Slowly rebuilding my RV

[DocRobbs]

I've got a 2003 Travel Supreme, It's a 41' Class A DP. It is an all electric coach and it came with a single solar panel going into 8 GC2 SLA batteries. It has never provided any significant power or charge. I upgraded from the 2 Xantrex 458 inverters as they seemed to always needed to be reset. As I was doing the upgrades to MagnaSyne 2812 inverters I found that they were installed poorly and had crimped the 120 VAC out wires that could intermittently short out. The MagnaSyne inverters are working great.

I'm upgrading the batteries next. My budget doesn't work for BattleBorns and I'm intrigued with some of the other options. BigBattery has a 12V 170 AH Power Block. reat price with the DIYSOLAR 10% off.

12V 170Ah LiFePO4 Power Block – BigBattery.com

bigbattery.com

If my calculations are correct 1 of these should be close to the 4 of the GC2 SLA 6V 100AH in useable power. These seems well built with decent components but only 170AHs. Getting 2 of these should power both inverters and then as my budget allows, add 2 more (in parallel) to maximize what my inverters could provide.

My other option was a 12V 200AH Ampere Time batteries from Amazon. This would be closer to the rated power of 4 6V 100AH SLA when at full charge. But I'm unsure how well built they are.

Amazon.com : 12v 200ah lithium iron lifepo4 deep cycle battery

My inverters are supposed to work well charging LiFePO4 batteries. The plan is then to replace and add to the Solar panels.

Anyone see a problem with my approach? Anyone with experience with either of these two battery choices?

 

[snoobler]

No experience, but I have a suggestion.

If you're rebuilding an RV, why not go DIY on the battery? You could build a 560Ah 12V from 280Ah cells for about $1100. That's the equivalent to 5.6 battleborns for the price of one.

If your coach is all-electric, that means you have some hungry appliances - namely your fridge. It's going to be a power hog even if it's very efficient. Given the size of the rig, I would assume it has a near full size residential fridge, and that's going to take 2kWh/day and need 500-800W of panels to feed it daily - assuming no other use.

Does all electric also include heating? Do you not have a propane furnace?

 

[DocRobbs]

It sure is a power hog. Right now with bad batteries I'm running with the generator on and I want to get away from that ASAP. Residential Fridge, Heat Pump/AC and diesel hotwater and furnace, no propane. I thought about the complete DIY but i would like to do a smaller project 1st. Could start with the BigBatteries to get stuff up and running and then do a DIY upgrade.

 

[snoobler]

Ah. Urgency. The Bigbattery unit you linked is on backorder until late November. That's about the time you could have your DIY cells here if you ordered quickly.

The Ampere Time battery has some very misleading reviews. Many are reviews of product provided free of charge, and the vast majority of them are for a 6Ah version of the battery. There are only 8 reviews for that product accordingly to ReviewMeta.

Might be able to get DIY cells quicker from here:

280ah cells

I started out negotiating with 12 companies to place a large order of these cells about 3 weeks ago. I have now narrowed it down to one supplier and will be placing an order next week. By placing a large order I have been able to get a good price and also to negotiate shipping DDP directly to...

diysolarforum.com

 

[boondox]

Get yourself a kill-a-watt. Run all your generator loads through it. Average out what the daily power draw is over a week. Then you can size a battery bank that will support your loads. And the solar to charge it. And how you will charge if from the generator. Otherwise you will end up with what you already have, a system that doesn't suit your needs and dies an early death.