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  1. #21
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    Quote Originally Posted by cookinwitdiesel
    standard WFCO-9855 converter that GD seems to like
    Is it 9855, the floor mount converter, or 8955, where it's built into the distrubtion panel? I'm guessing the latter. In either case, looking at options to fix that, it seems like WFCO has an 8955LiS that claims to have lithium charging ability. Progressive Dynamics makes a module designed to upgrade the 8955 with lithium ability. Mixed reviews on either choice.

    Quote Originally Posted by cookinwitdiesel
    I also would not expect great things from dealer installed batteries. Mine were allegedly 140 Ah batteries (2x). I saw realistically about 75-80 Ah of usage before they were at critical voltage.
    I guess 75-80 out of 140 is right in line with expectations. I knew FLA batteries kinda sucked in that regard, but I didn't realize 50% was basically normal. I wish I could remember what size batteries we had on the last trailer. Could have been anything from 65 to 140, I guess. 105 kinda rings a bell, but only faintly.

    Right now I'm leaning towards this battery pack:
    https://www.electriccarpartscompany....-battery-packs

    Good price for that capacity. Most likely overkill, but better over than under.
    Current: 2021 Transcend 261BH, 2019 Ford F250 SRW SWB CC 6.2 - Picture
    Previous: 2016 Jayco X213, 2014 F150 EB 3.5

  2. #22
    Site Sponsor SolarPoweredRV's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by rootusrootus View Post
    Is it 9855, the floor mount converter, or 8955, where it's built into the distrubtion panel? I'm guessing the latter. In either case, looking at options to fix that, it seems like WFCO has an 8955LiS that claims to have lithium charging ability. Progressive Dynamics makes a module designed to upgrade the 8955 with lithium ability. Mixed reviews on either choice.

    I guess 75-80 out of 140 is right in line with expectations. I knew FLA batteries kinda sucked in that regard, but I didn't realize 50% was basically normal. I wish I could remember what size batteries we had on the last trailer. Could have been anything from 65 to 140, I guess. 105 kinda rings a bell, but only faintly.

    Right now I'm leaning towards this battery pack:
    https://www.electriccarpartscompany....-battery-packs

    Good price for that capacity. Most likely overkill, but better over than under.
    Check out my post "Cheap Batteries are Coming..." in the main discussion area for other batteries which may fit your needs better and/or cheaper.

    The battery you linked to is a very large form factor battery and may be difficult to place in the camper. Also, the deal works out to be $483 per 100 amp hours which is in the upper-middle pricing for Chinese LiFePo4 batteries, the best pricing I found was $271 per 100ah, I also found some available from Amazon in the $400 to $500 price range available without 8 weeks shipping from China.
    David and Peggy
    2019 Ford F350 Lariat, 6.7L Diesel, Dually, Long Bed
    Running with 20k Reese Goosebox (Love It) and Ford Factory "Puck" system.
    Stopping with 8,000 lb Disc Brakes and Titan Hydraulic over Electric Brakes system.
    Powering all this fun with 1200 Watts of Solar, two Tesla, Model S, battery modules, 24 volt Victron Inverter.
    2018 Solitude 310 GK

  3. #23
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    Quote Originally Posted by SolarPoweredRV View Post
    Check out my post "Cheap Batteries are Coming..." in the main discussion area for other batteries which may fit your needs better and/or cheaper.

    The battery you linked to is a very large form factor battery and may be difficult to place in the camper. Also, the deal works out to be $483 per 100 amp hours which is in the upper-middle pricing for Chinese LiFePo4 batteries, the best pricing I found was $271 per 100ah, I also found some available from Amazon in the $400 to $500 price range available without 8 weeks shipping from China.
    I need to shop around more, you are finding better deals. I have discounted most of the random stuff I see on Amazon because Will Prowse has torn down a few of the random Chinese battery packs and been pretty disappointed with the quality. Another one that looks interesting is the SOK Battery. The teardown looked good, the tests were good, the price is good. Currently $1029 for 206Ah but back ordered.

    It's tempting to pick up 8 of those ungraded (but probably B) Chinese 272Ah prismatic cells at 75-90 bucks each and build two 4S 272Ah battery packs. But... that's maybe more DIY than I want to deal with, and more than I want to sleep next to (or on top of, if I put it in the cargo area). That's also why I figured the ECPC pack wasn't necessarily a bad option; if I blow a couple grand on batteries, I might be willing to take up cargo space rather than hanging them out on the tongue. Just thinking, I've got plenty of time before I have to make a choice.

    I'll check out the thread you mentioned. Thanks!
    Current: 2021 Transcend 261BH, 2019 Ford F250 SRW SWB CC 6.2 - Picture
    Previous: 2016 Jayco X213, 2014 F150 EB 3.5

  4. #24
    Rolling Along cookinwitdiesel's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by rootusrootus View Post
    Is it 9855, the floor mount converter, or 8955, where it's built into the distrubtion panel? I'm guessing the latter. In either case, looking at options to fix that, it seems like WFCO has an 8955LiS that claims to have lithium charging ability. Progressive Dynamics makes a module designed to upgrade the 8955 with lithium ability. Mixed reviews on either choice.

    I guess 75-80 out of 140 is right in line with expectations. I knew FLA batteries kinda sucked in that regard, but I didn't realize 50% was basically normal. I wish I could remember what size batteries we had on the last trailer. Could have been anything from 65 to 140, I guess. 105 kinda rings a bell, but only faintly.

    Right now I'm leaning towards this battery pack:
    https://www.electriccarpartscompany....-battery-packs

    Good price for that capacity. Most likely overkill, but better over than under.
    No I meant 75-80 total, not usable. Usable was half of that again! They were garbage. Thrilled to get the $15 core fee when I tossed them.

    The 50amp trailers have the floor mounted 9855 unit. I do not know what the 30amp units get.
    2019 GMC Sierra 3500HD Denali Diesel DRW (Crew Cab | 8 Ft bed | OEM Puck System | Curt Gooseneck Ball for OEM Puck | Timbrens on rear axle)
    2019 Grand Design Solitude S-Class 3740BH-R Fifth Wheel (Onan 5500W LP Generator | MORryde CRE3000 and HD Shackles/Wet Bolts | 3x MORryde Cross Members | 8k Axles and Disc Brakes | Sailun S637 ST | Reese GooseBox 20k 2nd Gen | Splendide Stackable Washer and Dryer)
    Full Suite of Victron Energy Products (2x 5k 24v Quattro Inverter/Charger | 2x 25.6/200 LFP Smart LiFePO4 Batteries | 2880w of Solar Panels across 4x MPPTs | Cerbo GX)

  5. #25
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    Quote Originally Posted by cookinwitdiesel View Post
    No I meant 75-80 total, not usable. Usable was half of that again! They were garbage. Thrilled to get the $15 core fee when I tossed them.
    Oh wow, you're right, that's *awful*.

    The 50amp trailers have the floor mounted 9855 unit. I do not know what the 30amp units get.
    Given that the Transcend Xplor is GD's budget trailer, I'm assuming it's just the 8955 at best. Whatever was cheapest. But I will find out soon, I hope, my trailer should be here within a few weeks I expect.

    I'm getting really tempted to build my own battery, the more I read about what's involved. And with the availability of halfway decent 272Ah cells for under $100 each, it looks like a good option. A single 272Ah battery would most likely be perfectly adequate for my regular usage, so I'd build two and wire them in parallel. Then I have a workable backup plan, while in the meantime I have extra capacity for luxury living.
    Current: 2021 Transcend 261BH, 2019 Ford F250 SRW SWB CC 6.2 - Picture
    Previous: 2016 Jayco X213, 2014 F150 EB 3.5

  6. #26
    Site Sponsor SolarPoweredRV's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by rootusrootus View Post
    I need to shop around more, you are finding better deals. I have discounted most of the random stuff I see on Amazon because Will Prowse has torn down a few of the random Chinese battery packs and been pretty disappointed with the quality. Another one that looks interesting is the SOK Battery. The teardown looked good, the tests were good, the price is good. Currently $1029 for 206Ah but back ordered.

    It's tempting to pick up 8 of those ungraded (but probably B) Chinese 272Ah prismatic cells at 75-90 bucks each and build two 4S 272Ah battery packs. But... that's maybe more DIY than I want to deal with, and more than I want to sleep next to (or on top of, if I put it in the cargo area). That's also why I figured the ECPC pack wasn't necessarily a bad option; if I blow a couple grand on batteries, I might be willing to take up cargo space rather than hanging them out on the tongue. Just thinking, I've got plenty of time before I have to make a choice.

    I'll check out the thread you mentioned. Thanks!
    Yes, those 272ah Prismatic batteries are very tempting to build out and I think they would work very well in the RV environment. With 272ah and 8 cells, even if they were a little bit short on their amp hours, you would still have quite a large battery bank for very low cash outlay.

    Also, the math looks very good: 8 cells for ~ $650 + 100 for a BMS + 50 for misc yields a 544ah battery bank for $800 +/-, that is equivalent to $150 - $160 per 100 amp hours, that is 80% to 85% of the cost of Battle Born Batteries.

    If you have the skills, I would encourage you to build it and report back to us how it worked out and how much money you saved.
    David and Peggy
    2019 Ford F350 Lariat, 6.7L Diesel, Dually, Long Bed
    Running with 20k Reese Goosebox (Love It) and Ford Factory "Puck" system.
    Stopping with 8,000 lb Disc Brakes and Titan Hydraulic over Electric Brakes system.
    Powering all this fun with 1200 Watts of Solar, two Tesla, Model S, battery modules, 24 volt Victron Inverter.
    2018 Solitude 310 GK

  7. #27
    Seasoned Camper Thorvald's Avatar
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    Don’t forget that you can now buy the Victron Smart Shunt. It’s cheaper than the BMV because it doesn’t include the remote display, you do everything via Bluetooth on your phone.

    Personally I’ve completely fallen in love with the entire Victron ecosystem. Everything just works never any glitches and tons of remote diagnostics and logging etc. I have now built and installed about four remote solar camera set ups using their equipment. One of the benefits of Amazons insanely crazy long return policy is you can buy all these very expensive solar products, try them out and return them if you’re not happy.

    If you’re on a budget you can create your own Venus GX using a raspberry pi then you still need to buy the USB to Victron direct cable for each device. Usually cheaper in the end to just buy a Venus GX on sale. With that device you basically get a mini computer running everything that has a webpage which looks just like the fancy touchscreen they sell and if you connected it to a cellular or Wi-Fi router you can control and view your entire solar system from anywhere in the world. Add a USB GPS and Victron Portal webpage will even tell you where your trailer is at all times and alert you if it moves. Absolutely love this device.

    On our next trailer whether it has prepped or not will be ripping it out and installing:

    Victron VenusGX or the newer Cerbo with the bigger display
    Victron BMV712
    Victron MPPT
    Victron Multiplus 3000
    Victron Direct cables to connect it all back to the VenusGX

    Then go shopping for lithium batteries but I don’t think anyone can beat Battle Born for reliability, warranty and the ability to parallel them. You’ll have to really watch the other manufacturers a lot of them do not allow paralleling (such as Renology).

    Cheers
    Tim
    2022 Momentum 25G (aka "Baby Mo")
    2020 Ram 3500 Laramie SRW | 6.7 HO Aisin | 6’4” bed | 3.73 gears | air suspension | 3694# Payload
    Blog Post: 1500 Pickup’s and Towing - The REAL numbers with example
    Blog Post: 2016-2018 Imagine 2800BH - 3500 lb Axles Tire Rubbing Issues

  8. #28
    Rolling Along cookinwitdiesel's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Thorvald View Post
    Don’t forget that you can now buy the Victron Smart Shunt. It’s cheaper than the BMV because it doesn’t include the remote display, you do everything via Bluetooth on your phone.

    Personally I’ve completely fallen in love with the entire Victron ecosystem. Everything just works never any glitches and tons of remote diagnostics and logging etc. I have now built and installed about four remote solar camera set ups using their equipment. One of the benefits of Amazons insanely crazy long return policy is you can buy all these very expensive solar products, try them out and return them if you’re not happy.

    If you’re on a budget you can create your own Venus GX using a raspberry pi then you still need to buy the USB to Victron direct cable for each device. Usually cheaper in the end to just buy a Venus GX on sale. With that device you basically get a mini computer running everything that has a webpage which looks just like the fancy touchscreen they sell and if you connected it to a cellular or Wi-Fi router you can control and view your entire solar system from anywhere in the world. Add a USB GPS and Victron Portal webpage will even tell you where your trailer is at all times and alert you if it moves. Absolutely love this device.

    On our next trailer whether it has prepped or not will be ripping it out and installing:

    Victron VenusGX or the newer Cerbo with the bigger display
    Victron BMV712
    Victron MPPT
    Victron Multiplus 3000
    Victron Direct cables to connect it all back to the VenusGX

    Then go shopping for lithium batteries but I don’t think anyone can beat Battle Born for reliability, warranty and the ability to parallel them. You’ll have to really watch the other manufacturers a lot of them do not allow paralleling (such as Renology).

    Cheers
    Tim
    Check out Victron batteries also, mine have been rock stars and same price per kWh as BattleBorn once you work with a dealer.
    2019 GMC Sierra 3500HD Denali Diesel DRW (Crew Cab | 8 Ft bed | OEM Puck System | Curt Gooseneck Ball for OEM Puck | Timbrens on rear axle)
    2019 Grand Design Solitude S-Class 3740BH-R Fifth Wheel (Onan 5500W LP Generator | MORryde CRE3000 and HD Shackles/Wet Bolts | 3x MORryde Cross Members | 8k Axles and Disc Brakes | Sailun S637 ST | Reese GooseBox 20k 2nd Gen | Splendide Stackable Washer and Dryer)
    Full Suite of Victron Energy Products (2x 5k 24v Quattro Inverter/Charger | 2x 25.6/200 LFP Smart LiFePO4 Batteries | 2880w of Solar Panels across 4x MPPTs | Cerbo GX)

  9. #29
    Setting Up Camp
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    And just for info, your panels don't need to be the same brand and wattage as long as their loaded voltage is the same.
    Ayran and Paul McIntosh
    Box Elder, SD
    2020 Solitude 310GK "LaMancha"
    2017 Chevy Silverado LTZ 3500HD

  10. #30
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    Quote Originally Posted by LaMancha View Post
    And just for info, your panels don't need to be the same brand and wattage as long as their loaded voltage is the same.
    Assuming you connect them in parallel. In series you could get away with a voltage difference as long as the total was within the charge controller's limits. And assuming both panels are the same current.
    Current: 2021 Transcend 261BH, 2019 Ford F250 SRW SWB CC 6.2 - Picture
    Previous: 2016 Jayco X213, 2014 F150 EB 3.5

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