Ryobi Zero-Turn Mower SLA to LiFePo4 Conversion - (Updated - Build Complete With Pics!)

[mowermoron]

As an update to my conversion from 4 x 12V Redodo LiFePo4 batteries to 1 x Chins 48V battery, I am expecting delivery of the 48v Chins today and found an electrician to help me on the rewiring of the severed wire and blue wire lockout box bypass on Sunday - will keep this thread updated with progress.

 

[mowermoron]

Ok its a miracle - the battery arrived 2 nights ago and while the electrician flaked today, I decided to figure the last parts out on my own and got everything working properly and sealed. The mower works great again and I don't expect any future battery issues.

I removed the 4 x 12v 100ah Redodo LiFePo4 batteries I'd used for the past 6 months as the BMS eventually kept getting triggered despite not having any initial start-up surge issues when I first installed them. I paid $1000 for the 4 batteries about 6 months ago and now have them offered for $400 obo online locally to hopefully recoup some of the cost of swapping to the 48v Chins.

I got the 48v Chins with 500ah BMS surge from Amazon for $1100 delivered on Friday and hooked it up immediately upon arrival by using the simply twisting the end blue wire from the Charger Lockout box that had sheared off to another random wire hooked up to a positive battery terminal. The unit turned on and seemed to work perfectly. As as result, I knew the key would be to make that loose "charger lockout box" connection a solid one. As I have no experience with soldering and sleeving, even though it sounds simple, I asked an electrician to come do it right and he was slated to arrive today.

In the mean time, I bought some scrap wood to secure the battery to the tray. I'm not skilled so I wasn't able to build a fancy sealed box out of plywood and foam like some others on this forum - instead I just got some 1.25" square rods and some random scraps and materials from Home Depot. The Chins battery is rather tall so I couldn't put any foam underneath it but I also didn't want it sitting directly on the metal tray so I used a rubber spike welcome mat as my base layer, then secured the scrap wood on the sides of the battery with star screws and finally ran a strap the long way - its not pretty but it works and the battery is very stable on the tray:



My main issue was the blue wire from the charger lockout box as I had broken the Delphi bullet connector and cut off both ends. I discovered from this thread that I did not need to connect the Gray thermister wire from the charge port OR the blue one, I just needed to send a positive charge to the end of the blue wire coming from the little black plastic box. As the electrician did not show up, but I had purchased spare Delphi weatherproof bullet connectors from Amazon, I decided that I would try my luck at creating my own bullet connector from scratch. I had the 2 wires, the loose blue wire end from the box (which is 18 gauge) and the loose end from a red 18-gauge scrap wire that had a ring terminal on the other end. I followed a youtube video that instructed me to strip off 1/4" from each end, insert it into the silver metal pins, crimp the ends in 2 places, attach the black plastic housing and by my 3rd attempt, I got it done right and OEM-looking with a very solid connection:


From there, the rest was easy as it just required hooking up the main Anderson connector, the other part of the charger lockout box (red/yellow/black tri-wire with white plastic connector) and the chargeport blue connector and slid the tray back in fully:


I fired it up and it worked perfectly so I did a test mow and it performed flawlessly so I finally was able to seal everything back up. From the top, this is how far the Chins battery goes when pushed in all the way - the extra room allows the connectors to sit on the side of the unit instead of the top:

I sealed it all up and tested it again and everything works fine. In retrospect, the work needed was very simple however I had zero expertise with anything electrical and did not want to guess and make things worse which is a specialty of mine. Ultimately, this forum thread was invaluable and I believe I eliminated all future BMS issues by swapping the 12v lithium batteries for the single 48v Chins. And if for some reason it fails again, at least next time I I won't feel so helpless and lost as I became quite familiar with both the unit and processes involved and no longer feel like its complicated at all. Anyway fingers crossed and this is how she looks now, all put together and happy again - thanks to everyone here for their help and contributions!

 

[Crowz]

Same battery I use to run my house. Great battery !

 

[kid744]

Nice job!

 

[ImAnIdiotPleaseBePatient]

Update on my 230AH pack zt540e conversion:

Unfortunately, my giant pack was rubbing up against some of the cabling on the right side of the mower. In the name of safety (and a lot of lazyness) I opted to donate the 230AH pack for my diysolar project, and ordered the 100AH Chins 48v for the mower. Also hooked up Greg's (from the ryobi forum) timed precharge resistor, so now I'm just waiting on the Chins to show up. Will update more in a couple of weeks

 

[ImAnIdiotPleaseBePatient]

Ok its a miracle - the battery arrived 2 nights ago and while the electrician flaked today, I decided to figure the last parts out on my own and got everything working properly and sealed. The mower works great again and I don't expect any future battery issues.

I removed the 4 x 12v 100ah Redodo LiFePo4 batteries I'd used for the past 6 months as the BMS eventually kept getting triggered despite not having any initial start-up surge issues when I first installed them. I paid $1000 for the 4 batteries about 6 months ago and now have them offered for $400 obo online locally to hopefully recoup some of the cost of swapping to the 48v Chins.

I got the 48v Chins with 500ah BMS surge from Amazon for $1100 delivered on Friday and hooked it up immediately upon arrival by using the simply twisting the end blue wire from the Charger Lockout box that had sheared off to another random wire hooked up to a positive battery terminal. The unit turned on and seemed to work perfectly. As as result, I knew the key would be to make that loose "charger lockout box" connection a solid one. As I have no experience with soldering and sleeving, even though it sounds simple, I asked an electrician to come do it right and he was slated to arrive today.

In the mean time, I bought some scrap wood to secure the battery to the tray. I'm not skilled so I wasn't able to build a fancy sealed box out of plywood and foam like some others on this forum - instead I just got some 1.25" square rods and some random scraps and materials from Home Depot. The Chins battery is rather tall so I couldn't put any foam underneath it but I also didn't want it sitting directly on the metal tray so I used a rubber spike welcome mat as my base layer, then secured the scrap wood on the sides of the battery with star screws and finally ran a strap the long way - its not pretty but it works and the battery is very stable on the tray:

View attachment 219279

My main issue was the blue wire from the charger lockout box as I had broken the Delphi bullet connector and cut off both ends. I discovered from this thread that I did not need to connect the Gray thermister wire from the charge port OR the blue one, I just needed to send a positive charge to the end of the blue wire coming from the little black plastic box. As the electrician did not show up, but I had purchased spare Delphi weatherproof bullet connectors from Amazon, I decided that I would try my luck at creating my own bullet connector from scratch. I had the 2 wires, the loose blue wire end from the box (which is 18 gauge) and the loose end from a red 18-gauge scrap wire that had a ring terminal on the other end. I followed a youtube video that instructed me to strip off 1/4" from each end, insert it into the silver metal pins, crimp the ends in 2 places, attach the black plastic housing and by my 3rd attempt, I got it done right and OEM-looking with a very solid connection:
View attachment 219281

From there, the rest was easy as it just required hooking up the main Anderson connector, the other part of the charger lockout box (red/yellow/black tri-wire with white plastic connector) and the chargeport blue connector and slid the tray back in fully:
View attachment 219282

I fired it up and it worked perfectly so I did a test mow and it performed flawlessly so I finally was able to seal everything back up. From the top, this is how far the Chins battery goes when pushed in all the way - the extra room allows the connectors to sit on the side of the unit instead of the top:
View attachment 219283
I sealed it all up and tested it again and everything works fine. In retrospect, the work needed was very simple however I had zero expertise with anything electrical and did not want to guess and make things worse which is a specialty of mine. Ultimately, this forum thread was invaluable and I believe I eliminated all future BMS issues by swapping the 12v lithium batteries for the single 48v Chins. And if for some reason it fails again, at least next time I I won't feel so helpless and lost as I became quite familiar with both the unit and processes involved and no longer feel like its complicated at all. Anyway fingers crossed and this is how she looks now, all put together and happy again - thanks to everyone here for their help and contributions!
View attachment 219285

That's really cool, and I think you did the right thing by hiring a professional. I do that sometimes, but I stick around and bug them with a ton of questions so I can learn every time I hire a job out. Great news it's running again for you!

 

[kid744]

Update on my 230AH pack zt540e conversion:

Unfortunately, my giant pack was rubbing up against some of the cabling on the right side of the mower. In the name of safety (and a lot of lazyness) I opted to donate the 230AH pack for my diysolar project, and ordered the 100AH Chins 48v for the mower. Also hooked up Greg's (from the ryobi forum) timed precharge resistor, so now I'm just waiting on the Chins to show up. Will update more in a couple of weeks

Was a bit sad to hear you changed it out. I was following your examples quite closely. Finally got all my 230 AH eve's top balanced and started installing pack today. I used some LVP flooring I had left over for the bottom of the tray. Flipped the LVP over after assembling so the black rubber side is up towards bottom of batteries. Found the power cable you had problems with and did a simple reroute to move it out of the way. Made spacers for each end from pressure treated 2x4. Used the back one to sandwich the polycarbonate sheet I bent into a 90 degree configuration to hold down the polycarbonate. Drilled holes in end spacer inside tray after removing to attach it to 2x4 piece with screws. Still have to make rest of cabling for battery pack and hopefully fire it up tomorrow. I also added a 100 Ohm resistor precharge with momentary switch. Still have to secure the top of the polycarbonate so it doesn't flop around so much. (not very thick material) I used plastic cutting sheets for separation between batteries and sides of pack against tray. Used some rigid foam board insulation I had to fill middle area between packs. Applied some weatherstrip to bottom of top clamp and reused it as you demonstrated. Sorry for wall of words, wanted to get it all down before I forgot what I did.

Kid

 

[Nobodybusiness]

Was a bit sad to hear you changed it out. I was following your examples quite closely. Finally got all my 230 AH eve's top balanced and started installing pack today. I used some LVP flooring I had left over for the bottom of the tray. Flipped the LVP over after assembling so the black rubber side is up towards bottom of batteries. Found the power cable you had problems with and did a simple reroute to move it out of the way. Made spacers for each end from pressure treated 2x4. Used the back one to sandwich the polycarbonate sheet I bent into a 90 degree configuration to hold down the polycarbonate. Drilled holes in end spacer inside tray after removing to attach it to 2x4 piece with screws. Still have to make rest of cabling for battery pack and hopefully fire it up tomorrow. I also added a 100 Ohm resistor precharge with momentary switch. Still have to secure the top of the polycarbonate so it doesn't flop around so much. (not very thick material) I used plastic cutting sheets for separation between batteries and sides of pack against tray. Used some rigid foam board insulation I had to fill middle area between packs. Applied some weatherstrip to bottom of top clamp and reused it as you demonstrated. Sorry for wall of words, wanted to get it all down before I forgot what I did.

KidView attachment 221734View attachment 221735View attachment 221736View attachment 221737

Looks good..

I’m sure you will be happy with the results.

Yours very similar to mine except I used 280ah cells..

 

[ImAnIdiotPleaseBePatient]

Was a bit sad to hear you changed it out. I was following your examples quite closely. Finally got all my 230 AH eve's top balanced and started installing pack today. I used some LVP flooring I had left over for the bottom of the tray. Flipped the LVP over after assembling so the black rubber side is up towards bottom of batteries. Found the power cable you had problems with and did a simple reroute to move it out of the way. Made spacers for each end from pressure treated 2x4. Used the back one to sandwich the polycarbonate sheet I bent into a 90 degree configuration to hold down the polycarbonate. Drilled holes in end spacer inside tray after removing to attach it to 2x4 piece with screws. Still have to make rest of cabling for battery pack and hopefully fire it up tomorrow. I also added a 100 Ohm resistor precharge with momentary switch. Still have to secure the top of the polycarbonate so it doesn't flop around so much. (not very thick material) I used plastic cutting sheets for separation between batteries and sides of pack against tray. Used some rigid foam board insulation I had to fill middle area between packs. Applied some weatherstrip to bottom of top clamp and reused it as you demonstrated. Sorry for wall of words, wanted to get it all down before I forgot what I did.

KidView attachment 221734View attachment 221735View attachment 221736View attachment 221737View attachment 221741

Looks great! I am going to have other uses for the bigger battery. It was kind of lazyness, and partially because I am not very crafty and decided it was safer to have a battery in a mobile environment that was a little more secured. it probably would have been fine though. It looks great, and it is always nice to see something I did help out someone else

 

[kid744]

I am finishing the final sense lead wiring. I am very thankful for all I have learned due to others who did the conversion before I ever started. Thanks people!!
Kid

 

[tommywatson]

Oh what a difference an Chins makes eh?? It's like I have a new mower again with 2x the stamina....I want to thank everyone in this thread and the FB peeps in Ryobi 48v and RR...

I have a RY48ZTR75 that's a few years old and I accidentally let the batteries go flat one winter as I had construction going on and I wasn't around to reposition the mower and plug it in.

It took me a lot of time and reading to figure out the simplest way to go about the upgrade so I thought I'd consolidate it all here for anyone new who might be looking.

I went down the "standard" "plug and play" Chins single 48v 100Ah, HTRC P3648 w/EZGO, and AiLi Battery Monitor...
Unfortunately the battery came with 55% and the charger is stuck on 0A/Ah and doesn't seem to want to feed the battery power, waiting on a replacement, I still had more than enough to mow the overgrown yard when completed this morning...

Battery installation;

I had some uni strut left over from the construction and stumbled across this guide, seemed like fate, so that's how I put the battery in the tray...

Ryobi 48v Riding Mowers | I posted a while back that I was beginning the upgrade to LiFePo4 | Facebook

I posted a while back that I was beginning the upgrade to LiFePo4. After looking at all the different posts, I went with the 48v, 100ah Chins Bluetooth battery. I am attaching my steps and some...

www.facebook.com

After that I installed the monitor and modified the charger to turn the green light on. I put everything electronic back on the mower and did not bother with a precharge circuit.

Here are some videos I'm glad I found and watched before I started;

Careful with the green light mod...

AiLi battery monitor the easy way...

Set the monitor to only come on when the mower is on...

A lot of useful information in the flies section here;

https://www.facebook.com/groups/ryobi48vmowers/files/files

Thanks again to everyone and for making this an easy conversion.

 

[JoeStark]

Embarking on the journey myself after one of the lead batteries died. EVE 230ah. I will start with the factory charger and let JKbms handle it. I may use an ESP32 with esphome to read the JK for data logging as well as control charging based on pack data and excess solar!

 

[prophead]

Ok its a miracle - the battery arrived 2 nights ago and while the electrician flaked today, I decided to figure the last parts out on my own and got everything working properly and sealed. The mower works great again and I don't expect any future battery issues.

I removed the 4 x 12v 100ah Redodo LiFePo4 batteries I'd used for the past 6 months as the BMS eventually kept getting triggered despite not having any initial start-up surge issues when I first installed them. I paid $1000 for the 4 batteries about 6 months ago and now have them offered for $400 obo online locally to hopefully recoup some of the cost of swapping to the 48v Chins.

I got the 48v Chins with 500ah BMS surge from Amazon for $1100 delivered on Friday and hooked it up immediately upon arrival by using the simply twisting the end blue wire from the Charger Lockout box that had sheared off to another random wire hooked up to a positive battery terminal. The unit turned on and seemed to work perfectly. As as result, I knew the key would be to make that loose "charger lockout box" connection a solid one. As I have no experience with soldering and sleeving, even though it sounds simple, I asked an electrician to come do it right and he was slated to arrive today.

In the mean time, I bought some scrap wood to secure the battery to the tray. I'm not skilled so I wasn't able to build a fancy sealed box out of plywood and foam like some others on this forum - instead I just got some 1.25" square rods and some random scraps and materials from Home Depot. The Chins battery is rather tall so I couldn't put any foam underneath it but I also didn't want it sitting directly on the metal tray so I used a rubber spike welcome mat as my base layer, then secured the scrap wood on the sides of the battery with star screws and finally ran a strap the long way - its not pretty but it works and the battery is very stable on the tray:

View attachment 219279

My main issue was the blue wire from the charger lockout box as I had broken the Delphi bullet connector and cut off both ends. I discovered from this thread that I did not need to connect the Gray thermister wire from the charge port OR the blue one, I just needed to send a positive charge to the end of the blue wire coming from the little black plastic box. As the electrician did not show up, but I had purchased spare Delphi weatherproof bullet connectors from Amazon, I decided that I would try my luck at creating my own bullet connector from scratch. I had the 2 wires, the loose blue wire end from the box (which is 18 gauge) and the loose end from a red 18-gauge scrap wire that had a ring terminal on the other end. I followed a youtube video that instructed me to strip off 1/4" from each end, insert it into the silver metal pins, crimp the ends in 2 places, attach the black plastic housing and by my 3rd attempt, I got it done right and OEM-looking with a very solid connection:
View attachment 219281

From there, the rest was easy as it just required hooking up the main Anderson connector, the other part of the charger lockout box (red/yellow/black tri-wire with white plastic connector) and the chargeport blue connector and slid the tray back in fully:
View attachment 219282

I fired it up and it worked perfectly so I did a test mow and it performed flawlessly so I finally was able to seal everything back up. From the top, this is how far the Chins battery goes when pushed in all the way - the extra room allows the connectors to sit on the side of the unit instead of the top:
View attachment 219283
I sealed it all up and tested it again and everything works fine. In retrospect, the work needed was very simple however I had zero expertise with anything electrical and did not want to guess and make things worse which is a specialty of mine. Ultimately, this forum thread was invaluable and I believe I eliminated all future BMS issues by swapping the 12v lithium batteries for the single 48v Chins. And if for some reason it fails again, at least next time I I won't feel so helpless and lost as I became quite familiar with both the unit and processes involved and no longer feel like its complicated at all. Anyway fingers crossed and this is how she looks now, all put together and happy again - thanks to everyone here for their help and contributions!
View attachment 219285

I like your tweels! Are they oversized compared to the stock tires? Do they have adequate traction? I assume the ride is much better?

After installing the Chins battery in mine I noticed right away the thing almost turned into a sled due to the lighter weight. After a flat I installed some cleated tires which makes a big difference. But after seeing your pic, I'm wishing I would have looked around for some other options.

 

[Crowz]

I imagine the tweels plus a lighter battery is going to cause you to loose a ton of traction.

 

[Xebec]

I like your tweels! Are they oversized compared to the stock tires? Do they have adequate traction? I assume the ride is much better?

After installing the Chins battery in mine I noticed right away the thing almost turned into a sled due to the lighter weight. After a flat I installed some cleated tires which makes a big difference. But after seeing your pic, I'm wishing I would have looked around for some other options.

OT but if you wouldn't mind - what tires did you upgrade to / do you recommend for the Ryobis? (I have a ZT540e)

And do you still take these small tires to a shop to get them replaced like on a car, or can the small tires be done DIY?

(Thanks!)

 

[prophead]

OT but if you wouldn't mind - what tires did you upgrade to / do you recommend for the Ryobis? (I have a ZT540e)

And do you still take these small tires to a shop to get them replaced like on a car, or can the small tires be done DIY?

(Thanks!)

I purchased the tires locally but the tread pattern is nearly identical to these https://www.amazon.com/Pair-Lawn-Heavy-Tires-18x8-50-8/dp/B09255N33D

I replaced them myself. It isn't an easy swap but doable. Removing the old tires was probably the hardest, I needed to lay them on the side and very carefully drive on just the tire with my pickup to break the bead.

 

[mowermoron]

I like your tweels! Are they oversized compared to the stock tires? Do they have adequate traction? I assume the ride is much better?

After installing the Chins battery in mine I noticed right away the thing almost turned into a sled due to the lighter weight. After a flat I installed some cleated tires which makes a big difference. But after seeing your pic, I'm wishing I would have looked around for some other options.

The Tweels are amazing for 1 reason: no more flat tires!! I was getting flats every month due to mowing in some rough areas and got so sick of replacing them with $60 tires that it actually made sense to pay for the Tweels. I also replaced the fronts with solid-rubber tires so flat tires are a thing of the past for me now. That said, the conversion was tricky as the Tweel website suggests they work for the 18x8.50-8 rear size but yet when they arrived they did not fit - needed to use a variety of bolts/washers to get them to fit but they fit great once figured out.

The only real issue now is the front end is very light so the front tires barely contact the ground but it hasn't impacted anything - just when you drive fast on a paved surface, the fronts seem loose/spinny. If it bothered me at all, I would just add some weight to the front end and I'm sure that would solve it.