteries are rated for 4000 cycles, you can figure on getting 2000 cycles out of them if you fully discharge them every time. In reality, the typical RV camper will never use 160ah in a day unless they're running air conditioners and other high draw items. If you're drawing 30ah to 60ah out of your 200ah Lithium bank each day, you are not only able to replenish that amount far easier, but you will never come close to over taxing the batteries.
I do like the smaller size of the Enduro Power batteries and while they do appear to be built with lithium cells that are UL certified the rest of the electrical components are not. I’m specifically concerned that they do not carry the UL2054 certificate against explosion and fire.
Not sure what battery those clips on charge cycles was from, but you should get 3-5000 charge cycles on a LiFePO4 battery. If you aren't, there's something wrong.
Hi. Just saw your video and your video got my attention. Bought a Class B 2 years ago and have been thinking about replacing the AGM batteries when the time comes. Was thinking about using another brand not battle born unfortunately my dealer has to get permission from Manufacturing company of my van to install the batteries. So now I am going to start looking for someone who can install lithium batteries. These enduros seem to fit the bill for what I want...great video by the way.
Initially - the up-front price seems to be the only downside. but if you look at the battery cost over 10 years for 200ah, and compare that to Lead acid - suddenly Lead acid batteries are the more expensive choice!! Looking to take the "Lithium" plunge ourselves soon...
That’s exactly right. Especially knowing the lifespan of lead acids are only a couple years and you need 5-6 of them to make up for the single 200ah. Those things add up! Thanks for stopping by 🤙
Thank you for an excellent video. We are looking at lithium for our truck camper. Need to ask to be sure: I know you’ve gotten a solar system since this video. Did you have any solar when you were doing this battery project? Blows me away how much you could do with 200 amp hours!!
@@LetsHeadWherever Thank you. That’s what I thought but I had to ask to be sure as I’m blown away by what you could do with just the batteries!! Amazing!!
Do you have any pics of how you secured that battery in the storage compartment? I have a Reflection 303 that i want to install this same battery in. Also what part number Victron Smart Shunt did you install? Thanks.
That’s awesome, we can’t wait to hear how you like them! Ours had a bit of charge, I don’t recall how much. We had shore power so we charged up pretty fast before boondocking.
Thank you for your very in depth review of your solar system. Just subscribed to your channel by the way, I have one question though. We have a smaller unit than you a 24ft Micro Mini. It came with (1) 100 amp solar panel do you have a suggestion of how many more panels we would need to compliment your set up and can we still run our 1500 air conditioning unit. Great video easy to understand!
I am admittedly not very knowledgeable about the electrical systems and how much folks need between solar/battery. I know a good bit about our system, but outside of that I’m basically 🤷♂️😅 I recommend checking some of the Boondocking or Solar RV Facebook groups, they have folks who know way more than me and could probably advise you better 🤙
I have a question, when you zoomed out over your home I didn’t see any solar panels on the roof? Did I miss something while watching your vid .? Thank you
No, at the time of this recording, we only installed a 200ah Enduro battery and upgraded the converter to one with a lithium charge profile. We’ve since installed a full solar system, that video is here ▶️ ua-cam.com/video/Td8_RCLLU0s/v-deo.html
Thanks for the video. We would probably not be off grid for more that 2 nights. I'm considering just a 100AH because it will fit in the depressed storage area in our Reflection. But curious, how do you secure your batteries? Thanks
We bolted 2 pieces of 2x4 to the bottom of the front storage bay and the batteries rest on them. They’re snugged up in the corner but not secured by anything. I don’t think they’ve moved since the install!
Yeah man! We weren’t really looking to boondock until we started having issues finding sites. We have some plans for 2022 where this will make things much more comfortable 🤙
@@LetsHeadWherever That's fantastic. We love Harvest Hosts and battery issues are definitely one of the reasons we don't do it as much. Would love to hear how these work for you over the next few months and after you get more boondocking on them.
Our Enduro batteries have worked flawlessly since the install. We actually upgraded to 600ah when we installed a full solar system a couple months back. We have a video for that as well 🤙
What was your solution with regards to being able to charge the lithium’s from your truck? Do you just not charge when going down the road? My understanding it pulls too many amps with just the normal truck to trailer hookups.
There’s a trickle from the truck to the lithium battery when connected, but I pull the 7-pin as soon as I can to avoid having the lithium leach off the truck battery. I won’t rely on the truck to charge anyways, we have a generator if we absolutely needed to top the RV battery off.
@@donrauschmeier9733 Trickle charge from a 7-pin does not draw enough power to burn up the alternator. It's possible the trickle charge will not charge at all, given its low voltage.
@@danostrom Really??? There are a lot of videos and articles about installing a B2B charger to regulate the proper charge for the battery (while traveling) as well as isolate the rig from the tow vehicle charging system. I am an absolute beginner with this power stuff and I haven't been able to get a definitive answer to the question of the "concerns" of running the connection without the DC-Dc charger.
I don’t recall and we’ve since replaced everything with a full solar/inverter system. If I remember correctly, so long as it states both 13.6 & 14.7V you’re good. The 14.7 will bring the lithium battery to full charge.
Just found the specifications on the 9855 The charge voltage is 13.2-14.4 That probably won't get lithium to full charge. Do you still have your lis converter? If so do you want to sell it?
Ok looked at spec's for lis and max voltage is 14.6. So your memory is pretty good. Same for the 9855-AD. Which is their auto detect unit for lead acid or lithium.
Initially, we would just keep the battery charged from shore power, we would only do a day or two off-grid. Since, we’ve installed a complete solar system.
Herb, sadly I don’t know the dimensions off the top of my head. They’re listed in the specifications on the website for sure www.endurobattery.com/discount/LHW5
@@LetsHeadWherever Thanks, I emailed Enduro to see if the top and bottom dimensions were the same. From pictures it looks like it tapers out at the top and didn't know if dimensions included the handles or not....Did you have more room at the bottom of your tray?
I have over an inch, possible two inches of wiggle room between the battery and walls of the storage area. We’re adding batteries soon so I plan to fix them in place once the full array is there.
It’s working pretty good, have part of a tree that is obstructing. Our T-Mobile home internet is considerably faster here though. Must have a 5G tower super close by 👍
It’s been really nice to have when we’re out in remote areas. In the Seattle suburbs, there’s plenty of 5G to use, but out in the middle of nowhere it’s awesome to have Wi-Fi over 100mbps 🤩 Wave hi if you see us out and about 👋
@@LetsHeadWherever those are lithium correct? Couldnt you add batteries to increase run time? Already im not sold on these batteries. Think ill go with battleborn. Can really get some ah with those.
@@blackcatrose4257 Yes, they’re LiFePo4 batteries. You can add ad many as you have room for. We have 3X 300AH batteries so they don’t take up much room.
Why don't you pig tail 3 of them together, then you can go off grid camping for a wk and not have to worry. That's the way i would go as it's better to have it and not need it then to need it and not have it. Take Care and Happy Camping
Thank you for making this video, this is what I have been wanting to do but was unsure if it was possible. One question for you though, can I do this without installing the battery monitor? Thank you!
Yes, you don’t need to have a battery monitor, but it was important to us have the ability to see precise charge levels and know how long until we went dark 😬😅
@@LetsHeadWherever Thanks for the quick response! Thats what I thought but was not sure. We are almost always plugged into power and dont feel that we currently need to monitor to the detail that is offered with that monitor.
I gotta say Joe this was one of the best videos I have seen about this subject, I only have one dumb question and that is do they charge like the lead acid Batts. Great video do u plan on hitting the southeast any time soon ?
Thanks, Bob! Glad you like it. If I’m understanding your question correctly, yes the lithium batteries charge in the same manner as the stock batteries. The lithium seems to charge faster and like I mentioned, we can utilize all 200ah of charge. The other day the battery went from 86% to 100% pretty quick when we hooked to shore power. 30amp at that!
@@LetsHeadWherever that definitely answered the question. Florida weather for 6-7 months out of the year is not conducive to boon docking BUT …. Soon. After our last trip and like you said Walking out the front door and looking and smelling the neighbors sewer hose my wife was ready to kill me🤭.
Haha dude I kid you not, over the past few weeks we’ve stayed in some of the tightest of any of the previous year or so 🤦♂️ We stayed at a place in Sequim, WA where I was concerned about hitting the neighbors power pole on BOTH sides of the RV 😂😅 We’re going to be in Florida in November. Are you in the “Central Florida Grand Design RV Owners” Facebook group? They’re doing a camp out in Crystal River while we’re there. You should check if there are sites available! First round is on us 🤙
Something else, in the video I show the “converter” that we upgraded. That’s the device that transfers shore power into 12V to charge the battery. We added one that can fully charge lithium at 14.6V. Sorry if you know this already. I was clueless until about a month ago when we went down this path. I have my mini-PhD in electricity now 😂🔋
I don’t know where you’re getting your information? I’m a retired Marine electrician and understand battery technology very well. With lithium ion batteries you will shorten their life overall if you discharged him beyond 20% charge. Spending the money for lithium ion technology and taking it down to zero charge per cycle is flat out crazy and makes me really question anything that you have to say on this channel.
🔋 Use code LHW5 and save 5% off Enduro Power Batteries 🔋 Same specs with a 25% smaller battery case and save HUNDREDS over the big brand battery 😉 www.endurobattery.com/discount/LHW5
Equipment from our upgrade project:
- 200ah 12V Lithium Iron Phosphate battery: www.endurobattery.com/discount/LHW5
- Victron Smart Shunt: www.victronenergy.com/battery-monitors/smart-battery-shunt
- WF-9855LiS Converter: wfcoelectronics.com/product/wf-9855lis/
Thank you so much... wanted to start with a couple lithiums off the bat with some portable solar because it is just so expensive... who knows with this cost savings I just might be able to add the solar to the roof after all.. Thank you for the heads up! :) Retiring 6 months from today!! Woo-woo!
That’s awesome to hear, Jeanette! We upgraded to 600ah this week and spent a bunch of time with the Enduro Power owner… it’s an awesome company! We had our original battery in for almost 3 months now and it has performed flawlessly 🤩 Keep us updated!
The ultimate battery: Internal battery monitor shunt. Internal disconnect switch. A built in Anderson Power pole SB175 inverter connection and a separate Anderson Power pole connection for the charge controller. A case that can be opened if a cell or the BMS needs to be replaced. Provisions for mounting it to a floor or a wall.
Just received our 300 amp hour EnduroPower batteries this week. Looking forward to installation which will be simple cause we’re replacing existing batteries. Drop in and attach cables. 340 pounds replaced by 130 pounds.
That’s awesome! You’ll love it 🤙
Came across your video after a local solar tech recommended I look at swapping out our 100ah "big battery company" LiFePo for 200ah Enduro Power batts. Wondering how you are feeling about this battery 3 years later? Quality build? Customer service? Great video, and thanks for any insight!
That one battery 300ah is a game changer thx🌻
Total game changer not having to install a bunch of 100ah 🤩🔋
Joe very nicely down the video. It looks like a win-win weight savings and more power. Thank you for sharing. Peace and Safe Travels.
Thanks, Craig! We’re pretty excited about this upgrade 🤩🤙
Wish I had seen this a couple of months ago. Just got 3×200ah renogy batteries, which are great and less expensive but these would have been a better fit in the available space.
I'm going to add a small bit of "Food for Thought" to this video.
If you wish to keep your Lead Acid batteries in good working condition for the longest period of time, then as stated in this video, you shouldn't discharge them below 50%. But that doesn't necessarily mean you have 50% for usable energy. See, you think you know where I'm going with this, but I promise you, you (probably) don't.
From 80% to 100%, your Lead Acid batteries go into an "Absorption Phase" where the battery charges MUCH SLOWER. It takes many Hours, trust me, more hours than you have in a day of typical charging while camping, to go from 80% to 100% capacity. So let me lay out a typical camping scenario.
Let's say that you're going to be in a camp ground with no hook ups for a 5 day stay. You have a 200 watt solar suitcase and a portable generator. In a best case scenario, you have full sun for the five days and you can run your generator 2 hours in the morning and 3 hours in the afternoon.
On the first day you pull into the park, your 2 100ah batteries (200 total ah) are at 100%. You have 100ah of usable stored energy. With typical usage, on the first night you watch a bit of TV and maybe your Furnace runs a bit because it gets down to 60 degrees overnight, you charge some phones, laptops, your on the internet etc. In the morning, you have used 30 amp hours. Effectively, your down to 70% of your total 200ah left. You have 200 Watts of solar but even during the day there is a small draw on the batteries so your battery bank is either holding steady or only charging very slowly. So, you run the generator for the full 5 hours of allowed time. At dark on the second night, you start with with 80ah of capacity. Note, you were only able to put 10ah back into the battery bank because at the 80% mark the battery charging slows way down. In the morning you have used 30ah and you're bank is down to 50ah. Same charging parameters as before (a bit oversimplified just for this example) and you head into the third night of your stay at 65ah. Note, this time you were able to get 15ah into the batteries because your within the battery banks bulk charge range. In the morning you wake up having used another 30ah to a battery bank with 35ah in the tank. Same charging parameters as before and you head into the 4th night with 50ah. In the morning you wake up having used another 30ah and your now down to 20ah in the tank. Same charging parameters as before and you head into the fifth and final night of your stay with 35ah. In the morning on the day of your departure having used another 30ah, you wake up with just 5ah of useable stored energy. Barely enough to pull the slide in before dipping into the danger zone. It's a good thing you're leaving because your battery bank can't handle another night of use without a complete full charge which could take a day or more of full charging. If you're staying for 7 nights, you're going to have to effectively stop using any power and just charge.
The moral of the story in case it's not clear is: While camping, the effective usable range for your Lead Acid battery bank is between 50% and 80% (of your total possible amp hours). If you have a 200ah Lead Acid battery bank of which you can effectively only use 100ah, and you can only effectively bulk charge between 50% and 80% (of the total capacity), you only really have 60ah of effective energy to use. Ideally, you would want to have the ability to charge your Lead Acid Batteries 60ah each day if you want access to your full (Real) capacity. Under a typical daily usage of 30ah, you should be able to at least jack 30ah each day into your Lead Acid battery bank. 30ah isn't an extravagant expenditure of power for typical RV's. We're not talking running the AC or Microwave or hair dryers or coffee pots. We're talking about lights, charging phones and computers, maybe some TV use, maybe the furnace fan, water pump and parasitic battery draws. Where I live we get plenty of cloudy rainy days and we primarily camp in the woods under partial tree cover. We have 400 watts of solar power and we are lucky if we pull in a MAX of 80 watts. Averaged through out the typical day, we pull in around 20 watts of power per hour on average. I have a 70 amp Progressive Dynamics PD9270 converter charger. I have NEVER seen my battery bank draw more than 15 amps of power while charging the batteries and you can only run your generator 5 hours a day in most parks. Believe me, it's not as easy as it might first seem to jack 30 amp hours a day into your Lead Acid battery bank.
While upgrading to Lithium is anything but straight forward,,,,,, in fact let me say this first. Anyone who says you can "Simply swap the batteries and upgrade the converter charger" DOES NOT KNOW WHAT THEY'RE TALKING ABOUT, PERIOD! Lead Acid and Lithium are two different echo systems and even the most modest 2 battery 200ah Lithium battery upgrade will require updating your RV's echo system. If you don't know what I mean by echo system, then you need to do your research because there are lots of considerations that many of these UA-cam videos are not telling you about. But, as I was saying, while upgrading to Lithium batteries is anything but straight forward, they are superior in every way to Lead Acid. There are two major advantages in particular out of loads of advantages that make a huge difference. First, they charge MUCH FASTER in that you can pound up to their rated charge current into them from empty to full. In many cases, you could potentially jack 100 constant amps into a 200ah lithium battery bank until full charge. So the time you have each day to charge is worth a lot more. Second, you can reliably pull 80% of the battery banks full capacity out of them without significantly impacting their longevity. That's 160ah out of a 200ah lithium bank. There are loads of videos that say you can fully discharge a lithium battery or pull out 100% of it's capacity out. And sure, you can do that, but doing so will cut the life cycle of your batteries in half. If your batteries are rated for 4000 cycles, you can figure on getting 2000 cycles out of them if you fully discharge them every time. In reality, the typical RV camper will never use 160ah in a day unless they're running air conditioners and other high draw items. If you're drawing 30ah to 60ah out of your 200ah Lithium bank each day, you are not only able to replenish that amount far easier, but you will never come close to over taxing the batteries.
I do like the smaller size of the Enduro Power batteries and while they do appear to be built with lithium cells that are UL certified the rest of the electrical components are not. I’m specifically concerned that they do not carry the UL2054 certificate against explosion and fire.
Not sure what battery those clips on charge cycles was from, but you should get 3-5000 charge cycles on a LiFePO4 battery. If you aren't, there's something wrong.
Hi. Just saw your video and your video got my attention. Bought a Class B 2 years ago and have been thinking about replacing the AGM batteries when the time comes. Was thinking about using another brand not battle born unfortunately my dealer has to get permission from Manufacturing company of my van to install the batteries. So now I am going to start looking for someone who can install lithium batteries. These enduros seem to fit the bill for what I want...great video by the way.
The Enduro batteries have been great. We even added more during our solar install 🔋 👍
Where are these made? Seems to be the one thing i can't find and i noticed u said its not china direct.
Initially - the up-front price seems to be the only downside. but if you look at the battery cost over 10 years for 200ah, and compare that to Lead acid - suddenly Lead acid batteries are the more expensive choice!! Looking to take the "Lithium" plunge ourselves soon...
That’s exactly right. Especially knowing the lifespan of lead acids are only a couple years and you need 5-6 of them to make up for the single 200ah. Those things add up! Thanks for stopping by 🤙
Thank you for an excellent video. We are looking at lithium for our truck camper. Need to ask to be sure: I know you’ve gotten a solar system since this video. Did you have any solar when you were doing this battery project? Blows me away how much you could do with 200 amp hours!!
No! We had zero solar when we first upgraded batteries 🔋
@@LetsHeadWherever Thank you. That’s what I thought but I had to ask to be sure as I’m blown away by what you could do with just the batteries!! Amazing!!
Do you have any pics of how you secured that battery in the storage compartment? I have a Reflection 303 that i want to install this same battery in. Also what part number Victron Smart Shunt did you install? Thanks.
Just ordered ours, 2 300 amp hour batteries. Thanks for the great review. Did it come fully charged?
That’s awesome, we can’t wait to hear how you like them! Ours had a bit of charge, I don’t recall how much. We had shore power so we charged up pretty fast before boondocking.
Thank you for your very in depth review of your solar system. Just subscribed to your channel by the way, I have one question though. We have a smaller unit than you a 24ft Micro Mini. It came with (1) 100 amp solar panel do you have a suggestion of how many more panels we would need to compliment your set up and can we still run our 1500 air conditioning unit. Great video easy to understand!
I am admittedly not very knowledgeable about the electrical systems and how much folks need between solar/battery. I know a good bit about our system, but outside of that I’m basically 🤷♂️😅 I recommend checking some of the Boondocking or Solar RV Facebook groups, they have folks who know way more than me and could probably advise you better 🤙
I have a question, when you zoomed out over your home I didn’t see any solar panels on the roof? Did I miss something while watching your vid .? Thank you
No, at the time of this recording, we only installed a 200ah Enduro battery and upgraded the converter to one with a lithium charge profile. We’ve since installed a full solar system, that video is here ▶️ ua-cam.com/video/Td8_RCLLU0s/v-deo.html
Thanks for the video. We would probably not be off grid for more that 2 nights. I'm considering just a 100AH because it will fit in the depressed storage area in our Reflection. But curious, how do you secure your batteries? Thanks
We bolted 2 pieces of 2x4 to the bottom of the front storage bay and the batteries rest on them. They’re snugged up in the corner but not secured by anything. I don’t think they’ve moved since the install!
Great video and you beat us. ha ha. We're actually not working on anything battery wise but kinda think we should be after watching this. -Chris
Yeah man! We weren’t really looking to boondock until we started having issues finding sites. We have some plans for 2022 where this will make things much more comfortable 🤙
@@LetsHeadWherever That's fantastic. We love Harvest Hosts and battery issues are definitely one of the reasons we don't do it as much. Would love to hear how these work for you over the next few months and after you get more boondocking on them.
Great video! This is exactly what I've been looking for. It's been a few months, any issues with the Enduro Power?
Our Enduro batteries have worked flawlessly since the install. We actually upgraded to 600ah when we installed a full solar system a couple months back. We have a video for that as well 🤙
I have had my Enduro for over a year and they have been excellent. Love my system.
We just added another 300ah. Total bank is 900ah now 🤩
Does the battery itself have A system built into the battery where it doesn't overcharge it
Yes, each battery has an internal BMS.
@@LetsHeadWherever ok thanks
Why did you not use Enduro BMS system that they offer?
The BMS is in each of the batteries. I’m unsure what you’re asking 🤷♂️
What was your solution with regards to being able to charge the lithium’s from your truck? Do you just not charge when going down the road? My understanding it pulls too many amps with just the normal truck to trailer hookups.
There’s a trickle from the truck to the lithium battery when connected, but I pull the 7-pin as soon as I can to avoid having the lithium leach off the truck battery. I won’t rely on the truck to charge anyways, we have a generator if we absolutely needed to top the RV battery off.
@@LetsHeadWherever I've read that you can burn up your alternator without a DC-DC converter. Are you worried about that?
@@donrauschmeier9733 Trickle charge from a 7-pin does not draw enough power to burn up the alternator. It's possible the trickle charge will not charge at all, given its low voltage.
@@danostrom Really??? There are a lot of videos and articles about installing a B2B charger to regulate the proper charge for the battery (while traveling) as well as isolate the rig from the tow vehicle charging system. I am an absolute beginner with this power stuff and I haven't been able to get a definitive answer to the question of the "concerns" of running the connection without the DC-Dc charger.
Where are they made? You mention “US” company, but I suspect like BB batteries they are made in PRC
Which WF power converter did you remove? We have a WF 9855. Their website doesn't indicate if that unit is compatible with an lithium batteries.
I don’t recall and we’ve since replaced everything with a full solar/inverter system. If I remember correctly, so long as it states both 13.6 & 14.7V you’re good. The 14.7 will bring the lithium battery to full charge.
Just found the specifications on the 9855 The charge voltage is 13.2-14.4
That probably won't get lithium to full charge. Do you still have your lis converter? If so do you want to sell it?
It may be 14.4, I was going off memory… dangerous move 😅😬
Ok looked at spec's for lis and max voltage is 14.6. So your memory is pretty good. Same for the 9855-AD. Which is their auto detect unit for lead acid or lithium.
That’s great . How are you charging the battery,?no Solar?
Initially, we would just keep the battery charged from shore power, we would only do a day or two off-grid. Since, we’ve installed a complete solar system.
Do you remember what the bottom dimension was of the 200amp you put in? I'm wondering if a 300amp would fit in the same space?
Herb, sadly I don’t know the dimensions off the top of my head. They’re listed in the specifications on the website for sure www.endurobattery.com/discount/LHW5
@@LetsHeadWherever Thanks, I emailed Enduro to see if the top and bottom dimensions were the same. From pictures it looks like it tapers out at the top and didn't know if dimensions included the handles or not....Did you have more room at the bottom of your tray?
I have over an inch, possible two inches of wiggle room between the battery and walls of the storage area. We’re adding batteries soon so I plan to fix them in place once the full array is there.
@@LetsHeadWherever Thanks Joe,
How is your Skylink working at Lake Pleasant?
It’s working pretty good, have part of a tree that is obstructing. Our T-Mobile home internet is considerably faster here though. Must have a 5G tower super close by 👍
@@LetsHeadWherever We’re thinking about getting it. We saw your trailer today.
It’s been really nice to have when we’re out in remote areas. In the Seattle suburbs, there’s plenty of 5G to use, but out in the middle of nowhere it’s awesome to have Wi-Fi over 100mbps 🤩
Wave hi if you see us out and about 👋
Can you run ACs off of them like the other lithium ones. I want to run the whole house part of a super C lol
Sure, you can run the AC… but not for very long 😅 Even with 900ah we could probably only run the AC for a couple hours.
@@LetsHeadWherever those are lithium correct? Couldnt you add batteries to increase run time? Already im not sold on these batteries. Think ill go with battleborn. Can really get some ah with those.
@@blackcatrose4257 Yes, they’re LiFePo4 batteries. You can add ad many as you have room for. We have 3X 300AH batteries so they don’t take up much room.
Why don't you pig tail 3 of them together, then you can go off grid camping for a wk and not have to worry. That's the way i would go as it's better to have it and not need it then to need it and not have it. Take Care and Happy Camping
Thank you for making this video, this is what I have been wanting to do but was unsure if it was possible. One question for you though, can I do this without installing the battery monitor? Thank you!
Yes, you don’t need to have a battery monitor, but it was important to us have the ability to see precise charge levels and know how long until we went dark 😬😅
@@LetsHeadWherever Thanks for the quick response! Thats what I thought but was not sure. We are almost always plugged into power and dont feel that we currently need to monitor to the detail that is offered with that monitor.
Looking at making this upgrade ourselves. What inverter did you choose and why?
We’re adding a 3000W Victron inverter in a few weeks. We’ll have an entire video on that process and explanations 🤙
Great video. I need this!
Awesome! Glad you enjoyed it 🤙
When traveling, can the truck recharge a Lithium battery?
It may send a trickle of charge over to the RV, but the the 12V wire in the 7-pin connector is too thin to actually charge it while driving.
I gotta say Joe this was one of the best videos I have seen about this subject, I only have one dumb question and that is do they charge like the lead acid Batts. Great video do u plan on hitting the southeast any time soon ?
Thanks, Bob! Glad you like it. If I’m understanding your question correctly, yes the lithium batteries charge in the same manner as the stock batteries. The lithium seems to charge faster and like I mentioned, we can utilize all 200ah of charge. The other day the battery went from 86% to 100% pretty quick when we hooked to shore power. 30amp at that!
@@LetsHeadWherever that definitely answered the question. Florida weather for 6-7 months out of the year is not conducive to boon docking
BUT …. Soon. After our last trip and like you said Walking out the front door and looking and smelling the neighbors sewer hose my wife was ready to kill me🤭.
Haha dude I kid you not, over the past few weeks we’ve stayed in some of the tightest of any of the previous year or so 🤦♂️ We stayed at a place in Sequim, WA where I was concerned about hitting the neighbors power pole on BOTH sides of the RV 😂😅
We’re going to be in Florida in November. Are you in the “Central Florida Grand Design RV Owners” Facebook group? They’re doing a camp out in Crystal River while we’re there. You should check if there are sites available! First round is on us 🤙
Something else, in the video I show the “converter” that we upgraded. That’s the device that transfers shore power into 12V to charge the battery. We added one that can fully charge lithium at 14.6V.
Sorry if you know this already. I was clueless until about a month ago when we went down this path. I have my mini-PhD in electricity now 😂🔋
@@LetsHeadWherever I will look into it for sure Even if we don’t bring camper I will bring a cooler 🍻
Don't think ya need shunt if a got mppt/solar to have bluetooth reading
You're a beautiful couple I'm envious
Good info, could have done without the music.
I don’t know where you’re getting your information? I’m a retired Marine electrician and understand battery technology very well. With lithium ion batteries you will shorten their life overall if you discharged him beyond 20% charge. Spending the money for lithium ion technology and taking it down to zero charge per cycle is flat out crazy and makes me really question anything that you have to say on this channel.
Good thing these aren’t lithium ion batteries 🔋 👍
Use your propane for fridge and water heater. Rookies!
We have a residential fridge and use propane for the water heater when boondocking 🤷♂️