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It's the Wild West - RV's w/Chinese Prebuilts

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EcoRV

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I am a part of some large FB groups associated with Class B vans with most of the people knowing nothing about lithium. Over the last 2 weeks Ive been seeing posts for prebuilt cells being installed under various rigs with people having NO idea what they are buying, what to be concerned with or the potential implications of their decisions.
I think the overall mindset is its just "a battery".

This is picture posted today of a $100k+ Winnebago Travato on a Promaster 3500 chassis. Often used on BLM land, forest roads.

Can we talk about cell orientation, venting, fusing, case / cell protection

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I would never mount batteries out unprotected like that. I can just see a stick or road debris puncture them and let the fire ? insue. Are those boxes even water proof?
 
NVS said:
I would never mount batteries out unprotected like that. I can just see a stick or road debris puncture them and let the fire ? insue. Are those boxes even water proof?
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There is no data sheet on the SOK site so no mention of IP rating. I have one of these vans and will tell you water get into everything and routinely rusts those factory trays which this guy has horribly modified. Can you imagine the potential water intrusion and corrosion going 75mph in the rain?
 
This isn't any kind of endorsement of the batteries or their use in this setup but those are the newer marine grade SOK batteries. Will did a review of them recently. They are good batteries. I have two of the metal case batteries. But mine are safely inside my trailer.

 
rmaddy said:
This isn't any kind of endorsement of the batteries or their use in this setup but those are the newer marine grade SOK batteries. Will did a review of them recently. They are good batteries. I have two of the metal case batteries. But mine are safely inside my trailer.

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Yeah i saw the video and was sad there was not a teardown (yet).

Other channels much less popular than Will's are doing some cool stuff with flexible welding cable/terminals to bussbar comparison testing with some cool new (to me) ideas on diagonal cabling etc.

Primatics outside of vehicles and especially partial off road vehicles seems to be bleeding edge stuff yet people who own them know nothing about Lithium and just in with no research what so ever.
 
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EcoRV said:
I am a part of some large FB groups associated with Class B vans with most of the people knowing nothing about lithium. Over the last 2 weeks Ive been seeing posts for prebuilt cells being installed under various rigs with people having NO idea what they are buying, what to be concerned with or the potential implications of their decisions.
I think the overall mindset is its just "a battery".

This is picture posted today of a $100k+ Winnebago Travato on a Promaster 3500 chassis. Often used on BLM land, forest roads.

Can we talk about cell orientation, venting, fusing, case / cell protection

View attachment 70184
Click to expand...
I've only seen one person on here put cells under a vehicle on here. He mounted DIYs under his bus. He messed up his batteries and very well could have caught his bus on fire... I know space is limited in a camper but mountain batteries under the frame is very foolish.
 
I'm in a couple of similar groups but am perpetually banned from FB for things the robots take out of context.

That is insane to me.

*technically* the orientation might be OK depending on the cells inside.
*technically* the case might be waterproof, but we don't know that yet (specs?)
*technically* the positive being away from everything is the better idea.

Lots of individually sound ideas that all added up to a decision to put them in the worst possible place with no protection from road debris and corrosive road salts and all that.

The exposed terminals will be garbage in under a year as well, so I hope they're covering that with a thick plate and waterproofing and that photo is not a final product.


It could be done this way but not in the situation as presently shown by the photo.
 
time2roll said:
We should have reports very soon for this fail point. I am thinking there will be minimal to no issues.
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I'm sure you are well aware that there are ways to keep the terminal from corrosion. I have used the No OX ID for 2 years with 4 BBB under my Travato (in specially designed stainless trays) and while the connections look dirty as hell when you disassemble to connections the contact points are good as new (no sign of corrosion at all). So back to the point of my original post you have people with no background or research putting this drop-in's under their rig which i think in months or years is going to cause serious issues.
 
There is a new marine grade SOK, as previously noted. Still, wouldn’t do it.
 
DLTooley said:
There is a new marine grade SOK, as previously noted. Still, wouldn’t do it.
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This thread is specifically focusing on the new SOK Marine grade batter as pictured in the original post.

For the record i love the forum and Will's videos. They have taught me everything i know about lithium. Also I am NOT an SOK hater.

I just got involved in a FB group post to help explain the the original poster (Image that I shared in the original post to this thread) that what he was doing was a bad idea. To his credit he responded politely and a couple of hours later an SOK chat popped up from the SOK site i had been at the night before. The screenshot i share is a a copy of that chat with the information to the left my words that were trying to put into context what it meant to the original poster and other people in that group that don't understand LIFEPO4

I dont want to create a firestorm here but just to show the questions i asked SOK and the replies i got to my questions.
 

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*technically* it is slightly above the axle, and also between the wheels. If I had to put it under the trailer, or the customer paid me enought to do it, this likely the best spot and hardest to scrape on something. I would put a metal shield in the front of them to defect rocks.
 
Porch said:
I would put a metal shield in the front of them to defect rocks.
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My truck has all sorts of "plastic" canisters and what not underneath that are not protected, and I've never have one punctured or even dented.
 
FWIW... CurrentConnected lists the 'weather rating' for the metal-clad version @ IP50, and the 'marine' version @ IP65... which makes it 'water resistant', not 'water proof', as I understand the rating system.

And even if it was (water proof), I still wouldn't mount them in that location!
 
Googling "Winnebago Travato on a Promaster 3500 chassis'' brings up images of propane tanks and grey water tanks in the same position.
As an Australian who has had a few floor pans punctured by various objects it doesn't seem very safe. However, looking at the images of these things and knowing it is the USA and off roading probably means finding a vacant Walmart parking lot, that position should be ok!
 
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