My DIY lithium battery setup

[rootusrootus]

I have purchased all of the parts, though not everything has arrived.

• Lishen 270Ah LiFePO4 batteries, Qty 4. $438
• Battery Case. $94
• Overkill 4S BMS 120A. $125
• Compression Lugs, 2 AWG 5/16", Qty 10. $14
• 2 AWG cable, 5 ft ea red/black. $28
• 3/4" shrink tube, red & black, $11
• 110A Class T Fuse w/block. $50

All prices listed are all-in, including shipping.

Not everything on this list is strictly necessary to build a successful battery. E.g. the cells come with bus bars, I could just use those, but I wanted flexible connections. There are cheaper BMS options that can be ordered along with the battery cells and they probably work just as well. The battery case is really expensive due to shipping cost, and there are cheaper ways to do it, but I wanted a finished product that I could drop into the same spot my FLA batteries are now.

The only thing I do not have yet are the battery cells themselves, and I don't expect those to arrive for another six weeks or so.

I will post pictures later of the items that I do have, as well as the batteries when they arrive, and then I will document the build process and final results.

In addition to the DIY battery, the rest of my system, at least for this season, looks like this:

• Victron SmartSolar 100/20 MPPT charge controller, to replace the Furrion 25A simply because I'm a nerd and I want to see the daily performance of the panels.
• Victron Phoenix 12 250VA inverter, just to run the television when we boondock. The only other device we'd use AC for is the microwave, and we decided it wasn't worth the extra $1200 to get an inverter/charger.

Future plans include most likely replacing the Furrion panel with 2 or 4 180W panels (not Furrion). First I want to see what the 165W panel is worth in practice. I may also upgrade the converter to a lithium-capable model, but I'm still on the fence about it. As long as it won't hurt the LFP batteries, just charge them to only ~70%, then I may be satisfied with letting the solar charger top them off to 100%.

[rootusrootus]

Battery Box:


Overkill BMS:


Cable/lugs/fuse:

[Ynot4me2]

Nice, Thanks for doing this. I'll be following closely as this is exactly my planned project for next fall.

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[BeerBrewer]

I've been looking into doing something similar, but I'm still in the research phase. Keep us posts on your progress.

[Ynot4me2]

Are you planning on putting that battery case directly on the frame or within another more traditional battery box? To protect those connectors and hide (camouflage) your setup?

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[rootusrootus]

Are you planning on putting that battery case directly on the frame or within another more traditional battery box? To protect those connectors and hide (camouflage) your setup?

Definitely it will go inside another box. As long as I only have one battery in use, I could just put it in a double GC2 box no problem. It comes pretty close to fitting a Group 27 box, but it's 0.2 inches too wide.

So probably I'll end up getting a bolt-down locking battery box that is sized to fit two of these end-to-end. My brother-in-law works at Torklift, I wonder if I can get him to custom-build something.... hmmm...

[Ynot4me2]

Definitely it will go inside another box. As long as I only have one battery in use, I could just put it in a double GC2 box no problem. It comes pretty close to fitting a Group 27 box, but it's 0.2 inches too wide.

So probably I'll end up getting a bolt-down locking battery box that is sized to fit two of these end-to-end. My brother-in-law works at Torklift, I wonder if I can get him to custom-build something.... hmmm...

Tell your BiL to keep the plans if he does. There might be more request coming his way in the future.

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[rootusrootus]

Update: This project is on hold. Ran out of time, and the battery cells are backordered with an indefinite delivery date. So I decided to get a drop-in LFP, and for various reasons which probably only really make sense to me, I just decided to bite the bullet and grab a 100 Ah Battle Born. That should arrive tomorrow. We start camping every other weekend starting in two weeks, so I needed to get this ironed out. I almost decided to just get a couple cheapo GC2s from Costco and try again next year with the lithium, but decided I'd rather have some kind of lithium setup now. And I can easily afford it, so why the heck not go for BB...

This project is not canceled altogether, however. I like to tinker, and I still have the battery cases, cable, lugs, crimper, charger, etc. So I will probably buy 8 of the 272Ah Lishen or CATL cells later this year when the shipping snafu is worked out, and see about building a properly large capacity battery. It could also be that I'm about to find out that 100Ah ain't big enough and I'll panic buy another BB in a few weeks .