2024 Newmar New Aire

[Rich W.]

So all y'alls know Lithium Iron Phosphate batteries are not the same as Lithium Ion batteries, right?

Best,
-Mark

yes, using Li-ion technology requires a much deeper understanding of monitoring, balancing, and regulating the cells. As far as I know there are very few (if any) plug and play Li-ion 12v battery bank options available for use in an RV, while there is no shortage of LiFePO4 12v stuff on the market.

There is more to be gained by using Li-ion cells re-configured for 24v or 48v systems (weight, space, power) farmed from car batteries for a much more reasonable investment (if you know where to look), but I wouldn’t recommend it to anyone without advanced knowledge of such systems. I still am not 100% sure which way I’ll go but there is something to be said for the ease and simplicity of good 12v LiFePO4 batteries.

This is an example of a Tesla battery out of a Mercedes (currently under development) that was converted from 400v to 48v for a 5th wheel and has the rough equivalence of 3300 ah at 12v. Its big and heavy but has far more capacity than the same weight/space of LiFe.

 

[MarkMaxPayne]

Post some images when you can of the 3rd battery install.

I caved and had the dealer order and install the 3rd Lithionics battery as part of its purported "plug and play"
upgrade. Short answer is it isn't plug and play as the 3 way battery combiner isn't installed at the factory, which requires that part and labor involved in undoing the factory battery connection, fabricating a shelf to mount the combiner on, then hooking up all the connections. IMHO plug-in-play means to simply plug in the new component with no additional parts or labor and you are done.

And now for the photos. Here is the third battery sitting in the far right battery tray slot left open for it. As hoped they ditched the battery Y combiner cable and installed the proper Lithionics 3 battery combiner box. There really wasn't much room for it so the dealer decided to fabricate a custom shelf for it above the batteries (I wonder if there is actually enough room between the backs of the batteries and the power distribution wall). They did a good job, but it is in the way of easily accessing the bus bars and inline fuses on that back power distribution wall.

I am still scraching my head and pining over the solenoid to combine the batteries for alternator charging vs a proper dc to dc converter/charger. That said I have included photos of the main panel and Victron shunt showing amps going into the 960Ah bank of 3 batteries when the engine is idling and then when the generator is on.

Best
-Mark

 

[Neal]

All looks good but I really hate the combining of technologies/vendors. For example, I'd much prefer a complete Lithionics or Victron system as much as possible. It looks like you have Xantrex + Lithionics + Victron.

 

[MarkMaxPayne]

All looks good but I really hate the combining of technologies/vendors. For example, I'd much prefer a complete Lithionics or Victron system as much as possible. It looks like you have Xantrex + Lithionics + Victron.

Yep. Agree. Unfortunately Newmar went with Xantrex and Lithionics at the factory. As the Xantrex devices fail on my rig over time (or should have never been installed by Newmar in the first place at the factory due to the models they selected being incompatible with Lithium) I am replacing with Victron.

As for Lithionics vs Battle Born? I prefer BB given they don't ignore/blow off the educated DIY market and custom installers. With Lithionics you are limited/constrained to the dealer as they are now owned by Winnebago... That said I wasn't about to toss out two perfectly good batteries and BMS to add the 3rd.

Best,
-Mark

 

[Rich W.]

Regardless of certain aspects not being ideal, its a very capable and high quality system and you are going in the right direction with Victron. And the Zantrex stuff will probably just keep on going for the duration. If not you have options.