Builds 2016 LC Build - DFW TX (2 Viewers)

[joltman]

@Kurosawa Hope you're enjoying Cruise Moab! I was curious about your experience with the Deka main battery upgrade. I'm expecting my Trekbox in the next 2 months and I'm planning for all the bits and bobs I'll want to put in during that install. I am considering a LiFEPO4 battery under one of the wings. However, until that miraculous day happens, I think the Deka main battery upgrade might be "the way". I'm thinking it would still be a good upgrade as the long-term goal is winch and lighting off the main battery. I was hoping for some honest feedback on the mod. Thank you!

 

[Kurosawa]

@Kurosawa Hope you're enjoying Cruise Moab! I was curious about your experience with the Deka main battery upgrade. I'm expecting my Trekbox in the next 2 months and I'm planning for all the bits and bobs I'll want to put in during that install. I am considering a LiFEPO4 battery under one of the wings. However, until that miraculous day happens, I think the Deka main battery upgrade might be "the way". I'm thinking it would still be a good upgrade as the long-term goal is winch and lighting off the main battery. I was hoping for some honest feedback on the mod. Thank you!

Cruise Moab was a fantastic time, highly recommended.

Unfortunately, the single Deka solution I thought was sufficient now seems to have lost its capacity to run aux items like the fridge/freezer overnight. I need to update the original thread so others know I've started to run into problems. The cut-off on my fridge is shutting it down after just two hours due to low voltage and at one point after airing up with the ignition off I had to jump the vehicle on this trip. I guess I need to do a little more investigation here at home but at this point, it seems likely I can't get by with this battery as an all-in-one solution and couldn't recommend it to others. Lithium batteries have dropped in price and finding one to fit in the driver's side wing of my drawers is the next logical step I feel.

@joltman I hope this info helps you plan for your system, no big loss to try this for a while but for me and the way I camp at least the initial success seems to have been short-lived.

 

[joltman]

@Kurosawa in sorry to hear you had those problems. What's funny is that my Deka arrived yesterday. It's going in the Cruiser tomorrow. Took quite a while to trickle charge. I hope it's still worth it for the extra CCA. I will be putting a lithium under the wing of my Trekboxx. Just need to figure out which battery will fit.

Thanks for getting back to me!

 

[Kurosawa]

Time for some updates.

I was noticing some looseness in the rear suspension turning into our driveway transition and decided adding a track bar or panhard bar correction might help eliminate that slight wobble I was feeling. I purchased and installed the Dr. KDSS bolt on bracket and it made an immediate difference.

I didn't get a before picture but the angle of the bar is MUCH closer to factory spec now. I really like the product, it is beefy and install was a breeze.

 

[Kurosawa]

The big new project over the next few posts was a major upgrade of my aux electrical set up in the form of a Lithium house battery in the wing of my drawer system.

It’s a similar version of what many have done before but the more of us that share the better we all get at it. @joltman this is the result of our prior conversations.

For several years I’ve used a single upgraded group 31 lead acid battery for all my starting and auxiliary needs with a Victron MMPT solar controller and a 120w solar blanket for charging while at camp. ***Link***

This was a very low cost solution to getting a fridge and some usb charging up and running in the rear cargo area. For those that move everyday and get some decent alternator charging in this is still a route I would recommend and super cost effective. The problem is we often do camping trips where we hike and hang out for several days and the vehicle is stationary or only used for a short trip. This caused too many deep discharges and eventually the single battery couldn’t keep our admittedly massive 75L fridge/freezer going overnight. This is a breakdown of my upgrade to leave state of charge anxiety behind for good and giving up on the thrifty option.

First off the group 31 Deka lead acid starter battery is a bargain winner for it’s intended purpose so I purchased a fresh one for up front duty now limited to starting battery and running an upcoming winch.

Next up I needed to fabricate up a battery tray to fit in the driver side wing area of my Trekboxx drawer system. I settled on using ABS plastic as the ability to bend up brackets and weld them with ABS cement seemed versatile, strong and lightweight. The floor on the driver’s side back there has two large factory bolt holes I used to secure the tray once I made the appropriate stand offs to get the tray up high enough to clear my wires running underneath and encroachment of the wheel well plastic as it flairs to meet the carpet floor.

The 100 amp/hr battery from Li-Time fits perfectly now and I’ve used a ratchet strap to secure it to the battery tray, it’s solid. You can see a review of this battery ****Li-Time trolling battery here by Will Prowse. I paid less than $300 shipped so these things have really come down to a reasonable level.

 

[Kurosawa]

Continued...

Now a schematic to see how all the rest is going to layout and fit behind the 2nd row attached to the rear of the drawer system. This took many iterations on paper to come up with clean wire runs and as part of my effort to keep it looking clean and simple I decided the DC fuse box would live under the same wing as the new aux battery. This really helped keep the equipment panel orderly. I should also note the ABS sheet all this is attached to is only ¼ thick so it was a good space saving solution that allowed me to work on all the mounting outside of the vehicle while retaining seat adjustability for rear seat legroom.

I'll note that this layout shows my shore power charger with a separate run to the distributor and this is not exactly how I set it up -at least for now. More on that in a future post but retaining the ability to plug in the vehicle to get a new load out of food down to temp the night prior to a trip is a great feature and I will keep that ability in this new system.

The ABS taps really well for all the cap head machine screws used to mount the electronics to the board. The board was then mounted to the back of the drawer system with threaded metal inserts and more machine screws so the board could be removed and reinstalled many times without striping out wood screw holes.

I fabricated up some copper buss bars to create hard connections to both the Victron Smart Shunt and a Blue Sea disconnect that interrupts the wire run to the new lithium battery. All equipment is fused with Mega fuses inside the Victron Lynx Distributor. This is another useful way to simplify the rat’s nest because it combines these main fuses and the typical pos and neg busbars needed to tie them all together in one orderly box.

Lynx distributor in foreground below, fuses not installed yet.

 

[Kurosawa]

Continued...

I used 2” high strength adhesive Velcro to attach the panel that holds the DC fuse box to the top of the battery and several brackets in the wing area. This allows tool free access to all the wires below routed through this area and had the added benefit of being quick and easy to fit. I really like how factory the textured ABS looks installed in the vehicle and it matches my @TrekboxX drawer system perfectly.

First a cardboard fit and template. Notice space for a future PV breaker if I ever want to have a permanent solar panel in the mix.

 

[tbisaacs]

Continued...

Now a schematic to see how all the rest is going to layout and fit behind the 2nd row attached to the rear of the drawer system. This took many iterations on paper to come up with clean wire runs and as part of my effort to keep it looking clean and simple I decided the DC fuse box would live under the same wing as the new aux battery. This really helped keep the equipment panel orderly. I should also note the ABS sheet all this is attached to is only ¼ thick so it was a good space saving solution that allowed me to work on all the mounting outside of the vehicle while retaining seat adjustability for rear seat legroom.

I'll note that this layout shows my shore power charger with a separate run to the distributor and this is not exactly how I set it up -at least for now. More on that in a future post but retaining the ability to plug in the vehicle to get a new load out of food down to temp the night prior to a trip is a great feature and I will keep that ability in this new system.

View attachment 3517677


The ABS taps really well for all the cap head machine screws used to mount the electronics to the board. The board was then mounted to the back of the drawer system with threaded metal inserts and more machine screws so the board could be removed and reinstalled many times without striping out wood screw holes.

View attachment 3517683

I fabricated up some copper buss bars to create hard connections to both the Victron Smart Shunt and a Blue Sea disconnect that interrupts the wire run to the new lithium battery. All equipment is fused with Mega fuses inside the Victron Lynx Distributor. This is another useful way to simplify the rat’s nest because it combines these main fuses and the typical pos and neg busbars needed to tie them all together in one orderly box.

View attachment 3517685

Lynx distributor in foreground below, fuses not installed yet.

View attachment 3517684

Hell yes.

 

[Kurosawa]

Continued again...

I reused my Victron 75/15 solar controller that feeds from Anderson plugs accessed at the rear of the drawer system. I keep a 25’ solar extension cord that plugs in here and a large solar blanket that usually lives on the windshield when at camp. You can see the Orion dc-dc is mounted below the solar controller and upside down in orientation which solved a lot of wire crossing and mess I was trying to avoid. The Lynx distributor is also mounted upside down and neat little note here is Victron included an extra sticker for the cover of that unit so you can do this and keep the graphics in the correct orientation - nice detail!

Anyway, at this point it was all tied up and once I had checked and matched the Orion and Smartshunt app settings with factory parameters for the lithium battery I was charging the aux battery at a little over 20amps on the drive back from my shop. The Smartshunt also gives me accurate data on the starting battery within the Victon app as well because I ran the extra monitoring wire they provide back up through the firewall to the starting battery.

I’m really happy with how this works and the overall installation. I like that I could pull the whole thing out and install in another vehicle without reinventing the wheel or going to the less modular one box solutions out there. From a space perspective it fits better than an off the shelf all-in-one and I can change out or upgrade any component at will. I also learn a lot about how my system works by taking on these projects which can be challenging but also super rewarding.

 

[PDoyle]

Professional grade

 

[joltman]

@Kurosawa this looks great! You really did great on that power board! I also really like your placement of the Lynx (inverted saves a ton of space). Congrats!!

 

[Kurosawa]

I wanted to follow up on my Victron system with some setup instructions I received from Victron on how to utilize my on board charger.

A couple of notes to understand the situation so this might be useful to someone:

- I already had the charger mounted under hood for use with my lead acid starting battery and +/- wires running back through the firewall for powering my fridge etc. prior to this latest addition of a lithium battery in the cargo area.
-I really appreciate the ability of the charger to plug into 110 the day before a trip and get the fridge/freezer down to temp with all the food and drink loaded up without using battery juice overnight to do it. I also like to plug the vehicle in and have it maintenance charge during months when it is standing in storage.
- I didn't want to run a second +/- set of wires from the charger back to the lithium battery to be able to maintain the battery now responsible for all the aux loads. I also didn't want to relocate the charger to the rear of the vehicle because I like the way I've located the shore power plug into the front bumper (see pics in prior posts) and it saves space.

The three points above left me with the question of how I might be able to use the same +/- feed that goes from the charger and starting battery back to my new DC-DC charger then into the Lynx distribution hub then into the new lithium battery with everything playing nice.

The challenge with leaving the charger inline as I have it installed (@joltman was nice enough to explain to me at one point) is the DC-DC charger will see the charger power *turn on* and send it's full charge downstream to the aux battery, it thinks it has all the power it needs to charge the aux battery but in fact will be pulling the deficit (difference btw charger output 13amps and DC-DC charger output of 30amps) from the starting battery itself. This isn't a problem when the charge is coming from the alternator because it is more than 30amps so there is no deficit that needs to be made up by the starting battery.

I took a longshot and posed this issue to my Victron distributor who gave me such a thorough step by step solution that I thought if anyone else out there is thinking of this situation it would be useful to share. I have completed the setting changes and all seems to work as described and I'll report back if I have issues. Until then here is what I did to program the system.

From Victron:

So starting with the IP65 charger...
(this is the less important part to get right, but it's still important)

Hit settings in the upper right hand corner
Then go to Charge Preset and hit Custom.
Scroll down and ensure that Advanced settings is turned on.
At this point, it should look like this...

Then Click on Advanced battery settings
Turn on Expert Mode
Now look at these 5 red arrows and make all the values match

Now scroll down to the Absorption section and make the settings match this following image...

That's it for that charger.

Now go to the Orion DC/DC charger

Hit the settings in the upper right
Hit the Input Voltage Lock-Out settings
Enter the values as follows...

Hit OK and it should look like this

Hit Battery Settings
Select Preset / Smart Lithium LiFePO4

All these settings should automatically load... but I arrowed a couple of things to double check

Now here's the important part that might possibly use a little tweaking after you test it...
Hit the back arrow and hit Engine shutdown detection.

Make all of the settings match this screenshot.

Once you have done all of that, you should be all done.

Plug it in and test it. The IP65 charger should start charging the starting battery, and then if that voltage gets up to 13.8V The the Orion will immediately turn on and start charging the Lithium battery. If the voltage is rising slowly, then the Orion will start 120 seconds after the starter battery gets to 13.6V.

Because the Orion draws more than the IP65 charger, that starter battery voltage will sag down to 13.2V (as measured on the input terminals of the Orion).
It will remain at that voltage until the Lithium battery reaches full charge (or nearly full charge) at which point the starter battery voltage will rise to 14.4V.
The charger will complete that cycle in two hours, after which it will drop that voltage down to 14.0V.
If you leave it plugged in for a long time after both batteries are full, then the starter battery voltage will further be reduced to 13.8V

Let me know how it goes.