Sorry but on a 2022 320 Boondock S is it just a swap with an SOK lithium?

CCC

Preparing to replace replace a woefully inadequate  AGM 54 Ah that they gave me. SOK 206Ah swap. Is is just a swap of the wires to the terminals? Trying to stay from the dealership if possible.

Grumpy_G

If it physically fits, yes. I don't remember if the 2022 converter has the LiFePo switch, the solar charger typically has a setting for it.

dragonsdofly

@CCC yes, it is just a switch of the wires. Take a pic of your current set up to use as a guide just in case you have questions later. And your 2022 t@b should be equipped with a converter that has a switch to set the converter for charging a lithium battery. After installing the new battery, change the converter to lithium for proper charging. Your lithium battery doesn't off-gas so it doesn't need a battery box but should have some kind of protection on/for the terminals to prevent accidental contact with anything metal in the tub or cross contact with anyone reaching into the propane/battery tub.

VictoriaP

Do check the converter. We’ve had folks recently find their 2022 is not equipped with the lithium switch (likely a supply chain issue). If that’s the case, you can occasionally charge via a portable charger such as the NOCO genius10 to top off the lithium. Additionally, if you have solar either installed or via a portable suitcase, the controllers need to be set for lithium, as do any shunts you have chosen to install.

While lithium doesn’t require a battery box, if going with the metal cased SOK, a box of some sort is recommended by the distributor as the metal casing does need protection from the elements, and can rust if not adequately protected. Condensation can collect inside the aluminum tub, and of course, rain can get in when you lift the lid. Only the marine grade plastic cased SOK is made for outside placement, as per the distributor’s discussion with members of Will Prowse’s forum. Regardless, you’ll want to strap the battery down to the tub in some fashion, as you don’t want it bouncing around.

Denny16

Victoria, some of the newer 2022 TaB 320s have an auto switch to lithium mode when a lithium battery is detected, and does not have the manual switch.  The model number ends in ADxx, or something similar, and there is a mention of this in one of the Lithium/Converter discussions.
 Cheers 

Buckster

I posed the question (to nüCamp) of whether I would need to change the switch on our converter when switching to a lithium (LiFePO4) battery. This was their response based on our 2022 T@B:

"Depends on what model converter you have. You can check the model number by popping open the front panel on the WFCO power center.

WF8735-LiS - Lithium Switch version, manual LA -> LI switch
WF8735-AD - Auto-detect, automatically detects battery chemistry and switches charge profile accordingly

We started building the 2022 models with the LiS, but WFCO sunset that model and transitioned to the newer AD model."

Horigan

Note that the SOK terminals are bolts, so you may need to replace your wire ends with large ring terminals.  You need a pretty good crimp tool to do this on large battery wires.  I don't know if your current AGM has regular posts, threaded studs, or bolts like the SOK.

VictoriaP

Horigan said:

Note that the SOK terminals are bolts, so you may need to replace your wire ends with large ring terminals.  You need a pretty good crimp tool to do this on large battery wires.  I don't know if your current AGM has regular posts, threaded studs, or bolts like the SOK.

I ran into this when I installed my SmartShunt…trailer’s cable rings, and the one on my SAE pigtail, were both smaller than the bolts on the shunt, because my current battery has the smaller bolts. Since I wasn’t comfortable changing out those crimped rings, I opted to kill two birds with one stone and moved everything over to a pair of bus bars, then used pre crimped cables with different size rings as needed at each end to connect between battery, bus bar, shunt, and trailer. It was almost certainly more work than changing the rings would have been, took a bit of extra time as I had to order the correct cables and such, but I’m actually really pleased with the result…there were getting to be too many cables directly attached to the battery anyway. And switching to a battery with larger bolts now would be a matter of a 5 minute switch to 2 new cables.

This thread was incredibly helpful to a battery and cable newbie, I couldn’t have tackled this project without it: https://tab-rv.vanillacommunity.com/discussion/8051/battery-spaghetti-fix-bus-bars

CharlieRN

My suggestion is to invest in an inexpensive hydraulic crimping tool.

I just completed re-locating dual batteries to interior of my 320 BD. The move required me to make up cables of different lengths, with differing lugs/ring terminals and with two sizes of wire (6 & 8 AWG). The relatively modest cost of the crimper - a serviceable one can be had for $50 - $70, higher quality models are slightly more than that - is well worth it. I posted some photos and a brief narrative on the forum that you can access here if you want to take a look.

Like @VictoriaP, I took the opportunity to add bus bars to clean up thed a installation. I would have liked to make up a fuse panel to get rid of all the in-line fuses, but that's a project for another day. As you are essentially just replacing the battery in the same location, you may not want to bother with bus bars, but the crimper is a relatively small investment that you will likely find use for in future projects.