DIY Lithium in a second gen Basecamp

[elliottio]

Well I'm doing this the lazy way and figured someone on these forums might find my boneheaded method useful for their build out or might be able to help out along the way.


The first step today was to simply swap out the marine house batteries and replace with lithium and see what happens. I bought 2 12v battleborn 100 amp GC2 batteries that are supposed to be drop in replacements for marine batteries.


Like I said, this is the boneheaded way, I'm sure there are better ways, but it's interesting to see what happens with the most basic methods.


Removed the house batteries and plopped in the lithium. First thing to note is that the lithium "drop in" have these little tabs on the sides and with those, the batteries are about a quarter of an inch too wide. Because the tabs are symmetrical, the batteries still seat level, but don't go that far down. Also the batteries are a few inches taller than the original, so even if i sawed off those tabs, I'm not sure the battery case would close.


Anyway, I used the battery cables that were already in there for the house batteries and literally just replaced the house batteries with those lithium ones... Almost everything works right out of the box. All lights, gas etc detectors, water pump, etc. The only things that are currently a problem are:


1 the circuit breaker for the furnace-water heater
2 the circuit breaker for the "din-gal-refer-end table outside recepts"


both of these flipped and won't flip back. I tried hitting that test button and nothing.



3 The truma display is showing complete jibberish. Not sure what kind of display that is, but it's show more signs and symbols than it's supposed to. The knob can move across the options, but with random things being highlighted i'm not sure what's going on. I removed the display and plugged back in and no effect.



The battery monitor shows a little over 13v and 100 percent, but I doubt that's going to be reliable, so I bought a victron battery meter (BMV-712). (I don't work for, get paid from, or have any relationship with any of these products/brands).


I also bought a victron multiplus compact 12v 2000va 80amp 120vac that I'll be connecting.


So I guess the next step is to find my manual and start looking through the wiring diagrams to see if I can figure out what's the problem.

[GoatLargon]

I have a 2019 16x that I'd like to do the same. Did you get the compact multiplus to fit? How about the batteries, did you get them to drop in?

[elliottio]

The inverter does fit in a shelf near the batteries.
Yes, these batteries can just be "drop in" replacements. Mine did not fit as the plastic tabs on the sides are just enough that the batteries don't go all the way down in the battery box.


I thought there was some problem, but found out I just blew a furnace fuse, probably when I was installing the new batteries, but now the batteries do in fact work.

[wulfraat]

Your converter does not put out enough voltage for a fast and full charge for those batteries. They want 14.2-14.4v. Your converter only puts out 13.6.

Moving to the multi will solve for this assuming it is correctly programmed.

Share some pics

[elliottio]

The victron multiplus compact 12v 2000va 80amp doesn't put out enough voltage?


Sorry, I'll post some pics in a bit but my BC is currently in winter storage and the battery compartment is kind of a hot mess.

[wulfraat]

Originally Posted by elliottio

The victron multiplus compact 12v 2000va 80amp doesn't put out enough voltage?


Sorry, I'll post some pics in a bit but my BC is currently in winter storage and the battery compartment is kind of a hot mess.

The multi is fine. I’m referring to your current converter that was installed at the factory.

[elliottio]

Oh right right. I'd hope it was programmed correctly. Bought it all from Battle Born and they programmed it for me

[wulfraat]

Originally Posted by elliottio;

Oh right right. I'd hope it was programmed correctly. Bought it all from Battle Born and they programmed it for me

Then you are in great shape!

[Rolind]

Originally Posted by elliottio

The inverter does fit in a shelf near the batteries.
Yes, these batteries can just be "drop in" replacements. Mine did not fit as the plastic tabs on the sides are just enough that the batteries don't go all the way down in the battery box.


I thought there was some problem, but found out I just blew a furnace fuse, probably when I was installing the new batteries, but now the batteries do in fact work.

I also am considering a lithium conversion from my current AGMs. So did you have to modify the plastic tabs to get the batteries to fit, or modify the battery box? We’re you still able to fit the lid to the box with the new BB batteries?

Please do send pics when you are able, I am very interested in your results.
Thanks in advance.

[crozsr]

Following

[chrispo]

Also following. Just wondering how the BattleBorn GC2's fit the existing battery box. From my measurements it's close...Do I have to yank out the battery box or modify it?

[elliottio]

Just went on a 2 week trip from my home in Pittsburgh to Nova Scotia. With the stock solar, stock solar charger, the 200 amps of battle born, compact, and my newly installed Engel SR70, after about 7 days of boondocking I was at around 120 amps used. So i'm pretty pleased. I've got a new MPPT I need to install and the battery box area looks like a hot mess of wires (probably need to replace the busbars with something bigger as they are full and i ended up tying way too much directly to the battery).


For some reason when on shore power the inverter isn't working and the bathroom lights aren't working, but I guess it's always something.


The fridge is a good fit. It's sort of in a temporary setup now but I should post some pics.