Hank the Tanks Dodgy battery and solar system

Canalsman said:
I agree with @merl and @wildebus - replace the knackered battery with another lead acid as an interim measure.

It will tide you over till you can get booked at an installer for a full lithium installation.

Don't rush. Take your time and do it right.

And don't forget if you change the 'van in the future you can move the lithium battery to your new purchase.
Click to expand...

Don't even hint at suggesting that Barry gets a new van!! :giggle:
 
Thanks

Trouble is a standard 90ah battery is going to be dead as well in 3 or 4 days of crap weather. I thought these expensive lead carbons lasted years? I kind of agree though, I really wanted lithium. One option might be to get another panel fitted and a single cheap battery and go back for lithium when they can fit it in. That might keep us going until we head home.

I don't know. It's doing my head in.
 
Barry has mentioned a few times in other threads that the set up in the last van worked well and got good life.
Seems feasible to me that with a new MPPT and LC battery, he'll get many years from that. On the other hand?
If starter battery is knackered, that's a different matter.

Personally, I'd be tempted to live with it as is, unless it starts getting low on power daily.
Running engine to charge batteries on idle is not recommended I know, but ain't gonna do any harm once or twice.

Then sort it out exactly as you want later.
 
Not sure why people think the starter battery is knackered. It's showing fully charged all the time. I'm not using it for power although I have occasionally just to charge a phone or similar.

This is keeping me awake but here's a thought.

If VanBitz are saying they don't have time to do a full lithium install why not half a one? Fit an extra panel, fit one or two lithium batteries and a victron mppt and then I'll come back in September or whenever for the rest of it. Would that work? We will just be sat in a field for a month so all the charge would just be via the solar for that time anyway.
 
Barry maybe one of them power banks with the stand alone solar panels as a stop gap if you don’t like it or get the other improvements you want done then punt it on but they are a handy extra to have around. I have the vtoman one with 400W of solar. I didn’t believe in these thing’s but I’m a convert. They have halved in price over the last 4 years.

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barryd said:
Not sure why people think the starter battery is knackered. It's showing fully charged all the time. I'm not using it for power although I have occasionally just to charge a phone or similar.

This is keeping me awake but here's a thought.

If VanBitz are saying they don't have time to do a full lithium install why not half a one? Fit an extra panel, fit one or two lithium batteries and a victron mppt and then I'll come back in September or whenever for the rest of it. Would that work? We will just be sat in a field for a month so all the charge would just be via the solar for that time anyway.
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Starter batteries have a hard life and you probably don't know how old it is or how it's been treated.

Stop fretting about this. Replace the leisure battery.

Get a full upgrade done in a few months time.

Getting half the job done now and the rest later will inevitably be more costly than having it all done at once.
 
Thanks guys for steering me on the right course. I think im being steered down a course to installing a system I didn't want. I've slept on this (well it kept me awake until 2am) and you are right. It's crackers me spending £2k+ on a lead carbon system and extra panel.

I'm going to go for a stop gap. I don't want to say too much yet until I speak to the member but Ive had a really kind offer of help locally.

So what I think I need and is either two lead acids, 1 lead acid or an AGM. Whatever will fit and not too much money. I also want to change that controller for one I can monitor.

Will say more when I contact the kind member who is helping me.
 
barryd said:
Not sure why people think the starter battery is knackered. It's showing fully charged all the time. I'm not using it for power although I have occasionally just to charge a phone or similar.

This is keeping me awake but here's a thought.

If VanBitz are saying they don't have time to do a full lithium install why not half a one? Fit an extra panel, fit one or two lithium batteries and a victron mppt and then I'll come back in September or whenever for the rest of it. Would that work? We will just be sat in a field for a month so all the charge would just be via the solar for that time anyway.
Click to expand...
Sounds like the best plan. Ask them about just dropping in the Lithium battery now with switches a dip switches set to GEL and doing the rest in the autumn.

It wouldn't be 100% efficient and will put a strain on you EHU charger. But you wouldn't do any damage to the battery assuming its got a BMS and you really shouldn't get one without. You would be very unlucky to overwork your charger in just a few months.
 
I've already emailed VanBitz and cancelled. Going with a temporary / semi permanent fix for now which I'll need some help with in a bit.
 
Right then! @yeoblade has very kindly offered to help me get sorted (he's local) He has the same battery box on his swift and fitted all his own stuff. I can get a battery and any other bits delivered to him and he will fit them for me. What a forum eh? 😁

My question is what to go for and should I replace the current controller? The only thing with the current controller is it appears to be charging both the leisure battery and cab battery. So it has battery 1 and battery 2 outputs and most of the ones I've seen online don't have that.

Measurements of the compartment are as follows.

18.5 cm width at narrowest
79 cm length
23.5 Max height

Going on that I think I could get 1 x 120 or 130 AGM in.

Something like this?
Not sure about the posts on this.
 
Glandwr said:
Sounds like the best plan. Ask them about just dropping in the Lithium battery now with switches a dip switches set to GEL and doing the rest in the autumn.

It wouldn't be 100% efficient and will put a strain on you EHU charger. But you wouldn't do any damage to the battery assuming its got a BMS and you really shouldn't get one without. You would be very unlucky to overwork your charger in just a few months.
Click to expand...
The mains charger will have its own current limiter so current will be no higher than charging a well discharged lead battery but that high current will simply go on for a little longer while charging a lifepo4 but as you say it should be fine short term.
This is what I'd do, in order of preference.
If he can get 1or 2 lifepo4 at a reasonable price then fit that, if not go for a cheap lead jobbie, maybe a starter depending on cost different between the cheap and starter. If he goes lead then it looks like there's space in the compartment to add it, I know the existing is not a lot of good but keeping it in would help a little with capacity, no need for a complicated wiring job, just connect the 2 with jump leads. Ignore advice about the 2 batteries being of different capacity and age, it's only chemistry that's important.
Fit a better MPPT controller, make sure it's lithium compatible, preferably with user defined settings. Allowed a decent size for further upgrades down the line.
Finally, if the above still doesn't give enough capacity then fit more solar panels.
Good luck Baz👍
 
Or cheap and cheerful?

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You can leave original panel and controller as is Barry and fit new panel(s) and controller that go direct to the battery. Your OEM system probably limits what you can have anyway. Only difference is you may not see on the control panel how much you are harvesting on solar, it will still show how much you use and battery volts if it works like mine.
 
I wouldn’t but anything but lifepo4 myself. The cost these days it doesn’t make sense to do otherwise. If you don’t have a gel setting on your inbuilt mains charger I would just pull fuse on charger and leave a separate charger connected up.
 
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