132AH LiFePO4 easily fits inside the battery box

[bobbyblack]

PSA:

My driver side 'house' battery box has no "drains." any moisture that goes down there, at least in my case, stays in there until it evaporates.

If your house battery box is also like mine, consider adding weep holes, or such.

Finding this out, in my case, was NOT FUN AT ALL. Most likely I spilled a flimsy cup of water below my left elbow backwards, and the liquid ended up in the box with nowhere to go. However, I am not 100% sure I actually did that, it is just the only explanation I have for a self-caused inch or so of water down in there. I had also, in the same time frame, driven through some of the worst sloppy wet 7" snow storm I have done in my bus, and there could have been another way for liquid intrusion. It was water, not tea, and those are the only things I drink while driving.
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'87 Westy 'Flossie','86 Westy 'R1','86 tintop GL - Subi2.2 'J2','83.5 stock tintop L 'ZoomBus','74 Karmann Ghia, '63 Notch

[fxr]

[BrownLoaf]

[fxr]

If the big thick wire on the left is the battery negative, why is there another wire connected to the same post of the shunt? The battery negative should be the ONLY connection to the shunt input post, so that all current flows through the shunt.
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Jim Crowther
1984 1.9l EJ22 Westy Wolfsburg Edition
Vespa GTS 300

[BrownLoaf]

This evening I made the new negative cable and installed it.

I'm excited to finally have a proper house battery system in the camper, and one that can be expanded upon!

Cheers,
Logan
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83.5 Vanagon Riviera WBX 2.2 "Brown Loaf"
87 Vanagon Syncro Tin Top WBX 2.1 "Bubbles"

[BrownLoaf]

[1988M5]

To quote page 9 of the manual (https://www.victronenergy.com/upload/documents/SmartShunt/9172-Manual_BMV_and_SmartShunt-pdf-en.pdf)
“ Note that there should be no other connections on this side of the shunt or on the negative battery terminal. Any loads or chargers connected here will be excluded from the battery state of charge calculation.”

FYI

BK
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1991 tin top GL
2002 Winnebago Vista. VW VR6 24V Eurovan front clip powered class C 21' RV.
Some BMWs.

[1988M5]

Your shunt isn’t hooked up correctly. Easy fix though, remove the most rearward connection to the negative buss bar and attach it to the shunts forward post. Remove the short jumper from that same post. Then add a jumper from the shunts rear post to the negative buss bar. In essence you want any and all electricity to have to flow through the shunt.

BK
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1991 tin top GL
2002 Winnebago Vista. VW VR6 24V Eurovan front clip powered class C 21' RV.
Some BMWs.

[BrownLoaf]

Here is the Redarc powered on for the first time, engine running.

Getting the full rated 25 amps! After running for a few minutes, the current dropped to 0 amps, as it should for LiFePo4 being brought to full charge.

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83.5 Vanagon Riviera WBX 2.2 "Brown Loaf"
87 Vanagon Syncro Tin Top WBX 2.1 "Bubbles"

[BrownLoaf]

Thanks for the info on your setup Bobby. Looks great!

To keep the battery warmer and more cushioned, I put down a layer of reflective floor underlayment. This, plus the plastic battery enclosure, will act as a thermal break from the cold sheet metal in the wheel well.

I finished this battery phase of my electrical project over the weekend. Well, "finished" for now anyways. I may go back and add a battery heater, and I will likely be adding a portable solar panel connected to the Redarc charger in the future. One step at a time since I'm doing all this for the first time...

Completed layout under the driver's seat:

I've read that the Redarc charger can get hot, so I spaced it off the panel to provide extra airflow.

System overview, all cleaned up before reinstalling the seats. By trimming the upper shell of the Riviera battery enclosure, I was able to get it to fit! The LiFePo battery now lives in an insulated enclosure, and the hinged lid can still close.

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83.5 Vanagon Riviera WBX 2.2 "Brown Loaf"
87 Vanagon Syncro Tin Top WBX 2.1 "Bubbles"

[bobbyblack]

Okay, so you didn't ask for it, but I threatened... so here is my "all in" draw, includes CDH heater on full blast, a couple of fans, my inverter powering my router, which is fed through USB tether, and the TV. 8.5 amps! Comfy!

The old girl didn't like -15F this AM very much though.

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'87 Westy 'Flossie','86 Westy 'R1','86 tintop GL - Subi2.2 'J2','83.5 stock tintop L 'ZoomBus','74 Karmann Ghia, '63 Notch

[bobbyblack]

[BrownLoaf]

Here is a list of my costs on this project.

Cells: $438
BMS: $159

Tools and consumables (will be used for other projects):
Tapes: $45
Variable power supply: $68

Here is what the Overkill Solar BMS phone app looks like while powering a spare headlight bulb. It provides an impressive amount of information and adjustability to the settings.

I have not done a capacity test to see how close to 132ah the cells are. I have a Victron shunt coming which I hope will give me more insight into total capacity while in use.

Bobby, you've inspired me to go back to researching battery heaters. Thank you for the information. Is there a Samba thread for yours?
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83.5 Vanagon Riviera WBX 2.2 "Brown Loaf"
87 Vanagon Syncro Tin Top WBX 2.1 "Bubbles"

[Mateo83]

What's the cost for that battery setup? Sorry if it's in the post, I don't have the attention span to read through it all.

Also, VMAX 75ah fits fine.
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83 Air-cooled 2.0 Tin Top

[bobbyblack]

Just wanted to mention that I like to have a rest at my "lunch hour" and that is mainly why I drive my bus (nearly) every day -- at least to work, anyway. On the other days, I drive it just because I LIKE to.

In the build I was (still am?) working on, I did not yet add a compressor fridge to the "cost equation" for the battery I decided on, which back then being aprox. the same physical size as your cells, but 120aH. My intention was to be comfortable in cold weather. The world was bringing together several low cost options for both LFP cells, and CDH heaters. Well, today being -3F and that not being unusual around here in winter, I took a look at my consumption as I got into nap mode at lunch. Hmmm.. the same BMS as OP uses showed my cells sitting at -1.5C, which I don't like. Fortunately, I have my adjustable PWM that offers variable power to the heater mat and I bumped it up from 20 watts to just under 30 watts, and then took a nap. The BMS reported that the temp had gone up to +0.3C in just under an hour. I like that I can control the mat heater to raise the temp of the battery slowly.

My total wattage on the heating system at "idle" is 40 watts, including the battery heater. Total at heater full blast is 60 watts. I didn't turn on my bus router, plug in my cell phone to deliver USB tethering or turn on the TV, so that will have to wait for tomorrow, if anyone wants to hear how much power all that uses if I were throwing all my draws at it I did try out my Starlink with the system when I first got it. That would have provided about 10 hours of entertainment time on one charge of the battery. My use of a USB tethered router makes more sense to me than lugging Dishy around.

At ~60 watts, my BMS reports about 28 hours left, after keeping the bus warm since 7 AM until noon, not that it was at full heat production the whole time, but if it were somehow to get a LOT colder and need to keep going full blast for the rest of the time until I got back into the garage that is what I was seeing. The BMS says 15aH used from 7AM through 12:50 PM. I am so tickled

The 2KW CDH with AfterBurner easily keeps the bus at 68F in this weather.

PS. I do know how to be humble, I just don't show it very often
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'87 Westy 'Flossie','86 Westy 'R1','86 tintop GL - Subi2.2 'J2','83.5 stock tintop L 'ZoomBus','74 Karmann Ghia, '63 Notch

[Butcher]

Did you capacity test the batteries or accepting the sales pitch as fact?

Good to hear that you got your batteries without any hitch. Aliexpress does have a lot of crooks and it appears Aliexpress really does not care. I suspect they do, but with as many as they have, it appears not.

[dobryan]

[MarkWard]

2 quick questions. How do you access your BMS to monitor? The other question is, does your BMS display all 4 battery voltages?

I did something similar with AGM batteries and within a year, one battery took out the other 3 and my Xantrex charger inverter. I had no way to measure individual batteries or to easily isolate them for testing. Thanks.

[bobbyblack]

Just a couple things I went through, so as to add to your growing list.

1: No idea where you might go on your travels, but I go where not many are willing, and those places get cold, really cold. The battery box under the DR seat gets REALLY cold REALLY easy. Just get something under there BEFORE you have to take it all apart again. I got a 250 watt matt used for a 3D printer heater plate, its roughly the same footprint as those cells you have. I use a PWM to limit the wattage going into the heater pad, and I have a "on at 32 (or below) and off at 45F "snap disk" rigged up. Life saver. Or, more directly, while driving into a really bad cold front that dropped about 50F in 2 hours, the PWM shut everything down, so then I had to scramble. It was very uncomfortable. I can't find the exact item online just now, but VERY useful.

2: Compress the cells, or rather, don't let them "bloat". I did not incorporate a compression scheme in my battery box setup, and one of the cells has bloated, and is now the one that the BMS reports to be undervolt vs the other three. Therefor, I am now facing premature degradation. It is extremely difficult to replaced just ONE CELL.

Looks like you are on the right track for your present needs. Faith, love, and duty; you will soon find at least one leg of the tripod gets changed; think forward on when the Fridge needs to get bigger

-bobby
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'87 Westy 'Flossie','86 Westy 'R1','86 tintop GL - Subi2.2 'J2','83.5 stock tintop L 'ZoomBus','74 Karmann Ghia, '63 Notch

[JEL91Westy]

Excellent post. What was your total cost?

Joe
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91 Westy
85 911