Swapping out battleborne battery in TAB 400

Dasieg

I have a 2023 Tab 400 that came with the single 100ah Battleborne li battery. We almost always dry camp and have run into late night power failures on several occasions (It’s gotten worse this summer with the higher temps). I’m considering swapping out the 100ah battery for a 320ah The trailer has the stock solar controller and inverter . Can I just do the swap, or do I have to upgrade the other components?

pthomas745

Welcome to the Forums……

The swap would be pretty straightforward for your trailer, a simple swap. If you have a Victron Shunt, you would have to change the battery capacity settings. In your trailer, you should have one of the "lithium compatible" converter/chargers (the WFCO unit) which might take some work to get it to "auto detect" the lithium battery.

What do you think the issues with the battery failures are with the Battleborn? Poor solar charging? Have you studied the history pages and such and looked at how much power is actually being supplied to the batteries?

Dasieg

I think the issue is not enough capacity. The fridge alone is using in excess of 75AH a day in the heat. Add in the other battery draws (water pump, lighting, Alde) and the fact that the battery is 4 years old, and it gets drained. Of course, that damages the battery further. The solar can’t keep up unless it’s in the sun all day—which of course would heat up the trailer even more.

dlb

I put a 320 Ah lithium in my 400, adjusted the charging parameters on the shunt and have really enjoyed the extra capacity. I use the solar roof and a portable panel to extend the duration. If necessary I will plug it into AC power. Then I only get to about 80-85% of capacity.

jdzioba

I did the same thing as dlb. Installed a LiTime 320ah mini, changed the shunt settings, and use a 20amp charger when the battery is disconnected to charge to 100%. We recently traveled across the country and were able to boondock without shore power for 14 days (fridge on propane).

Ikanizer

I added two 100 ah Battleborne batteries identical to the one that came with our 2023 400. The 300 ah capacity makes multi day boondocking much easier. We spent two months on an Alaska trip this summer and never went below about 50% SOC. Wish I had a propane refrigerator.

EPOD1

From safe batteries to ammonia and hydrogen. Has anyone ever seen the movie Mosquito Coast?

I went the route of adding more Battleborn 100AH batteries and upgrading the inverter to a Victron Multiplus II Inverter charger. I pretty much ripped all of the factory stuff out including the breaker panel which is now split for vital circuits. At this point I am thinking I made a mistake with the Battleborn batteries as the feedback on solar forums don't seem very positive for Battleborn. I am mostly concerned about safety since we sleep on top of these in a combustible bed. Victron makes a battery (BAT512120610) that is an option, making the entire system Victron. With a smart battery, the software could monitor the battery health.

All of this adds weight but so far so good for me. I have a brand new Ford Expedition Tremor to tow it all…. now if only gas was not so expensive.

2023 TAB 400 Boondock

2026 Ford Expedition Tremor

Dasieg

Thanks for all the suggestions. It looks like the way to go is to simply swap out the battleborn for an Litime 320Ah. I’m also putting in a shunt as my tab didn’t come with one from the factory. One question—-is the Litime as safe as the Battle born?

Dasieg

one other question: What do you do with the wire to the heater on the battleborn? Can you simply cap it off? Also the Litime is a larger battery. Is there sufficient clearance in height to the bed?

EPOD1

Hi Dasieg,

I have read the reviews on the Litime 320Ah. battery and they sound too good to be true. I think they will fit the height allowance with around an inch to spare.

The heater wire can be cut folded back and taped or maybe slide some heat shrink tube over it to seal it. I would just remove the entire wire and switch but I am keeping some sort of battery heat in mine, so this is just a suggestion for you. Before you do anything with the wire, check and see how the Litime battery heater is wired.

The next thing to consider is that you will be sleeping on these batteries as they are being charged or discharged. I would do a little more research and make sure that they are safe. For now it is still good news that there is a battery (with 17 years of good history?) that is small, light, and more than triple capacity than the current normal 100ah LiFePO battery.

Please let us know how you make out and post some photos.

Dasieg

wound up going with two Litime 230ah batteries in parallel with 150 amp marine fuses on each battery for safety in the event of a short circuit in one of the batteries. They fit perfectly into the spaces. Left the 2400/1200W inverter in place as well as all the rest of the electronics.

Horigan

FYI. External fuses don't protect against internal shorts. They only protect against excessive current (i.e. shorts) in downstream wiring and components. The battery management system (BMS) should protect against internal failures. I wouldn't worry about an internal short in a LiFePO4 battery. Driving down the road is way more hazardous.

It's good you have fuses in your system.

Dasieg

a LifePO4 battery can dump 10x its amp hr rating (in amps) into a short circuit. That’s 2300 amps for my batteries. If one of the batteries in a parallel set up develops an internal short, the other batteries can discharge into it at that level. Hence the fuses, which cost a few bucks. An added benefit is there is more room to hook up to the positive terminal with them in place (the Litiime battery pays are comically short)

EPOD1

Can you post some photos of the batteries and how well they fit in the box?

Thanks

Dasieg

will do as soon as the fuses get here

Dasieg

So one of the LItime will not charge to even 50% even with two different chargers and tripped a breaker when I tried to use the WFCO. The other Litime charged up no problem to 100% on the WFCO from 50% to 100% . Also of interest when I put the shunt on the “bad” battery, it showed no current flow from the charger to the battery nor did it show current flow when a load was put on it (it didn’t even show the .1a drawn by the shunt). It’s still at 13.3v (measured with a separate Dc voltmeter) after being on a charger for over 10 hrs. I think I have a defective battery. Any ideas?

EPOD1

The good and the bad about batteries in parallel….

It might be a bad battery where some of the cells inside the 13.3v battery are faulty, but don't give up to easily. I would remove the battery and try charging it with a standard battery charger that can be set to the battery type and voltage. If it charges to 100%, then obviously it is not the battery. Also make sure that all of the batteries are fully charged before you put them in a parallel circuit.

Good luck.

Dasieg

Thanks Epod1. I did try charging the bad battery separately with a different Li charger and the voltage didn’t budge. I’m thinking it might be a BMS issue so I’m returning that battery (I have not had them in parallel yet as I couldn’t get the bad one to fully charge). I’m just going to see how running a single 230ah works for awhile. Li time seems to have a reasonable return policy.

EPOD1

I am very interested to know the end results. So please finish this post as you find resolve the issues.

The LiTime batteries are of interest to me and seem to be a better deal than BB. I watched the YouTube video on the Battleborn being tested and noticed the build inside. The LiTime battery was also tested by the same guy and the insides were exposed. Even though the video is about issues with the Battleborn, the build of the Battleborn appears to be more robust than the Ltime.

Thanks,

Dasieg

Here is the pic showing that two Litime 230ah will fit in a tab400. I’ve disconnected the one to get ready to return it.

Dasieg

I’m going with the single Litime for now. I thought about wiring up the old battleborn in parallel to get more capacity but decided against it because of potential balancing issues.

Dasieg

EPOD1

Thank you Dasieg!

A photo is worth a thousand words.

There is another post about the safety of BB batteries, and I think it moved to the top just recently (I posted a response).

Th LiTime has my eye but I need to do a little more research.