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Winnebago "Full Campers" / Re: interior LED lights

« on: January 18, 2017, 10:59:05 am »

I had very good luck with these from superbrightleds.com:
Rear overhead reading Lights: Item 921-WWHP15-TAC  6.95 each  warm white. Each fixture takes two bulbs
Pop-Top light: Item 1156-WW18-T 9.95 each warm white

wherever you buy, you probably want to make the color temperature is warm white.

2

CaveVan Stuff / Re: VW

« on: December 07, 2016, 09:56:55 pm »

The rear hatch, which in metal is the same for all variants, is very hard to get new in the US now. The side pieces (rear of the front doors), are unique to the campers because of the window cutouts (or lack thereof), so I could see those having to come from overseas.

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Winnebago "Full Campers" / Re: Winnebago AUX/house battery, solar thread.

« on: November 03, 2016, 11:14:41 pm »

First field test for the LifePO4 battery.  I sort of chickened out and added the solar before my first trip (200watts of Renogy suitcase solar; Genasun Lithium charge controller)

Long story short: Conditions were optimal (lots of sunshine, warm nights with no need to run the furnace), but with a load of the Vitrifrigo C60iac, interior lights, constant charging of laptop and 3 iDevices, I made more power than I consumed - the battery never dropped below 13.2 volts, even first thing in the morning.

Next test will be shorter days, and I'm going to add a 2000w inverter so that wife can run a blow dryer. I still expect to have essentially indefinite power.

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Tires and wheels! / Re: The ultimate tire and wheel guide thread!

« on: October 19, 2016, 07:04:45 pm »

which is pretty much what they say in their explanation...
http://www.gowesty.com/tech-article-details.php?id=26

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Tires and wheels! / Re: The ultimate tire and wheel guide thread!

« on: October 19, 2016, 12:01:18 pm »

Just mounted Yokohama 235/60s - this is rear clearance (wheel offset is 35 - early GoWesty lift kit).  Same tire size as before, but with tread at maximum this is a close shave!

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Winnebago "Full Campers" / Re: Winnebago AUX/house battery, solar thread.

« on: July 05, 2016, 05:50:26 pm »

Update on the Zamp charge controllers & Lithium profiles for AlbertR.  They are 'targeting' 'beginning of 2017' for having the Lithium profile on all of their controllers. 

So, if I want one *now* it means mounting the non-weatherized lithium charge controller on the same plastic panel as my monitor & battery switch. I thought this could be an outcome, so I already have the splice between the Zamp plug on the outside and the battery busses. I just need to unplug and plug into the charge controller and I'm all set.

BTW, I stopped my rundown test at 12.5v and 91 amp-hours used.  Hard to say exactly, but given what i saw, starting from a "full charge" of 13.6V, I should at least be within spitting distance of my predicted 144 amp-hour capacity. I'm going to call this whole thing a preliminary success. 

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Winnebago "Full Campers" / Re: Winnebago AUX/house battery, solar thread.

« on: July 02, 2016, 10:46:27 am »

Update on run down test:
To go from 13.23 starting voltage to 12.8 ("nameplate" voltage on the pack) I used up 71 amp hours. With the Vitrifrigo running non-stop at 3.5 amps, that would 20 hours of wall clock time. However the vitrifrigo is going to be much closer to 1.5 amps over a a 1 hour period, so I think that will give me roughly 40 hours of runtime with no solar re-charge. 

Next step is to see how many amp hours are used up going from 12.8 to 12.0, which is going to be my cutoff.  The vitrifrigo won't cut out until voltage gets to about 11.0, so I have to monitor and hit the battery switch to protect the pack.   

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Winnebago "Full Campers" / Re: Car Wash?

« on: June 30, 2016, 11:19:27 am »

I never have. My two cents: A couple of reasons not to...
1 - high likelihood of water penetration through the top seal - will get your tent wet, and you'll want to raise the top to let it dry - defeats your time savings
2.I wouldn't really want to spray water horizontally into the furnace vent sor the battery vent
3 - all of the accessories on the sides - especially the refrigerator vents - could get damaged

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Winnebago "Full Campers" / Re: Winnebago AUX/house battery, solar thread.

« on: June 27, 2016, 11:53:03 am »

In my humble opinion, which is worth exactly what I charge for it  ....companies like Stark are making "drop-in replacement" batteries, which are designed to have *some* tolerance for operator neglect or just plain indifference.  It may very well be the case that if you are going to sell a "drop it in and forget about it" product, the BMS is a very good idea.

Also, if I have a class A coach with a 500AH or higher pack, then that is a very large investment, and I may think that a BMS protects that investment. I've yet to see data that proves anything one way or the other.

At present, the premium for that kind of product is high (vs. DIY-ing it) and I'm willing to pay close attention to my pack in order to get the potential benefits at lower cost. I'd bet that anyone who is wants to build their own EV (convert an existing gas-fired car) is similarly willing to pay a lot of attention to what's happening "under the hood".

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Winnebago "Full Campers" / Re: Winnebago AUX/house battery, solar thread.

« on: June 27, 2016, 11:06:19 am »

BobB: Have not yet done the bottom balance. You can do it at any time so long as you have not damaged any of the cells. My pack is so small and easy to break down that I got impatient and wanted to see it perform. In an EV application, with perhaps dozens of these cells, once you assemble you are highly unlikely to break it back down, so probably important to do it upfront there.  If I get capacity that I am happy with (and I can watch voltage very carefully) I may never do the balancing.

AlbertR: The CALB cells are single cells. 180 ah is currently the biggest available, although if you are set up to do business on Alibaba, I think I saw some 200 ah cells there. In a year I wouldn't be surprised to see 250AH widely available.   

As near as I can tell, bigger is better with respect to AH/cell volume  and $/AH.  When I bought my 180s, EVTV had some 100AH cells on a closeout deal, but the 180s turned out to be very similar in $/AH, and I get the simplicity of a 4-cell pack.

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Winnebago "Full Campers" / Re: Winnebago AUX/house battery, solar thread.

« on: June 26, 2016, 06:28:10 pm »

First rundown test:
Voltage at start: 13.23
Amp-Hours used: 28.4
Elapsed time: 8.5 hours
Voltage at end: 13.12

For now, 12.00 volts is going to be my "don't go below" number. Looking promising.

12

Winnebago "Full Campers" / Re: Winnebago AUX/house battery, solar thread.

« on: June 26, 2016, 11:24:06 am »

This is EVTV's usage guide.  Super useful in terms of understanding LifePO4 voltages, what "full" means, how low you can discharge prior to damage, etc.  Battery monitor is critical if you are going to make this investment.

It is early days yet, but the difference between the lithium and my (admittedly compromised) deep-cycle is profound.  In the old setup, the Vitrifrigo really couldn't maintain temperature on battery only (no doubt because the old deep-cycle struggled to maintain 12 volts).  On the lithium, not only will it maintain, it will actually drop the temperature (right now sitting at 34F with ambient 78F) while using up about 3.5 amps per hour.  I haven't run it down yet, but that would mean I can go 40 hours straight with no recharge.    Adding in Solar should extend that by a TBD amount.  I am thius pretty optimistic about my 3-day off-grid goal at this point.

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Winnebago "Full Campers" / Re: Winnebago AUX/house battery, solar thread.

« on: June 25, 2016, 10:58:21 pm »

I'll let you know in a year

Again, just going off of EVTV's recommendations, they claim that ongoing balancing is not necessary. They do recommend an initial "bottom balancing" of the cells before you string them together (basically draining them individually to a specific voltage), but after that, no special treatment, other than don't overcharge and don't drain to zero.

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Winnebago "Full Campers" / Re: Winnebago AUX/house battery, solar thread.

« on: June 25, 2016, 04:35:29 pm »

For the Solar, I'm *very likely* going to use Zamp, which is what GoWesty resells.  They are glass panels and kitted with an all-weather charge controller that is external to the van.  That's why I can get away with just the connector on the van - everything else is externalized and portable. Not cheap though.  I don't have to use Zamp, so I'll keep looking.

For battery management, I am going with the advice of EVTV, who says you don't really need one, and their applications (driving motors for cars) are much more strenuous than mine.  having said that, I suspect that if you go to parallel strings (which I would have to if I wanted more than 180 amp-hours), I think it is more complicated to get all of the juice in and out of the battery bank.  With my four-cell series setup, it is much more simple

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Winnebago "Full Campers" / Re: Winnebago AUX/house battery, solar thread.

« on: June 24, 2016, 08:01:31 pm »

Slot for new 4AWG battery cable across the floor. I covered with flat aluminum stock, fastened to the wood subfloor