LTO battery for utility trailer.

[UpNorthMan]

I am trying to help my son with lighting in his utility trailer. Currently, the trailer lighting is wired to run only with it plugged into the truck and the truck on. Not very user-friendly for his business. So we are looking at a stand alone battery/lighting system. The utility trailer is located in Minnesota, so the working temperature range is 130f? to -40f. I'm not sure on the upper limit, but am assuming the trailer could get that hot in the summer. A typical highest outside temperature for the year might be 96f.

With the temperature swings I was thinking of two solutions for a battery, AGM or LTO. We talked about both solutions and we would like to explore LTO.

The big picture looks like the following. Purchase a used 40ah 2p12s LTO battery. (See link below) Add an appropriate bms and fuse. Add 24/12 led lights, wiring, and switches etc. For charging I was thinking something like a Victron Orion-Tr Smart DC-DC charger. I was also thinking about getting a 12v 25w thermostatically controlled silicon heating pad for winter use. The battery would be in a insulated box. But the bottom, front, and heater would be easily removed for summer use. The thought is his battery should charge while driving to and from the job site. I'll plan on adding a spot for a battery charger. We don't want to put any holes in the roof so no solar charging.

Does LTO make sense or is AGM a safer alternative?

Any other thoughts?

Thank you in advance.
Ed

27.6v 40ah 1104Wh LTO Toshiba SCiB 20,000 cycles! 24x 20ah Cells

These are amazing value LTO batteries testing near full capacity. Each battery has 24x 2.3v 20ah cells in 12s2p configuration. LTO can be discharged down to 0v and works excellent for car audio and also low temperature applications. The lid easily pops off. Comes out to just $8 per 2.3v 20ah...

batteryhookup.com

 

[UpNorthMan]

Another question.

Can a person use a boost converter to change the battery? Or can LTO batteries be overcharged like lipo4 if held at a slightly higher that float voltage .

 

[JNHEscher]

I'm in for the answers. About to post a similar question myself.

 

[UpNorthMan]

It appears that there aren't a lot of experienced members with LTO batteries on the forum. But my son changed the direction. So I haven't pushed the topic.

I would have to say that at first glance. LTO appeared to check the boxes. Good luck with your endeavor.

 

[JNHEscher]

Tons of car audio folks use LTO. They do work really well. The only real downside I see to them is that a complete battery requires more cells to equal the nominal.voltage of all other common battery types.

 

[UpNorthMan]

From my limited research, I think 12v is the worst case. It doesn't quite fit. With higher voltage, it seems to be less of an issue.

I have a snow plow mounted on my gas f250. Because it's gas, it only comes with one battery. And that one battery takes a beating from all the cycling from adjusting the plow during use. I've thought about adding either a LTO battery or a large capacitor bank to help the starter battery out . I thought I read somewhere that the surge was less than 200a for a Boss V plow. With the light weight of these cells, I could mount them directly onto the plow. My starter battery is about 2 years old and hopefully it'll last one more winter. On all my other vehicles, I get 7- 8 out of them. There is some additional space under the hood for a second battery. But it would be tight. I need to look at the diesel version. I believe they have dual batteries. At least the older ones did. Maybe I can swap parts from a junkyard???

Any thoughts

 

[JNHEscher]

I didn't look at the link you posted last night, but you're thinking of going 24v, that battery from Battery Hookup would be super easy. I haven't seen too many folks use the prismatic LTO versions. Can't imagine they're much different as far as output and cold weather use.

 

[JJSolar]

I am trying to help my son with lighting in his utility trailer. Currently, the trailer lighting is wired to run only with it plugged into the truck and the truck on. Not very user-friendly for his business. So we are looking at a stand alone battery/lighting system. The utility trailer is located in Minnesota, so the working temperature range is 130f? to -40f. I'm not sure on the upper limit, but am assuming the trailer could get that hot in the summer. A typical highest outside temperature for the year might be 96f.

With the temperature swings I was thinking of two solutions for a battery, AGM or LTO. We talked about both solutions and we would like to explore LTO.

The big picture looks like the following. Purchase a used 40ah 2p12s LTO battery. (See link below) Add an appropriate bms and fuse. Add 24/12 led lights, wiring, and switches etc. For charging I was thinking something like a Victron Orion-Tr Smart DC-DC charger. I was also thinking about getting a 12v 25w thermostatically controlled silicon heating pad for winter use. The battery would be in a insulated box. But the bottom, front, and heater would be easily removed for summer use. The thought is his battery should charge while driving to and from the job site. I'll plan on adding a spot for a battery charger. We don't want to put any holes in the roof so no solar charging.

Does LTO make sense or is AGM a safer alternative?

Any other thoughts?

Thank you in advance.
Ed

27.6v 40ah 1104Wh LTO Toshiba SCiB 20,000 cycles! 24x 20ah Cells

These are amazing value LTO batteries testing near full capacity. Each battery has 24x 2.3v 20ah cells in 12s2p configuration. LTO can be discharged down to 0v and works excellent for car audio and also low temperature applications. The lid easily pops off. Comes out to just $8 per 2.3v 20ah...

batteryhookup.com

I'm basically in the same boat as you as I wanted an LTO battery for my enclosed trailer. The enclosed trailer is outside so it can get -30F or colder some winters so it's important to have LTO chemistry in this application. The LTO battery is primarily being used for the trailers electric brakes to activate if it separates from the truck and also for the occasional on off LED inside lights when not hooked up to the truck.

I will post pictures later of it as I've been working on it here and there the past 2 months or so when I have time. It's basically six of the 20ah LTO Toshiba scib cells with a 60a Carling Technologies DC breaker and utilizes 100a JK BMS with bluetooth and heater option. I'm not using the heater option as I plan to let it sit outside not hooked up to any power. The way it will charge is by using a DC Boost converter that will take up to say 8 amp or so from the truck and boost the voltage up to probably 15-16v. I can adjust the dc charge current and voltage limit by adjusting the potentiometer knob so I'll do that later when it's hooked up to the truck and charging to dial setup in. I also will have a small 1 ft^2 solar panel to trickle charge/float the battery to keep it from auto discharging over time. This solar charge controller is a tiny 2 amp or so mppt controller. I'll post pictures of this all later today.

 

[JJSolar]

I fabbed up a steel Battery Box that can hold a full size lead acid battery down the road if I decide to not use the LTO setup. It sure beats the little 12v 5ah emergency brake battery the trailer uses.

The battery box is 3d printed along with caps to prevent water intrusion in the push button for turning on or off the BMS if I go that route, and also the 60a DC breaker. The LTO batteries are just in there for mock up in the compartmentalize box along with the bms. I still want to tin or nickel plate the busbars, so I'll probably look into doing that next week. The larger 3 circuit boards are different rated boost converters to take trucks DC voltage and boost it up a bit higher for the LTO 6s battery, and limits the charge rate to whatever I want. I'll probably set it at 8 amps or so. I haven't decided which board I'm going to use yet, but I'll 3d print a specific box for them to also go along with either of the 2 smaller mppt controller boards for a small solar panel thats like 1ft^2. The green battery hold down is just a test print which I'll print in black later and bolt it down with a returning battery bolt/nut setup to secure the battery

 

[UpNorthMan]

While my quest for LTO is over. I found this post on the forum. I'd suggest that you read it. There was a lot of useful information from the scanning.

Good luck with your project. Looking forward to your updates.

Ed

A

Thread 'LTO SCiB battery bank for off-grid'

Jun 1, 2020

So I’ve been parsing through the internet to find info on this battery technology as there are some used Toshiba SCIB units available on e-bay. There's a lot to like of LTO technology if you can overcome some of the hurdles. The hurdles seem to be price, BMS, space, and odd voltage attributes. Physical space to store the batteries isn't an issue for me, and while price for used LTO cells are expensive, I believe that their exceptionally long life make them fairly affordable spread out over time.

These particular cells have an on board BMS but it seems no one has figured out how to get it...

• AmpLee
• Replies: 59
• Forum: Uncommon Batteries: LTO/ NCA/ NMC/ Li-Poly