New to Van Leigh and this forum. Bought a 2016 rl265- looking to convert to lithium batteries and creating a rather large battery bank that can fully run the RV on solar (ground mounted + the 500watt on roof) without shore power. Has anyone done this or even converted to lithium batteries? My questions are:
Is the standard converter lithium capable or does that have to be upgraded?
Do you have any advice as to the inverter and any wiring difficulties in setting up a much larger lithium bank?
I have set up a solar panel ground mounted system that creates 600 W into a bluetti 2000watt battery generator, but that will not remotely be larger enough for this new RV. I simply plug it in AC, even though that then converts back to DC, and then back to AC causing a inefficient system. I did that because it’s really simple and works if you don’t need a lot of electricity, but I’m likely going to want to DC to the DC batteries.
Any thoughts or advice would be welcome. I understand this might be beyond this forum, but at least if anyone has switched it to lithium batteries, I would like to know their experience.
I made the switch to lithium batteries a little over 4 years ago right after we took delivery of our Beacon. I have some details in this thread: Victron Inverter upgrade.
Regarding your questions -
You probably have the non lithium ready converter from Progressive Dynamics as Vanleigh didn’t switch to the lithium version until 2021 (see details in this thread Lithium converter setup )
The standard inverter (1000W) Vanleigh supplied was only really setup for the residential fridge (if equipped) and really isn’t usable for much more than that. I’d opt for a more capable inverter (I chose a 3000VA Victron model) which would allow for more options. Maybe even more than one inverter to be able to fully replace shore power, along with a large enough battery bank.
We’ve been pretty happy with our lithium setup and inverter (disconnected the stock converter as it’s not needed). Still planning to add more batteries to the bank too.
I have converted as well just using the stock converter ( but I have a 2023] but that’s still limiting. I’m planning on adding a 3000 watt inverter and will probably spend more and do a Victron and replace the stock converter at the same time. Currently have 300 AHrs and will probably add another 100. My expectations is to be able to run everything except the A/C units for a few days before needing to charge. Not adding solar at this point because really need at least 1000 watts probably more and we’re not out west and camp a fair bit in trees etc.
I am commenting just to say how much our system changed how we “camp”. We are full time and knew we would prefer boondocking. We spent over 230 days last year without hookups and just plugged in last week for the first time since March when I was in Tish.
As Stuart mentioned he has a nice write up for solar on his unit and you can also visit Will Prowse on YouTube who does demonstrations of builds and more importantly battery bench testing and tear downs. He also has a book available on Amazon.
We have 2700 watts of solar but only 600ah of lithium down below. I was in IT for a living so we are heavy on electronics to power but always have what we need. To do over I would have installed it myself but since it was my first install and the wife didn’t want the house to burn down we opted for a friend to do our install.
I’ve been thinking about this more and was wondering since you can now buy a 4000 wh Eco flow or anger for $2300-3300 couldn’t I just plug my 50 amp cord into that battery generator and save a lot of time and hassle? I know that for DCU solar to AC back to DC is in efficient, but 4000 W hours is so big it’s mainly being used for the microwave and the air conditioner which is ac? Plug and play no changing the inverter the converter getting rid of the existing batteries, it just sets up a second big fat battery.
Thoughts?
Does anyone know if you can only find a battery generator with only 30 amp, will some items not work?
You can definitely use one of those battery/charge stations (I don’t call them generators since they technically don’t generate power, just store it ).
You’d only get a single line of power out of any of them and some might have a built in RV 30 amp connection along with standard 15/20 amp outlets. Having a 50 amp RV power cord, you’d need one of those adapters 50 to 30 (or even a 30 to 15 if the charge station doesn’t have an RV 30 amp outlet) and that would power both legs of the 50 amp power cord and the breaker panel. You’ll still be limited on what can be run simultaneously if you only have 3000-4000 watts of available power storage (~25-33 amps).
You’d probably also want to turn off some of the breakers in the RV panel to prevent one of those higher draw items from being used when using the charge station, such as the converter since that charges the RV house batteries and that would drain that charge station quick.
You can estimate what you can run and for how long by getting the power requirements of the appliance and doing some math to calculate the power draw over time. As an example for the 4000W charge station could supply a single A/C (15-20 amp x 120VAC = 1800-2400W) for between 1-2 hours.
Ideally, those charge stations are not very well suited to supply power for large draw items like A/C units for any usable amount of time. If using one those charge stations, you’d be better off not trying to run A/C and stick to smaller draw appliances. I’d get a list of appliances you’d like to run on this battery station and collect the power for each and calculate how long each could run individually and/or combined to give you an idea of how long you have on that battery station. And stick to using those smaller draw items in the combination that provides the most run time.
This form is great thank -you so much. I don’t suppose anyone has a chart or found a chart of what every breaker actually actually is connected to do they? I don’t recall ever having an RV that you could switch off the converter with just a switch. I agree That would be extremely helpful to avoid charging up the lead acid batteries if I stuck with them.
You’re welcome. Since you have a very early model Vanleigh, it probably will be a bit different than my 2020 Beacon. I think you should still have a similar breaker panel like below and hopefully a legend that shows which circuits are controlled by each breaker.
The top half circuit breakers are fed by one leg of the 50 amp service and the bottom half is fed by the other leg. That gives you a possible total of 100 amp (50 per leg) which is why you can run everything when on connected to 50 amp service shore power without much thought. Using 30 amp is really less than a third of that available power draw.
Hopefully you have that legend on your breaker panel as that’s really good information to have. With my setup (lithium batteries, Victron inverter, solar) I just flipped the converter breaker as that’s not needed or used any longer. If you can’t find that info, I’d suggest calling Tiffin customer service as they should be able to supply that detail if you can provide them the VIN.
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