RV Newbie going to Upgrade

Hello friends, I'm wanting to upgrade my 95 Safari Motorhome. It currently has 4 house batteries Interstate 27DC Marine/RV deepcycle lead acid Batteries that have an 88ah rating. It also has 2 Starter batteries for starting the MH and generator.

The RV currently has (1) 200 watt solar panel (10 years old) with Morningstar sun saver 10 SS-10L-12 Solar Controller charging the (4) House Batteries.
I have a Magnum Energy ME2512 Modified Sine Wave Inverter Charger to convert my power. My system works great but having to buy new batteries soon and
looking to upgrade system to Lithium.

I've come across DIY Solar Power with Will Prowse Youtube channel and am blown away by his knowledge. So I'm hoping I can get some help or confirmation as to what I'd like to upgrade too, and make sure I'm going in the right direction. So your help is greatly appreciated.

So I'm looking at upgrading to 400 watt solar panels (2) 200 Watts.
A Rover LI 30amp Mppt Solar Charge Controller with Blue tooth.
(1) Battle Born LifeP04 Deepcycle Battery 100ah for house battery and leaving the (2) Lead Acid batteries for the starters of my MH.

Question #1
Do I need to upgrade my battery isolator with LiFeP04 Battery isolation manager?
Because I Just installed new one because my old one just died. (It is a 160 amp Isolator bought of EBay unknow brand).

Question #2
Will (1) Battle Born LifeP04 Deepcycle Battery 100ah be enough power to replace my (4) 88ah lead acid batteries.

Question #3
What else am I missing?

Your help will be greatly appreciated.
Thank you in advance!

1. I would strongly recommend a DC-DC charger instead of an isolator. This is the best solution for integrating the lithium battery with your alternator and lead acid batteries. The DC-DC charger will actually make sure your lithium battery gets fully charged while driving and will prevent large amperage transfers between the lithium battery and your starting batteries. If a DC-DC charger is not in your budget, a lithium isolation manager is the next best solution. I would recommend against a straight up solenoid isolator.

2. That depends how deeply you used to discharge your 88aH lead acid batteries. If you used to deeply discharge your lead acid batteries, one Battleborn 100aH may not be enough. I almost always recommend two 100aH lithium batteries for motorhomes.

3. You will want to modify the charging settings in your Magnum Energy inverter/charger. If you do not have the remote control accessory to program the setpoints, you may need to look into that.

Caliguy said:

Question #1
Do I need to upgrade my battery isolator with LiFeP04 Battery isolation manager?
Because I Just installed new one because my old one just died. (It is a 160 amp Isolator bought of EBay unknow brand).

Question #2
Will (1) Battle Born LifeP04 Deepcycle Battery 100ah be enough power to replace my (4) 88ah lead acid batteries.

Question #3
What else am I missing?

Your help will be greatly appreciated.
Thank you in advance!

Click to expand...

#1
I second what @CascadeOffGrid reccomends. Get a DC-DC charger to manage the connection between house and starter batteries. Victron, Sterling Power, Renogy and Cotek all make them.

#2
Its hard to answer this question without knowing the voltage of your house batteries. Are they 6, 12, or 24 volt batteries?

Dzl said:

#1
I second what @CascadeOffGrid reccomends. Get a DC-DC charger to manage the connection between house and starter batteries. Victron, Sterling Power, Renogy and Cotek all make them.

#2
Its hard to answer this question without knowing the voltage of your house batteries. Are they 6, 12, or 24 volt batteries?

Click to expand...

They are 12 volt. Thanks again

**Need to add**
I currently stay plugged in to shore power with 50amp plug 80% of the time. When I travel is when I'm off grid is when I'm 100% self contained, and need power. I use a 50 amp generator which runs of propane when batteries need to be charged at night and use the solar panel power off the batteries during the day. I mostly just run a computer and internal lighting and occasionally the TV flat panel during the day and night.

CascadeOffGrid said:

1. I would strongly recommend a DC-DC charger instead of an isolator. This is the best solution for integrating the lithium battery with your alternator and lead acid batteries. The DC-DC charger will actually make sure your lithium battery gets fully charged while driving and will prevent large amperage transfers between the lithium battery and your starting batteries. If a DC-DC charger is not in your budget, a lithium isolation manager is the next best solution. I would recommend against a straight up solenoid isolator.

2. That depends how deeply you used to discharge your 88aH lead acid batteries. If you used to deeply discharge your lead acid batteries, one Battleborn 100aH may not be enough. I almost always recommend two 100aH lithium batteries for motorhomes.

3. You will want to modify the charging settings in your Magnum Energy inverter/charger. If you do not have the remote control accessory to program the setpoints, you may need to look into that.

Click to expand...

Thank you for your response.
I'll look into the DC-DC charger. I'm going to start with 1 Lithium battery and see as my use progresses if I need to get another. Budget is tight.
I do have a remote control accessory for my Magnum Energy inverter/charger. Set Points??? Need help with that!
Thanks again for your help.

#2 you would need two Battle Borns to have same usable capacity as your 4 lead acid. LA can be used down to 50% SOC so you had about 176 Ah usable. LiFePO4 can be used down near 0% SOC so 100% available but most use 80-90% to be safe, so two Battle Borns will give you 160-180Ah usable.

Caliguy said:

**Need to add**
I currently stay plugged in to shore power with 50amp plug 80% of the time. When I travel is when I'm off grid is when I'm 100% self contained, and need power. I use a 50 amp generator which runs of propane when batteries need to be charged at night and use the solar panel power off the batteries during the day. I mostly just run a computer and internal lighting and occasionally the TV flat panel during the day and night.

Click to expand...

Edit: That said, given this use case, one Battle Born is probably sufficient.

You could run a Hybrid LFP/FLA system. If you are intrusted look below.(As an added bonus you can see if 100 AH battleborn is enough.)

Check the Battleborn website. They have been putting up guides on how to change settings. This would apply to you:

Battleborn Magnum Settings

grizzzman said:

You could run a Hybrid LFP/FLA system. If you are intrusted look below.(As an added bonus you can see if 100 AH battleborn is enough.)

Click to expand...

Thanks for the hybrid link. This is probably the direction my current fifth wheel toyhauler project build will go.
If you have any additional hybrid examples or information -please post up.

CascadeOffGrid said:

Check the Battleborn website. They have been putting up guides on how to change settings. This would apply to you:

Battleborn Magnum Settings

Click to expand...

Thanks for the link!

grizzzman said:

You could run a Hybrid LFP/FLA system. If you are intrusted look below.(As an added bonus you can see if 100 AH battleborn is enough.)

Click to expand...

Thanks for the Hybrid link something to think about for sure.

Thanks for everyone's replies!

New Question based on some of the responses:

Can I go with a mix of your suggestions?
Such as: A Hybrid system where I only use the alternator of the RV to charge the Starting Lead Acid Batteries 12Volt, then only use
the solar panels to charge Lithium Battery? What do I then need to charge the Lithium Battery when I use my generator that puts out AC?
What else am I missing?

Thanks again for your responses!

Caliguy said:

Such as: A Hybrid system where I only use the alternator of the RV to charge the Starting Lead Acid Batteries 12Volt, then only use
the solar panels to charge Lithium Battery?

Click to expand...

Having not followed this thread closely I run the risk of giving poorly targeted advice. That said, what you describe above is sort of 'the default' and simplest arrangement for a vehicle. If work is not done to combine the house and starting batteries, they will be isolated. In your situation it sounds like the house and vehicle systems may already be combined?

What do I then need to charge the Lithium Battery when I use my generator that puts out AC?

Click to expand...

I don't know much about generators, or typical RV electrical design.
An inverter/charger like the this one from Samlex with dedicated generator and shorepower inputs would do the trick. There are other options, basically you need a charger capable of charging a lithium battery from AC power. In RV lingo these were/are still? called 'converters', in other contexts they are just called battery chargers or ac chargers or just chargers. The important thing is that its designed for lithium batteries.

grizzzman said:

You could run a Hybrid LFP/FLA system. If you are intrusted look below.(As an added bonus you can see if 100 AH battleborn is enough.)

Click to expand...

This is very cool information. Does anyone know of a hybrid setup with something like a Battleborn battery with a built in BMS? I guess you could limit the absorption charge voltage to 14.6V. That would allow the top balancing of the Battleborn batteries and a pretty decent charging profile for the lead acid......I suspect this has been covered somewhere else on the forum though...

Caliguy said:

Thanks for everyone's replies!

New Question based on some of the responses:

Can I go with a mix of your suggestions?
Such as: A Hybrid system where I only use the alternator of the RV to charge the Starting Lead Acid Batteries 12Volt, then only use
the solar panels to charge Lithium Battery? What do I then need to charge the Lithium Battery when I use my generator that puts out AC?
What else am I missing?

Thanks again for your responses!

Click to expand...

RVs can be wired a few different ways. Here is an example of how yours might be wired:

When running on a generator, your lithium batteries will either be charged by your Magnum inverter/charger. Your shore power connection and generator power feed will connect together in some kind of external transfer switch (to select either shore power or the generator). The output of that transfer switch will feed the input of the Magnum inverter/charger. When you start your generator, this will cause the inverter/charger to transfer the AC power directly to your receptacles inside of the RV and the charger function will directly charge your lithium batteries. This is why it is important to change the charging settings in the Magnum inverter/charger for lithium batteries.

grizzzman said:

You could run a Hybrid LFP/FLA system. If you are intrusted look below.(As an added bonus you can see if 100 AH battleborn is enough.)

Click to expand...

Quite timely, as I have two FLA batteries in my RV and have some LiFePo4 cells on the way. This looks like a fun project for later this year.