Switching to Lithium - So many choices

SLJ

Horigan said:

SLJ said:

CharlieRN said:

Out of curiosity, why do you want to isolate the batteries from the camper's WFCO? I understand that it may be an older unit that will not charge LiFePO4 batteries to 100%, but that's only necessary occasionally and can be done via your solar.

Keeping a constant charge on them which happens when you charge them to 80% with a lead acid charger and not having the Lithiums float at the proper voltage reduces their life. If you use an older WFCO you should not leave it connected after the lithiums reach 80%.

Is that what really happens when charging a LiFeO4 battery with a lead/AGM charger?  I assumed it would just enter a float mode at a 80% charge level.

The float mode voltages are different for lithium and lead acid. How much it could actually affect lithiums over the long term I do not know. All I have read from several different sources is that it will decrease the life of the lithiums over a long term. I would hope a good BMS would prevent damage but not sure as I only see over voltage protection which is higher than a converter would normally put out. I opted to just switch them off so the WFCO doesn't do any charging or maintaining when on shore power. and have a Victron smart charger to do the charging and maintaining.

Yoshi_TAB

Hi,  Just for comparison's, I have a pair of Lion batteries and they say it's fine to leave the batteries on the charger 24/7 with no issues.  They also said it's fine to leave them at any charge capacity; 100, 75 or 50 percent with no harm, reduced capacity or life span.  I have not upgraded my converter/charger and have conducted multiple tests and solar easily brings them to 100%.  Always best to check with equipment OEM supplier as each BMS/battery cells may be different.

kottum

We leave our Battery Born batteries on the factory charger and solar panel all the time, they are always near 100% full when stored.  No battery disconnect needed, Battle Born says this is not a problem.  The BMS will stop charging when they are full, there is no "float" mode involved.  No reduced life will occur.  The factory solar will easily keep up with parasitic draw.  If for any reason, I forget to turn off an appliance before storing, the BMS will prevent the batteries from completely discharging and ruining them.  The BMS will shut down discharge leaving some charge in the battery to protect them.  If Battle Born is correct they are practically foolproof, we all can be fools from time to time.

This is speaking for Battle Born batteries as I understand their website, others may be constructed differently and have different BMS.

stepheng

My Toyota Tacoma has 12 ga wire to 7 pin for power which would provide for a max of 20A to my T@B 320S BD. Has anyone installed a Victron Orion-TR Smart 12/12-18A DC-DC charger in the tub with their Lithium battery?

WayneW

I installed a Renogy 20A dc-dc charger in the tub of my 320S BD.  I thought about using the existing wire in the 7-pin connector, but chose to run 8ga wire directly from the battery because of the length of the run (~25').  The Renogy charger requires an activation wire and also has an option to limit the output of the charger by half.  I wired into the running light connection in the junction box under the tongue of the trailer for both of these wires and installed a switch in the limiting connection.  This way I can turn the charger on/off by turning the running lights on/off and charge at 10 or 20 amps, depending on battery charge, time driving, and sun conditions (solar on roof).

I used the holes in the bottom of the tub that are for the non-boondock tire mount to run the wires too/from the charger, using grommets to protect the wires.  Rather than wire the charger directly to the battery I used the SAE connector that I mounted on the front of the tub for my portable solar panels.  

I used rubber grommets to mount the charger to the front of the tub, hopefully to reduce vibration.  I think the charger is mounted high enough in the tub to avoid splashing water while driving in rain - time will tell on that one.  

I now have an AmpereTime 100aH lithium battery in an insulated box that I built, a Victron Smart Sense networked with the Victron solar charge controller to stop charging if the temp in the battery box drops below 32 deg, a hard-wired AiLi battery monitor mounted on the top of the box and the dc-dc charger in the tub.  So far I've been very happy with how things are working!

SLJ

Well that was fun. Done and wired. Renogy battery monitor working and all three Victrons are working and listed in the app.

tcherke

Hi all, 

I feel compelled to offer the following, having monitored the lithium battery discussions on the forum for over a year now. I finally feel I might have something to offer given my (costly) experience over the last year. And in retrospect, I wish I could have read my own message below when I was in my decision making process, as I might have saved myself a lot of stress and money. So I guess this is my effort to 'give back'. I hope it is of benefit to someone out there. 

Last summer, we switched out our stock lead-acid batter with an (expensive) 100Ah 12V Battle Born (BB) lithium battery. To be honest, in terms of upgrades to our 2021 T@b 320 Boondock, this is the best value for money to date. I couldn't be more happy about the performance of the battery and BB's customer service. During our process, I called and emailed BB more than a few times, and watched every video I could on their website to get educated (BB's videos are very good and were a huge factor in my decision to go with BB). Basically, I got the answers that I needed along the way to keep my confidence up, despite significant worries that I would do something to ruin the battery or the trailer and consequently face significant financial losses!

My full disclosure is that I started from a fairly ignorant knowledge base about all things batteries, whether that be lead acid or lithium (yes, I know how to safely jump a car battery, but that was about the extent of my knowledge before this process, sadly). However, what I lack in electrical know how, I like to think I make up in my determination to learn as much as I can about solar and electrical so that we can continue pushing our off-grid excursions longer and longer. The joy for us in having this very expensive trailer with a very expensive battery is the length of time we are able to spend away from civilization, but shamefully admit that we wish to do that with a significant civilized perk: electricity. So, I was determined to make the switch to lithium for this reason alone. 

Suffice to say, it took A LOT of research (hours) for me as very unknowledgeable (and otherwise very busy professional) person to get comfortable with ensuring that I was competent enough to even make a decision to switch to lithium. And to be honest, I later realized that I was not competent to make that decision when I did! Dang. Yes, I entered a trial and error phase, which in this line of experiments is costly! So, my advice to you is that if don't feel 100% confident managing a lithium battery, DO NOT make that decision until you do or unless you have a crap load of money you are wiling to burn through for the sake of it.

The one major mistake that I made in this process was to switch the stock WFCO 8735PB (lead acid) converter to a WFCO 8735AD (autodetect, lithium compatible) converter. I did this on the advice of NuCamp after calling them last summer (I informed them what I wanted to do and they confirmed that this should be done). Also, my (non-longer) RV technician played along with it and didn't advise me otherwise despite me asking him to confirm that this was a required switch out (he suggested that he was knowledgable about lithium batteries, but he was not, nor was the RV technician that we went to before him that installed a crappy lithium battery with no instructions that we had to remove before finally bitting the bullet and going with the BB - yes, very costly saga that has further motivated me to become as knowledgeable as I can because I have no confidence in any local RV technicians when it comes to solar and lithium).

But this switch was a dumb and costly mistake (to my credit I was relying on the supposed 'experts' as I would never attempt to try the installation myself - I watched a few informative DIY videos online about this conversion to quickly realize that this was WAY out of my DIY league as a significant amount of rewiring must happen to do it competently). If I recall correctly, the swap out would have cost me in the range of $1000 Canadian (the converter alone costs about $500 Canadian). Then you can add in the wasted cost of originally going with a different lithium battery that was a joke because there was no support by the company after installation and that is a necessity for an ignoramus like myself. We demanded a refund on that battery, which we got, but lost on installation costs of a couple hundred bucks - RV technicians are crazy expensive). 

The main reason why this was a mistake is because, IMHO, the WFCO 8735 AD (autodetect) is a complete bust. To confirm this, all you need to do is research its performance (or lack thereof) on line and you will see that no end of folks have a very hard to impossible time getting the converter to detect the a lithium batter. WFCO subsequently made a video explaining how to rectify this problem, but the video is not helpful nor realistic in terms of WFCO's design of the converter (if you are in this pickle now, you will know what I mean - its so frustrating!). Rather, the better advice to me would have been to retain our 2021 T@B 320 WFCO lead acid stock converter; buy the expensive BB because it is worth it over the longer run; and simply put some of that money that was otherwise wasted towards a Victron Blue Smart IP65 Charger (approximately $200). This is because there is no need to have a converter that charges a lithium battery to 100% (especially if you have solar!) because you can simply have the Victron charger as back up if there are very long stretches of gray (no sun to top up every now and again as BB recommends, which I take to be at least one a month if not more frequently). 

I wish someone had laid that out for me last year when I was contemplating all of this. I suppose I might have been stubborn and tried it my own way regardless because the experts were telling me otherwise. But if this continues to be NuCamp's position, I would recommend that you press them on it to give you a clear reason why such a switch would be NECESSARY not simply preferred. It might save you some dinero in the long run, and stress.  

Finally, as we live in cold Canada, I removed our BB from the trailer before we put it into storage at the farm and keep the battery in our heated garage over winter. By my research, the BB should definitely not be left in sub 0 Canadian winter temperatures. Before hand, I called BB to ask what I should do for storage and they said "charge to 100% and it will be good to go until you are ready to reinstall next season". I have done so and checked it a few times over the winter. To date, over a period of 5 months, it is holding strong at 13.20 volts (which I understand to reflect about a 70% capacity). 

This all coming from a self-admitted ignoramus on electrical and batteries. I have learned a few things, some that I am grateful for, others not so much!

gulfarea

techeke   First off you are NOT an ignoramus! I went to an electrical trade school in the 1960ies and there was no such thing as the battery's we have today! I agree with you so much as I did not replace my charger in my 2019 320. I installed the SOK marine 206 amp battery in the front tub. I have a 140 watt solar on the back and now the battery  went from bulk to float just like it should with the sun bringing it up to full charge by the Victron. The reason you see so many folks saying you need more sun power is because to charge up 200 amp battery fast like if you are running an inverter to run your a/c then you would need that, but really how many of us would need that? I also did not upgrade my wiring from my Jeep to the trailer, I just put in 20 amp fuses in to protect the wires from getting to hot. I can always use an ac charger to bring the battery up to 100 if that's needed. One note of caution, if you are using an inverter you MUST use heavier gauge wire between the battery and inverter! and thanks for your post Art

SLJ

tcherke I agree. Sorry you had to go through that. Once I saw "auto-detect" on the new WFCOs I knew I wasn't going to change it out. Instead I installed a Victron Smart charger and just switch the batteries out of the system when on shore power and then turn on the Victron if I need to charge them from shore power. The older WFCO supplies DC to everything when on shore power and if it fails, the Victron can be switched from charging to 12 volt/20 amp power to run everything as a back up. Don't expect to need it though since the Lithium's will run everything 12V anyway.

Horigan

No worries @tcherke.  i just went through the same decision process and it was not an easily identified solution, even with me being a retired systems chief engineer.  After my research I initially elected to just stay with the original converter, but found the charge rates pretty low (9 amps from a 55 amp converter).  Rather than up the wire size from the converter to the battery, I also went with the Victron IP65 charger (25 amp) and couldn't be happier.  Sorry for the $$$ getting to your final solution.

dsfdogs

@tcherke, Hey, at least you knew how to jump start a battery, which I've never done! I had to search "how to use a multimeter"...the steep learning curve is real! I agree with you on the WFCO -AD...so disappointing and why are companies still using it?! It's a shame they don't seem to have the -LiS version with a physical switch anymore as I had that installed about a year after swapping to BB in my 320 and it was perfect.

In my new 400, I wasn't able to get the WFCO -AD to work and didn't want a separate battery charger, so last week I had a Victron Multiplus II 3000 watt inverter/charger installed, (plus another battery and other stuff) like the "lithium option" for 2023's...very expensive. In hindsight, I should have opted for the lithium option when I ordered the 400 as it would have been cheaper in the long run.

SLJ

WFCO touts "No switches to flip" on their Auto Detect converter like it's something you'd have to do often other than just once when you change the type of battery. That tells me they are more interested in a perceived selling point than they are a quality converter. The sad part is people are spending money and time to swap the older ones out and not getting the results they expect (or don't know they aren't).

tcherke

Hi all ( @gulfarea ; @SLJ ; @Horigan ; @dsfdogs )

Thank you so much for all the feedback! I am very happy that my saga stimulated this conversation as I really do hope that my waste of money due to very BAD advice results in savings (stress and monetary) for others (pay it forward right!?). 

When I get a chance I will also provide the little addendum to my story (with pictures) that your comments reminded me about that I forgot to mention.  It has to do with the burnt out/melted 30Amp fuse that resulted from attempting to charge the previous non-BB battery with the WFCO 8735 PB before realizing (because no one who was supposedly an expert advised me) that it didn't have the capacity to charge lithium. This was really the straw that broke the camel's back for me being an electrically illiterate person, as I was completely stressed out realizing what had happened given the danger factor involved. I realized this when I was 'inspecting' (if I can call it that given that I know little to nothing) the set up to try and figure out why, after hours of charging via converter and shore power, the non-BB battery was not at full capacity.

Basically, the first RV technician who did the first install of the non-BB lithium battery never recommended (likely because he didn't realize himself due to lack of knowing anything about lithium despite confirming to me he was competent to do an install) a resizing of the gauge wire or fuse to deal with the lithium battery's 'pull' through the non-lithium WFCO converter (I think I have that right - but I will need to go back and check my notes when I have a chance). 

As I recall, and again I will have to go back to my notes on this when I get a chance, the stock gauge of wire running between the converter and the battery was not wide enough (I think the stock is 10 AWG but to meet capacity the RV technician, if he knew what he was doing by actually verifying all components and their requirements, should have replaced the smaller gauge wire with a wider gauge, such as a 8 AWG).

Anyway, I could be off in some of my description, and will follow up at some point when I have a moment with the specifics, but the 'on-board' solution that I now have is a lower gauge wire (8 AWG) with a 40AMP fuse (automotive fuse) installed between converter and battery. This was recommended and installed by second RV technician that I went to (independent of the first) that I will no longer go to given the headache I had with them post BB installation. The more practical 'operational' solution, however, is as described above: I will likely NEVER use the WFCO 8735 AD converter and shore power to top up my lithium batter and will instead continue to rely on the Victron IP65 charger given that the WFCO autodetect, IMHO and experience, is a total bust, at least if installed post-manufacturing (which I think means for any T@B that is a 2021 and older). 

Again, thank you all so much for the feedback, it is very reassuring! With such support, I am happy to continue to admit to my own ignorance on these things going forward, but I am really am excited to learn from you all about solar and batteries. It is (sadly or not) my new obsession as it feels very empowering with ever little crumb that I learn along the way. 

Teri

KK1L

@SLJ Thanks for the "(or don't know they aren't)" comment. I ended up finding a video from WFCO (link below) about how to force the unit to auto detect. I noticed the green LED when I was futzing around installing an EMS in the compartment behind it. The video said green = AGM! Yikes, my 2023 T@B400 was charging the Lithium incorrectly. I am now in the process of discharging the battery to get to the better than 50A charging current needed to trigger the unit to get to auto-detect mode. Drawing 18A and waiting.

I just stumbled on this information, and am glad I did. I am added a second solar charge controller next to the stock one and a jack to connect to it in the Nautilus compartment as well as a smart shunt. Getting up to speed on the whole system has me exercising my Google Foo.

I too vote for a switch. I wonder if one of the unconnected header pins on the board would do just that? Something I might reseach.

https://youtu.be/-pFuVnUsPz4

SLJ

It's ironic that their "Auto Detect" is a lot more work than just flipping a switch. Not quite sure where they get the "Auto" part from when you have to go through this to get the thing to properly charge a Lithium battery. They should just bring back the switch and make it easier for everybody. This not an improvement.

JamesC

I agree with the comments about the WFCO AD. After doing much research myself and because I don’t have solar panels on my roof ( here in the PNW we’re not sure what sunlight is) I found the WF-8955lis on Amazon for $206 and purchased that. I was nervous about installing it myself but after watching a few videos I decided to go for it and so far it’s working perfectly with my new 200ah lithium battery. I don’t plan on go back to an LA battery so flipping a switch one time was easy. 

After a quick three day shakedown cruise this weekend the battery only dropped to 60% of capacity with normal use(Alde with nighttime temp in the 30’s, fridge, lights when needed and charging three phones at night). We could have easily stayed another two days at least. Longer in warmer weather. 

I think my major takeaway from reading these posts and my own experience is to really think about what you’re needs and usage are and don’t buy things just because everyone else seems think they’re necessary. I can’t think of a single thing I would need an inverter for and so I’m not getting one but for others it’s necessary. 

Time to get out there and camp!

djaiko

After digging through all the threads here and on numerous RV forums last night with my husband, we've come to the same conclusion about our WFCO AD in our 2023 320S. Not going to work for our 200aH lithium upgrade. I'm no electrical expert but I've worked as a firmware and device driver engineer for many years and this device doesn't appear to be designed for what we're doing.

For one, they've got a 10AWG wire soldered to the board for charging the battery and they show in their video charging at 57 amps. That might be ok for very short runs but over 7 feet should be using 8AWG or even thicker for longer runs. Also our hunch is that some of the indeterminate behavior folks are seeing with the AD (turning a screw on one connection "fixing" it, sometimes AD works after discharging the battery then somehow defaults back to lead acid profile, etc.) as well as the low charge currents might be related to undersized cable or cables that are too long - when it's right on the edge, the observed behaviors can be confusing. I don't feel comfortable running to the edge of the spec. Whatever the algorithm they are using, it's not good and clearly it just needs a switch. Might be another case of "fix it in software" when the hardware is deficient. Oh and their data sheet is not great. Def not DIY friendly.

We're thinking about putting in a Victron charger (or charger/inverter) and then using the WFCO just as a fuse/distribution center - the schematic will end up a lot like the one posted by @SLJ . Victron not only has some pretty nice features, but they have amazing documentation and clear specs which is fantastic. I've got some q's about that design so I'll start a new thread. 

Captenaj

This is a great discussion for this newbie.

I have a 2021 320 BD and I want to make the upgrade to lithium. I gather from the discussion that it is OK to leave the original converter (WFCO 8735P in my case) but the wire from the new battery to the converter should be changed from the original 10 AWG to 8 AWG. However, the battery is in the front tub and the converter is under the passenger seat so I really have no idea how to go about this. I haven't seen this mention too often. Should I avoid changing to LiFePO4 if I can't change the wire?

Thank you!!

Yoshi_TAB

Hi,

Is that converter in the video a 8735 model?  It seems to be a larger in size than a 8735 (at least to me).  10 AWG is fine for 35 amps for the 8735.  I've never seen my smart shunt exceed those amps during any of the charging modes.

If you wanted to change wire size in a 320, this post maybe helpful.    I installed two lithium batteries inside with out cutting any holes in a 2021.  You could easily change the AWG wire if you wanted to since everything is inside.  It's a long thread and I went through a couple of design changes.  I'd start from the back  if your interested.  In the middle of the thread is a post (idea was given to me) of which wire to splice into in order to wire the batteries from the inside to the converter.  I left the orignal charger/converter.  I also installed an inverter that does not have to be done so my AWG is quite large. 2021 320 Lithium and Inverter Install (Complete) (vanillacommunity.com)  

tcherke

@Captenaj

Hi there, its been a while since I got back on this thread, as we are having too much fun not being online I suppose.

I read your comment and wanted to offer that something I forgot to mention in my write up is that, yes, we had our battery placed inside the trailer (driver's side in the area under the dinette seat next to the bathroom) as the first step in the conversion from lead acid to lithium. We had a 'professional' do that work for us as there was no way I am going to venture with running wires. That part worked out great, despite the subsequent challenges.

If you do move the battery inside, and if you go with the theory that you will never use the converter to top up your battery, then I am not sure you need to change the wire as suggested. I say this because I think our fuse melting was likely a result of not realizing that the converter was not 'auto switched' to lithium and so there was too much pull going on as between the converter in its lead acid state and the lithium battery. But please note (!) I am no expert in these things but rather simply deduced that this is likely what happened in our case. Regardless, we are very content with having the solar panels top up our battery as we live in a very sunny part of Canada (Alberta) and we rarely if ever use shore power.

All to say: I would highly recommend moving the battery inside the cabin as that was definitely one of the best modifications I have done (give that we moved to lithium; you obviously shouldn't do this with a lead acid), and in terms of management of the lithium, once it is inside I highly recommend simply pretending that the WFCO converter is useless to you for the purpose of topping up (balancing) your lithium battery and rely on the solar and spend the money to purchase the Victron charger (excellent piece of equipment).

So, yes, I would support your conclusion that you should not pay for a useless swap out of the WFCO P for a WFCO AD, as it will be no end of frustration to you and if not managed correctly could result in a dangerous situation.

As a final note, after all my troubles in this area, the only party I remain disappointed with besides WFCO is NuCamp: had they not told me that I needed to change to a WFCO AD for a lithium, I likely would not have done so (I would have done more research). However, I relied on their 'expertise' and paid the consequences in return. Very disappointing to say the least, and makes me hesitant to rely on them going forward.  

Denny16

Whilst not using our TaB400 (stored outdoors) we use the factory 193-watt Sunflair solar panels to keep,the battery charged.  We turn off the battery switch.  The solar panels keeps the 200-amp hr, battery fully charged.
cheers

jacobyoconnor

Wow, there is a lot here and it seems like some valuable lessons have been learned. I am having a bit of a time trying to parse out what the best solution is for somebody who wants to be able to charge the battery when on shore power. I have a '21 400 and will be going with the BB lithium upgrade of 2 100ah batteries. It seems like there should be an option for a charger at this point that works as it should but not sure it has been discussed. Mostly I see people making compromises. Anyone able to point me to a proper setup for the 21 400?

Horigan

I went with the Victron IP-22 charger (30A) installed in parallel to the solar and converter chargers.  A smaller option is the IP-65 charger (25A).  
https://www.amazon.com/Victron-Energy-12-Volt-Battery-Bluetooth/dp/B08NY23BKF

I also replaced the distribution block with two power busbars so I wasn't stacking too many connections on the distribution block.
https://www.amazon.com/Post-Power-Distribution-Block-Pair/dp/B07THLYYH3/ref=sr_1_10?crid=2QBJAAX90NQQJ&keywords=blue%2Bsea%2Bpower%2Bbar&qid=1691502982&sprefix=blue%2Bsea%2Bpower%2B%2Caps%2C509&sr=8-10&th=1

Yoshi_TAB

Hi @Horigan,

Just curious, where does your Victron charger get its AC power from?  In the trailer or externally?  If internally , is it hard wired or via an outlet?

I assume you left the  WFCO charger wired in? 

Thank you

Horigan

@Yoshi_TAB
I left the WFCO wired in as I couldn't easily figure out how to remove it and still retain shore power DC power.

I plugged the charger into the AC outlet for the refrigerator, which on my 2019 400 is located just forward of the battery switch in the aft passenger exterior compartment, under the bed.  I used an AC outlet splitter to plug into the single AC outlet there with the frig.  There is sufficient capacity in that AC circuit to run the frig and the charger.

SLJ

Update of the original post and my others here:
After over three months of boondocking, music festivals, and other events with no shore power, my 200AH self installed lithium system in my T@B 320S Boondock has performed better than I'd hoped for. My total system cost was around $1,500 and the lowest it's been was last week camped in the woods under tree cover with five out of six days of steady rain when the two 100AH batteries got down to 45%.

The Renogy 200 watt suitcase with the controller moved to the front tub has performed beyond expectations even on overcast days. At uCamp I was getting 17+ amps of charging on overcast days from both the roof 105 watt factory panel and the 200 watt suitcase.
The Renogy shunt/monitor has been perfect for checking the system and learning what's charging and using power at a glance (no phone needed):

Typically I've used about 10% of my batteries a day running the fridge, lights, pump, and the TV/Stereo/Blu-Ray player on rainy days/nights (and outside lights at music festivals).
The 12 volt Isotherm fridge has been very efficient running around 38 degrees with the compressor only running about 50% of the time and drawing just over 2.2 amps when it does.
As a side note, I get about 5.5 amps/72 watts charging from my tow vehicle. If the batteries are not at 100% when I get home I just plug the T@B in and flip on the Victron Smart Charger.
I am a happy camper with no more battery problems.

bjn2

@SLJ , I assume you installed in the passenger-side wheel bay behind and on top of the plywood housing for an Alde radiator. On my 2023 320-s bd, the battery cutoff is installed where it looks like you have a DIY support for that bay's hinged panel. What are the components you have connected via terminal blocks? I'm guessing the gold colored device at the front right is the Renogy shunt sensor. 

Did you just leave the OEM battery wiring in place and run new wiring from this compartment to the WFCO DC lugs?

SLJ

bjn2 said:

@SLJ , I assume you installed in the passenger-side wheel bay behind and on top of the plywood housing for an Alde radiator. On my 2023 320-s bd, the battery cutoff is installed where it looks like you have a DIY support for that bay's hinged panel. What are the components you have connected via terminal blocks? I'm guessing the gold colored device at the front right is the Renogy shunt sensor. 

Did you just leave the OEM battery wiring in place and run new wiring from this compartment to the WFCO DC lugs?

Left all the original wiring in the front tub (in an electrical box) with new 8 ga. wire in flex conduit run from the front tub inside to the passenger bench. Added a battery cut off switch there. Each battery has it's own 50 amp marine breaker/switch and the smart charger located in the Air* compartment has a 30 amp breaker/switch. I added an AC outlet in the Air8 compartment for the smart charger.

Yes, that's the Renogy monitor/shunt. I also added a Victron battery monitor that will cut the Victron charging if it drops below freezing although the batteries BMS would do the same.

Yes, both benches have a dowel to hold them up when I'm working in them.

I did have to lower the board over the Alde radiator the shunt and everything is mounted on by about an inch. It's just above the top slot on the bench for the heat.

d_v

Thank you for all the info, especially about the 8955 AD! I ended up buying the 8955 LiS kit, a Victron shunt and changed that out last weekend. I think I am just going to do one 100ah and call it done for inside.