Good afternoon,
I have been researching for weeks for a solar and lithium upgrade and finally messaged Battle Born for advice and I am waiting on a response. I have a 2021 Heartland Cyclone 4006 and we will be boondocking for weeks at a time. At first I wasn't going to get but a couple batteries and then started thinking about areas with many overcast days or covered by trees and now I can't decide what I want. Has anyone done the bundles through Battle Born? Aside from the batteries, do you recommend the other components they use? I'm starting to think I want to go with 4-6 LiFEPO4 batteries. How much solar/lithium do you have in your rigs and how long does it last you in poor weather or areas with lots of tree coverage?
The first question I would suggest you ask yourself is how long are you planning to keep the RV and how much are you willing to spend. If you go 6 batteries you are looking at $8-$9K once you add inverter/s wiring accessories etc. And that is before you add solar panels.
The Brian Boone Facebook groups details various installations and is helpful with answering questions and also partners with various vendors with discount codes. For example when I got my batteries his code was good $25 and free shipping. But the Battleborn price today is equal to what I paid with the code.
I'm using 6x100 BB batteries, a Magnum hybrid 3,000 watt inverter, 9 200 watt panels (3x3) with a Magnum 100 amp controller.
Our trailer is wired to use the Magnum with a subpanel with all these circuits being fed through the inverter.
These circuits are live all the time, shore power, generator or inverter. All electrical outlets, fridge, micro, central vac and the washer and dryer. The advantage for us is all the electronics have a constant clean power source, no spikes from disconnecting etc, no memory loss or clock resetting.
The only real test I have done with it was while wintering in Alabama. March-April time frame, had good sunny days but limited number of hours. We did not need AC and I used the gas furnace instead of the cheapheat at night.
I disconnected the shore power and ran off the batteries & solar. On average we could go 2 1/2 days before I would plug back in.
That was using everything as we would normally, including using the washer and dryer although I limited to using the dryer to the morning.
On full sunlight I get 85+ DC amps at 14.4 volts out of the panels.
Panels max output = 29 amps at 66 volts --> controller max output is 100 amps 14.4 volts
I am contemplating adding 2 to 4 more batteries and moving one AC and the maybe dishwasher to the inverter panel.
Having the alternate power is nice. We frequently will do a load of wash while packing up to move and then use the dryer while we are traveling.
The fridge never gets turned off from the start of the season until we winterize, and I don't have to plug in on the days we parked at home.
Adding one AC will allow running the AC an hour or so out from a destination to start a cool down. That is something we do now using the generator.
It would also help protect the AC from brownouts or having short power outages shutting it down and restarting the wait period.
I would not recommend the Magnum solar controller. Although it interfaces nicely with the Magnum inverter and remotes, it is not really suitable for RV use.
And unless you will be in frigid temps the BB batteries with heaters are probably unnecessary.
Our batteries are mounted in heated space, inside the front closet. So if we are using the trailer the batteries are protected.
