Lets talk about LITHIUM Travel Trailer Batteries/Inverters/Solar (v2.0)

The panels got delayed by a few days and finally have all the pieces of the puzzle, minus a couple of breakers (i aparently ordered a 300amp instead of a 200 that i thought i did). I still need some 2/0 welding wire i guess also

I sweated my ass off and setup the panels in a series-parallel configuration on top of the patio cover.


Then i setup the 40a mppt controller and battery


with the setting sun, i was getting about 36v and about 2-3 amps. I'll be interested to see how it does tomorrow in the blasting sun

 

I got the bluetooth module delivered and set it up.

Pretty sunny out and pulling about 325w from the panels.

The default renogy "Li" setting has it set to charge to 13.6v, i was expecting to charge to 14.4-14.6v. Anyone know whats up? I emailed AmpereTime and asked them what they recommend.

 

Lithium charging is different than charging a lead acid. They get a constant current first then a constant voltage then they get the float voltage.

but hopefully they provide an answer for you on your specific case

 

I did read about CC then CV charging. Pretty interesting stuff.
I'll let ya know what AmpereTime says.

I was able to get some 3/0 cable at home depot, i was originally going to get 2/0 but 3/0 was only slightly more and shouldn't have any problem handling the 200a max that it could draw.
Gonna be interesting to try to finagle this cable in place.

 

Just think of it like copper pipe with some pvc on the outside of it lol. That’s what it’s gonna feel like trying to route it around

 

I started to research wire benders to see if that would help. For the most part, the 90deg up into the trailer is going to be the most dificult, but other than that it shouldn't be too bad. I know there's a couple guys in the energy field or linemen...maybe they have some tricks

I'm going to ping @ColoradoTJ and see if he knows any tricks for bending 3/0 into submission

 

stranded marine cable will get you there. West marine or Amazon

 

You’ll have to beat the shit of the crimper at least. Unless you have one of those fancy hydraulic ones

 

I was laughing at beating it into submission, though, I didn't know it had a direction to bend.

 

Ever used some of the bending tools? I see some claw style ones and some that are two posts on a plate.

 

I finally have some time to go over to the trailer today and work on the new battery setup, so last night i started to mount everything to the board that will be mounted inside the storage compartment with all the goodies.

Since this will be vertical with the battery box next to it, i had to rig everything up so that i could pre-bend the 3/0 cable. It wasn't as bad as i thought it would have been.

 

So our big dry camping trip is comming up a week from today. I finally got back out to the trailer to finish up the installation.

Since last picture, i've added a Renogy battery shunt monitor that i will later mount inside.


I have it setup so that i can plug the trailers power cable into the "high current" ports on the inverter that are rated at 2kw.
I tested everything out and it can run the nespresso (that fucking thing will pull 1600w per the shunt).
If this doesn't work, i'm going to run the nespresso machine over with the truck about 50 times.

 

Looks good!

 

Made it through the dry camping trip.

Had a nice spot on the seawall, our friends with a gigantic 5th wheel had to bail out last minute so we had tow spots so we could stretch out.


Weather was pretty good, little bit of marine layer but was going to be a great weekend to setup the solar and test it out.


I was able to keep the battery charged up very well. I would be able to pull between 300-350w from the sun and was able to keep the battery topped off.


As far as usage, we were able to use the cursed Nespresso machine in the morning. It would drop the battery voltage down a bit but then would settle to 13.2-13.4v after making coffee.
I thought i would be turning the inverter on/off more, but i dont think i ever dipped below 85% charge on that battery. We even plugged in a box fan for a bit when the breeze died down. I really like the monitor how it shows power coming in or going out.

Lithium is the way to do it, there's no way that i'd be able to pull this much juice off lead acid batteries.