Power issues following lithium battery swap

lisadbricker

Hi everyone. Before posing yet another battery-related question here I really tried to read other threads and find the answer, or at least a place to start. I have found many people with similar scenarios, and have double checked our set-up against the excellent advice/answers that have already been given. Sadly, our issue persists. So here it is, and I’m hoping someone can help. 

We recently replaced our 2 Harris 6v AGM batteries in our 2021 Tab 400 BD with a LiTime 12v 230ah Smart Lithium battery. I did my research here first and was under the impression that we could just drop in the new battery and change our solar controller settings and we would be good to go. So we disconnected the old batteries and connected/secured the new one, and at first the info from the battery (which we can see in the LiTime app via Bluetooth connection) showed it at 55% SOC, and it seemed to be working when we checked lights and ceiling fan. We left it for a little bit to charge via solar panels. We had to leave our trailer at a service center to have the brakes replaced due to a separate issue, so it was a few days later before we were able to check it again. At that point the LiTime app showed it at 99% SOC and said it was in standby.  We then tested our lights and fan again, which worked fine, so we headed out for a quick weekend trip. At the campground we went about using the trailer as we always have when dry camping, which meant having lights on, and sometimes the ceiling fan, and sometimes the water pump. The trouble started when we tried to run water via the pump while the ceiling fan was running. Everything shut down. When we immediately turned off the pump the lights and fan came slowly back, but when we tried it again everything shut down again and didn’t come back on. Our Alde monitor flashed (even though we weren’t using it) and the carbon monoxide detector started beeping, as if we had a completely dead battery (I’m guessing, though we’ve never had a completely dead battery). At that point I wasn’t even able to get the battery to connect via Bluetooth to check its stats. 

We have double/triple checked all our settings on the solar controller, which are what they should be according to LiTime (and others here in the forum). After waiting a bit—maybe 30 min—I tried restarting the Li-Time app and it re-connected and told me the battery was at 100% SOC and in standby, but ever since the first time this happened, none of the other numbers coming from the battery have changed. No amps, no watts, nothing happening. But the battery works to turn on lights and ceiling fan. Until we try anything else, and then it goes through the same shut down process again. 

We are at a loss, and are hoping someone else has experienced this issue and knows what’s going wrong. Or someone just knows a lot more about batteries in our trailers than I do and knows why it’s behaving this way. LiTime was not much help. They just said it seemed as if the load from our devices is exceeding the battery’s output capacity, but I don’t know how that could be when our 2 Harris batteries could handle all of that just fine, for multiple days. 

Any help is greatly appreciated!

MuttonChops

While I have no direct experience with this battery / set-up . . . .

The LiTime 12v 230ah Smart Lithium battery sales data says
" 200A BMS, with 200A max. continuous discharge current. "
That implies your intended trailer loads are not shutting down the BMS which is what the symptoms suggest.

Consider rechecking your wiring connections, not just correct by location but also fully tight at the battery, 12VDC Bus, and Ground connection.  Perhaps one of these was disturbed or not fully tightened during the battery swap or was not tight enough prior to road traveling vibrations.

Also:
Can LiTime provide a user test method to confirm the battery BMS is functioning correctly . . . i.e. battery could have a defective BMS.

AGB

I had a similar issue with my 2021 400 when I replaced my Harris batteries with a pair of Sun Cycle AGMs including the flashing Alde monitor. My issue turned out to be a loose crimp on the negative wire to the battery terminal. Check the crimps on each of the large wires around the battery by giving them a good tug. I was able to re-crimp mine with a vice in my shop.
Good luck.

lisadbricker

Having a loose connection somewhere seems like the obvious answer. But our battery connections are very tight and secure. Where else should we be looking? We removed the panels from the bed on both the battery section and the passenger side section where the battery shut off and breaker are in the outer storage area. Where are there other battery connections that might be loose that we can check?

lisadbricker

I should add that we also removed the panel where the Gloso breaker is and checked all the wiring in that “hidden” section. Everything looked good.