Upgraded 2017 Sport 22 stock battery to 100 AH BattleBorn lithium

[waninae39]

i did the same. plan to get a 2nd BB lion battery in 2019

here is my monitor centre with mostly victron items

[Jhess]

Nice setup. Mine is much more basic as I only added the Victron monitor just to the right side of the JVC radio over the kitchen sink.

[Jhess]

[KJRitchie]

When running a load on these batteries how much a voltage drop do you notice? Say a worse case scenario of running the furnace plus half your lights turned on when the batteries are at 100% and 50%. I have two Lifeline 6v 220ah and when even down 25% the voltage drops to 11.8v to 12.2v with such loads as described above.

Since we are full timers and often dry camp I may swap our 2yr Lifelines out with BB.

Kelvin

[ROBERT CROSS]

Originally Posted by KJRitchie

When running a load on these batteries how much a voltage drop do you notice? Say a worse case scenario of running the furnace plus half your lights turned on when the batteries are at 100% and 50%. I have two Lifeline 6v 220ah and when even down 25% the voltage drops to 11.8v to 12.2v with such loads as described above.

Since we are full timers and often dry camp I may swap our 2yr Lifelines out with BB.

Kelvin

I just did the same up-grade, 'cept with two BB's
First thing I noticed was that battery voltage stayed pretty constant as the capacity went down. At 40% the voltage was still at 12.9v.
After more research I learned that when the voltage does start dropping it does so with enthusiasm.
I guess that's why it's recommended to charge before or at 20% capacity.

Bob
🇺🇸

[waninae39]

@jhess

look into a victron Orion dc-dc converter
i use that to power the As from the TV when driving
this unit ensures that power only goes one way

on the form 7 pin, you can run a separate fused cable to the TV battery to beef up the TV -> As power flow
this is a known Ford design issue (;

[ROBERT CROSS]

Originally Posted by waninae39

@jhess

look into a victron Orion dc-dc converter
i use that to power the As from the TV when driving
this unit ensures that power only goes one way on the form 7 pin, you can run a separate fused cable to the TV battery to beef up the TV -> As power flow
this is a known Ford design issue (;

I just make sure to un-plug when not towing. 👍
When towing the flow is into not out of...so the problem is Ford only?
Interesting🤓


Bob
🇺🇸

[waninae39]

we unplug the TV when camped.

the DC -DC ensures that there is no backflow

[Jhess]

Originally Posted by KJRitchie

When running a load on these batteries how much a voltage drop do you notice? Say a worse case scenario of running the furnace plus half your lights turned on when the batteries are at 100% and 50%. I have two Lifeline 6v 220ah and when even down 25% the voltage drops to 11.8v to 12.2v with such loads as described above.

Since we are full timers and often dry camp I may swap our 2yr Lifelines out with BB.

Kelvin

At 99% SOC, I had a 11.9A draw (worse than the scenario you gave) that showed the battery at 13.11V.

At 45% SOC, had a 12.3A draw with battery at 12.94V. So, not much different than at 99%.

Those are from random photos I had taken. I don’t have any from when it was below 5% SOC with a significant draw. However at 2% SOC with a small 0.9A draw the battery was at 12.66V.

Hope this helps.

Thanks

[Jhess]

Originally Posted by waninae39

@jhess

look into a victron Orion dc-dc converter
i use that to power the As from the TV when driving
this unit ensures that power only goes one way

on the form 7 pin, you can run a separate fused cable to the TV battery to beef up the TV -> As power flow
this is a known Ford design issue (;

I will look into that. Thanks for the tip.

[robinjen]

Originally Posted by Jhess

Just wanted to post some pics of my upgrade. The Sport 22 had a single lead acid battery in the usual outside location on the frame. Based on advice from others here I decided to put the 100 AH Battleborn lithium inside the trailer, under the bed in my case. Turns out we still have room for all 4 original storage bins under there!

I ordered a locking battery box for the outside where the old battery was and will be using it for additional outside storage. I also put a disconnect switch on the side of that box so I can turn off anything and everything outside in front (power jack, future 12V port, etc).

Inside I put the lithium in a group 27 plastic battery box and put the battery cables inside a conduit along the aluminum body. Also added a Victron battery monitor and replaced the stock converter charger with. PD4655L with lithium jumper.

For the outside battery/storage box I had to add a couple of pieces of angle aluminum to the frame.

After we get a couple of trips done we’ll decide if we can take advantage of having a 2nd lithium to add in parallel. For this one I included a disaster fuse and the temperature sensor for the monitor.

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Feel free to ask any questions or comment. This took a lot of effort on my part because I tend to do various steps wrong the first time and then do them over again the right way. Maybe it will help someone else with a lithium upgrade on their Sport 22.

Thanks

Would love to know how you got the wiring for the monitor up by the radio? I'm doing a similar install and think that's a great place, just not sure how to get the wiring up there.

Thanks

[Jhess]

Originally Posted by robinjen

Would love to know how you got the wiring for the monitor up by the radio? I'm doing a similar install and think that's a great place, just not sure how to get the wiring up there.

Thanks

This is before installing the monitor, where you can see I drilled a hole in the side of the cabinet about 2 inches from the aluminum wall and put a rubber grommet in there. The black cable you see if for a USB power extension cable I use to power my hotspot near the bed. The hole was big enough to add the cable for the monitor. Of course you might have to temporarily remove the plexiglass panel to drill the hole, but we’ve permanently removed ours.

I bought some gray braided cable wrap:

1/4" Hook Self Closing Braided...

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00QSH2ER6?ref=yo_pop_ma_swf

To put both cables in and help it blend in with the aluminum and not stand out. It runs down to the floor along a few rope light cable holders the takes a right turn near the floor towards the bed and water heater. There’s a gap between the wall and the wood panel under the bed big enough to run the battery monitor cable through. Then it just goes over top of the water heater tank and into the front corner where it connects to the battery monitor shunt.

I can provide a couple more pics another day after I get back to the Airstream in storage.