Class B RV Upgrades | AGM vs Lithium | Airstream Interstate Battery Box Removel
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- čas přidán 10. 08. 2019
- Factory RV house batteries just don't cut it. If you spend any time outside of a RV park, you'll have to face the fact of upgrading your rv batteries at some point. The big question now is which ones? Lithium or AGM batteries. I discuss my struggle with the decision between Lifeline 6 volt batteries along with the top lithium brands of Battle Born Batteries, Lithionics, Relion Battery and Renogy Battery. I'll also show you how to take out the OEM Airstream Interstate battery box so you can fit bigger batteries in its place.
Current set up we have now below. • RV Lithium Battery UPG...
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What a tough decision it is to upgrade your house batteries. I'd be glad to hear other thoughts on the AGM vs Lithium battle. Thanks for watching!
First of all please ignore my last question of your last video in terms of why not go with lithium. Second of all thank you for doing all this research that I didn't have to do. That is awesome. I did go out and buy a lithium battery I could forget which brand and just threw it in my Jeep and it seems to work fine LOL. I don't know why that is!
First, an alternator only puts out it's rated power under ideal condition - cold temperatures, high RPMs. Many vehicles even come with a "high idle" switch to keep the engine at 1500 or 2000 RPM so the alternator spins faster and can output more amperage.
THANK YOU. I feel your pain. Very helpful, I have a roadtrek with the same problem
Great video! For other Airstream Interstate owners, if you forget to recline the couch before disconnecting the house batteries, you can simply reconnect only the chassis battery and have your wife push the battery assist button located on the left hand side of the dash while you hit the couch recline button. Also, I took the easy route and replaced the two group 24 batteries with one Lifeline 12V 255Ah GPL-8DL Battery. This battery slides right into the factory battery box. You just can’t put the cover back on the rear of the box as the battery sticks out about 4 inches. I did, however, have to make new battery cables but that was a good thing because I made them with 2 gauge wires.
The way you get around the charge rate issue is to use a B2B (Battery-to-Battery) charger, for example a Sterling or Redarc B2B with a lithium specific charge profile, sized to the battery charge rate and inserted between the starter and coach batteries. For example a 50A B2B for a 100AH lithium battery. Odds are that with a 220A alternator, you'd probably only want to draw 100A anyway so the alternator doesn't overheat. The reason that you don't have to have that for AGM's is that they have higher internal resistance and self-regulate the rate at which they accept a charge.
wow. never knew Li batteries had such a low max charge current... that would definitely be a deal killer for me. surprised this detail isn't discussed more frequently.
Hi, I agree about the initial outlay for lithium systems being expensive but I am led to believe that over the long term they are more cost effective given the their longevity vs AGM. I think the volume and weight is also significant enough to take into consideration. Space is always at a premium in RVs but I also wonder how much extra fuel is required to haul around the heavier AGM batteries. Still it was interesting to hear your reasoning behind the decision to go the AGM route 👍. Do you think you might have gone the lithium route if you were building your electrical from scratch? I was also pondering the discrepancy between the alternator output and lithium charging capability. The device that steps down the alternator charge I was wondering if the extra charge could be shoved into a water heater 🤓 just a thought.
Hi, you said Mercedes connects the chassis battery and house battery together. So if I trickle charge the chassis battery during storage, do you think it would also charge the house battery? Thanks in advance!
I don't understand any of this but know I can't use my toaster without plugging in - so if that had been a part of this - I would have tried to understand that. I will show this to my hubby though cuz I'm sure he will think this is awesome!
I am just starting to learn about this for van life, but have been in the Rc hobby using many different sizes of lipo batteries. My question is why the power from the generator matters? As when l charge my lipos, l use a charger that controls how much power l put I into the batteries. So changing an rv to lipo is there also a charge controler that takes the power from the alternator and changes it to what ever the battery needs? Monitoring and maintaining the lipo like l do with my house hold electrical current to my lipo charger? So in a nut shell did any of the lipo battery companies take about a charge controler, between the battery and alternator? Again l am totally new to this and have no idea, thank you for your video 👍
Have you revisited this decision? Just seeing if prices came down for lithium options, yet.
I recently purchased a 2013 AI. I found your Utube channel and have enjoyed watching your journey. I see you have since upgraded your batteries to lithium, but this older video of your upgrade to the Lifeline 6CTs looks like something I may want to do. We don't intend in living in the van, but are more weekend warrior types, so a couple of days off the grid is all we really need. I don't want to make the larger investment into lithium at this point. A couple of questions: 1 If you were to upgrade your AGM system again, would you still use these same batteries or in retrospect, might there have been a better solution or product? 2 When you upgraded to the 2 Lifelines, did you have make any other modifications ie inverter? We have a Magnum MMS1012-G, 1000 watt inverter that I assume was the original. I appreciate your insight and look forward to watching more of your videos.
I wish you guys could have lit this better, it was pretty much impossible to see the details.
Folks, stick with the 24T batteries it was designed to fit. You can add another 24T under the seat. During the box removal, most guys would just lose it.#!@!!.
Your logic is flawed. Mercedes does not allow you to pull that much charge from the alternator, no matter what battery you have. Mercedes requires a current limiting isolator between the alternator and upfitter upgrades. Else they will void the warranty. Next, regarding the 50A charge rate of some lithiums. Almost all lead acid batteries, especially AGM, expect a 0.2C max rate. So a spec of 0.5C is actually an upgrade. If you have two or three batteries, each battery can take 50A, hence 100-150A. Again, more than the Mercedes allows. You will cook that alternator. Next, a quality lithium will offer optimum specs, and maximum specs. You don't use the maximum specs all the time, but can occasionally use it. I have done over 20 builds and upgrades on Sprinter vans, all with Battle Born batteries and everyone loves them. I also usually have to upgrade the house 12V converter and the alternator isolator, since the Sprinter uses a smart alternator that turns the voltage down when the chassis battery is full and that only trickle charges the lithiums. LeisureSolar
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Sounds like you need an advanced science degree to figure this stuff out.