Ionic Lithium 12V Group 31 3000 CA LiFePO4 Heavy Duty Battery

I've got a friend running the SkelStart Engine Start Module 12V paired with 3 XS power group 31 batteries. You're gonna spend a bit of money on that setup but, he said it's enough to power up several houses lol.

 

Do not mix batteries.

1 - the BMS of the LiFePo will cut off the battery if the voltage exceeds 14.4/.5 volts. most truck electrical systems will see ~14.7v. The other part of this is the charging profile is different between batteries, so with a LiFePo battery, you may want to use an external regulator like a BalMar.

2 - there is a problem with balancing in an idle state. The agm will pull power from the LiFePo battery and draw that down.

3 - there is also a problem the AGM or LA battery going bad and having a shorted cell, which produces heat and if it is hooked up to a LiFePo battery or batteries, then that battery with that bad cell is going to pull a lot of current from the LiFePo and that could be a fire hazard or at least cause the battery to boil.

My question is why does anyone want to go to a LiFePo battery in the first place?

Trying to spread the cost of the battery over time or just want to impress people you can say you have them?

My trucks don't use them unless they came this way from the factory and we definitely do not use them for a starting application. We did a lot of testing and the best combo so far has been the maxwell starting module with AGM or LA batteries for the house. The LiFePo batteries that we have all are internal to the sleeper because of the low temp cutoff which can be triggered as high as 15ºF if it is outside.

 

Well stop abusing them lol. They are good for 80% of DoD, and that diminishes as time goes on. To expect them to last if you are pulling a lot of current from them, well that's not going to happen no matter what.

Which battery? Most of them are the same, they have the same BMS specs, the same limitations and the same ... well everything. Quality of the build is the only thing that sets them apart. As I said if you want to do it right, seperate the starting and house batteries and use the LiFePo on the house side.

I would recommend you learning how to charge the batteries up, monitor than as close as possible, hell even use a charge controller that will give you the right profile instead of mixing them up.

 

What size panel and how is it currently wired? I see they have a bunch of different sizes.

 

No, not the batteries. I was asking about your solar panel. What size is it and how is it wired? Through typical charge controller to chassis batteries?