WFCO 8955 w/ LiFePO4 charging ?

[Half Ton Heavy]

Originally Posted by babock

Not a chance. If you are only charging at 38A, you have a lot of voltage drop. I get the full 60a out of my PD converter.

At 14.5 volts, there is not much current as the battery is fairly topped off.

[Half Ton Heavy]

Originally Posted by 01tundra

True, but there is at least 2-3' of additional wire that should be accounted for between the converter and chassis when calculating overall voltage drop.

The main point is that his factory 8AWG is performing better than my shorter run of 1/0 (voltage drop wise) when I still had the batteries mounted on the tongue, which is very impressive.

Welp, I suppose I would have to make a video. It charges all the way to 14.5 volts. I have considered running 4 gauge, total length only needs to be about 6 ft or so. I just do not think the juice is worth the squeeze.

[01tundra]

Originally Posted by Half Ton Heavy

Welp, I suppose I would have to make a video. It charges all the way to 14.5 volts. I have considered running 4 gauge, total length only needs to be about 6 ft or so. I just do not think the juice is worth the squeeze.

Ok, yes once the amperage has dropped off to almost nothing due to the battery reaching 100% SOC I don’t doubt that you are seeing that voltage. And it sounds like your converter is much closer to the front than ours is, bad assumption on my part. Our converter is in the very back of the trailer under the refrigerator, so our wire pull length was pushing 30’ when the batteries were originally located up on the tongue.

My point was during charge when the batteries are pulling everything they can you’ll see a substantial voltage drop through the factory 8AWG, it’s all relative to the amp draw.

Now that our batteries are a foot from the converter with all 1/0 +/- wires they pull a full 55A while charging, as the amp draw tapers off near the top our voltage also settles out somewhere in the 14.5-14.6V range.

[TitanMike]

Originally Posted by Half Ton Heavy

Welp, I suppose I would have to make a video. It charges all the way to 14.5 volts. I have considered running 4 gauge, total length only needs to be about 6 ft or so. I just do not think the juice is worth the squeeze.

With the short length you describe I suppose it is possible. Most people have wire runs (one way) more like 20' with all the ups, downs, and corners.


#8 awg wire is good for 11 feet at 38 amps with only a 2% Voltage drop.

It is all going to depend on the application and in your case the distance is in your favor.

[Half Ton Heavy]

Originally Posted by TitanMike

With the short length you describe I suppose it is possible. Most people have wire runs (one way) more like 20' with all the ups, downs, and corners.


#8 awg wire is good for 11 feet at 38 amps with only a 2% Voltage drop.

It is all going to depend on the application and in your case the distance is in your favor.

Exactly. I am planning sometime to run wire from the converter panel to the "inverter bay" (front storage on our 2506s) for employment of the transfer switch built into the inverter. Right now I have a very redneck solution of a extension cord run out for the trailer to plug into. I want to find a spot for a sub panel that will feed the microwave and outlet circuits (labeled refer). When I do that I will put some left over 4 gauge for the converter feed to the main battery buss bars in the inverter bay. I am absolutely losing some, or the wfco is not putting out the rated power. Nothing seems to be getting warm. I've not metered it (although now I am more curious) to measure the voltage drop.

[babock]

If a 50a converter is only charging at 38a, there is a whole bunch of voltage drop.

If you bought a new converter, why not buy one you can locate near the battery?

[Half Ton Heavy]

Originally Posted by babock

If a 50a converter is only charging at 38a, there is a whole bunch of voltage drop.

If you bought a new converter, why not buy one you can locate near the battery?

Because I wanted to make it plug and play where the old one was.

This weekend I will run the battery down to 50% and meter the drop.

I didn't want to run wires / cut the belly open.

[01tundra]

Originally Posted by Half Ton Heavy

Because I wanted to make it plug and play where the old one was.

This weekend I will run the battery down to 50% and meter the drop.

I didn't want to run wires / cut the belly open.

It’s really not as bad as it initially looks. Just remove those goofy “nails” Rockwood installed on the belly cover and go back with self-drilling screws. It’s actually good (bad) to get in there and see all the sketchy crap the factory did....

[Half Ton Heavy]

Originally Posted by 01tundra

It’s really not as bad as it initially looks. Just remove those goofy “nails” Rockwood installed on the belly cover and go back with self-drilling screws. It’s actually good (bad) to get in there and see all the sketchy crap the factory did....

I tried those goofy nails. How do you get them out? Also, you cut the black fabric?

[babock]

Well...if you increase the gauge of the wire, you will be doing that anyway.

Not a big deal, I dropped my bottom liner. Was easy.

Originally Posted by Half Ton Heavy

Because I wanted to make it plug and play where the old one was.

This weekend I will run the battery down to 50% and meter the drop.

I didn't want to run wires / cut the belly open.

[TitanMike]

Originally Posted by Half Ton Heavy

I tried those goofy nails. How do you get them out? Also, you cut the black fabric?

Nails come out with 6 point 1/4" socket in a cordless drill. They have spiral scoring on them that helps remove them. You'll have to cut any plastic that remains from shooting the nails into frame flange.

[01tundra]

Originally Posted by Half Ton Heavy

I tried those goofy nails. How do you get them out? Also, you cut the black fabric?

I pried under them as I twisted them out, pure crap - thanks Rockwood for a major fail, glad you made and extra dollar with this BS 🙄.

[Rick the Rocket]

I used the WFCO 8950L2 converter lithium battery, it charges at just over 50 amps I upgraded the wiring to the new 280ah cells. After 4 hours it cuts back to 13.6 v, if the battery is still low, as a test I have cycled the power to the converter and it jumps back to the 14.6v charge voltage. 13.6v will finish the complete charge (from what I see in the BMS data) without hitting the high voltage cutoff it just takes some time. My BMS stops the charge current when one of the cells hits 3.65v so if the converter is at 14.6 at that time the BMS cuts the current and the converter drops back. I like the bluetooth access to the BMS.

I like the fact the converter floats at 13.6v rather than keeping the 12 volt devices operating at 14.6v. I also have noted that the lithium cells settle down to a lower voltage after being fully charged anyway. As for balance I just checked and my cells are within .052v highest to lowest after being fully charged 5 days ago.

I think the PD has an option of the charge wizard button, but cycling the power isn't that hard.

[Half Ton Heavy]

What did you upgrade the wiring to? Trailer? Length of cable from converter to battery?
Thanks

[01tundra]

Here's how I wired ours, the batteries are about a foot from the converter.

The solar controller is up front in the pass through because it used to be close to the batteries when they were on the tongue, so now it's 25' wire pull away from the batteries, but with 1/0 there's negligible voltage drop. The DC-DC charger is up front as well and shares the solar 1/0 circuit.

[Half Ton Heavy]

I’m curious why you put a tow vehicle disconnect switch with a victron dc to dc charger? It disconnects on its own when it is not running? Nice diagrams/ work, I just shot from the hip...

[Rick the Rocket]

Originally Posted by Half Ton Heavy

What did you upgrade the wiring to? Trailer? Length of cable from converter to battery?
Thanks

I moved the battery inside the trailer. I ran the cables to the outside wall using 5.5 foot of #2. The wheel well butts up to my battery box. I placed a 2000 watt inverter on the wheel well just inside the kitchen cabinet the left paneling in the picture. That is why there are 2 sets of cables exiting the battery box.

[Half Ton Heavy]

Originally Posted by Rick the Rocket

I moved the battery inside the trailer. I ran the cables to the outside wall using 5.5 foot of #2. The wheel well butts up to my battery box. I placed a 2000 watt inverter on the wheel well just inside the kitchen cabinet the left paneling in the picture. That is why there are 2 sets of cables exiting the battery box.

Looks great! Are those eve 280ah cells?

[Rick the Rocket]

Originally Posted by Half Ton Heavy

Looks great! Are those eve 280ah cells?

Yes they are, the BMS is the Xiaoxiang unit. I got it from Overkill Solar. The board with the blue led is the bluetooth module option.

The BMS comes configured for 100 ah cells, I changed a few settings for my setup. I have run the microwave for 8 minutes as a test with no problems. That pulled around 130 amps if I remember right.

[Half Ton Heavy]

Originally Posted by Rick the Rocket

Yes they are, the BMS is the Xiaoxiang unit. I got it from Overkill Solar. The board with the blue led is the bluetooth module option.

The BMS comes configured for 100 ah cells, I changed a few settings for my setup. I have run the microwave for 8 minutes as a test with no problems. That pulled around 130 amps if I remember right.

Awesome, so far I am loving the eve 280's! I used a daly 200 amp BMS, so far so good.