theboondork's RV blog

UPS came today, I wonder what's in the boxes

9/8/2017

My Battle Born batteries arrived today and appear to be in excellent shape. I was a little worried about them being thrown around during shipping but the boxes looked in pretty good shape considering the weight of the batteries and how many different times they were handled.

I'm not sure when I'm going to install them because my old batteries are still working as long as they get charged every day and since I'm at my daughter's house I can plug in if I need to.

I guess I'm going to have to take my old batteries back to Northern Arizona wind and solar where I bought them from to get my core charge back, which isn't a problem since their in Flagstaff Arizona and I'll be going through there when I make my winter trip to the desert. But it does mean I'll be hauling around almost 300 pounds of old batteries until I can get to Flagstaff.

I'm probably going to install them under my bed to be able to better control their temperature, and I will set them under their as soon as I can get other things out from under my bed so they have room. When I get them set in place I'll be able to measure what length of cable I'm going to need to reach them from the solar controller. You're supposed to keep that distance as short as possible and at the moment it's about 2 1/2 feet. My bed is directly over the old batteries so I don't anticipate the new cable being excessively long.

theboondork

There packed up pretty good

The battle born batteries are well protected for shipping

The batteries are sitting in my living room. They need a permanent home.

6 Comments

Vall&Mo link

9/8/2017 06:11:12 pm

Hi Tom,

These new batteries sure do look pretty! :-)

Thanks for the unboxing pics -- glad to see they're well packed, as lithiums are really sensitive to shock. And I love their motto, as printed: "Get out there and stay out there". Amen to that, that's exactly why we all need the best possible batteries.

Curious about that "Dragonfly" label at the bottom of the first battery on the last pic -- I'd bet it's related to that company here: http://dragonflyenergy.com, which is also based on the Battleborn state.

I wonder what the relation is -- perhaps BB licenses their technology? Perhaps one is a spin-off from the other? If you learn anything in this regard, please let me know.

Cheers,
--
Vall.

theboondork

9/8/2017 07:06:04 pm

I was impressed with their packing, it looks simple but very effective. I was thinking of leaving the batteries setting in the bottom foam thingy just to help out with that sensitivity to shock problem

I've read that there is a connection between the two companies but I've never heard what that connection is

Tom

JWFitz

9/8/2017 07:39:13 pm

Thanks, I think. Counting down, retirement at the end of the year. Your travails with batteries has led to some reconsideration of my plans, I had intended to go with AGM's. I had largely ignored the information on LiPO's believing them to be too expensive. After further study, it looks like I will probably adjust the budget to accommodate LiPO's. I have been focusing on finding an affordable rig. The affordable limit just went down a bit, to budget in the longer life batteries. Better to do it while I have the cash rather then when cash could be short.

I enjoy your blog. Usually visit daily,

9/8/2017 08:52:55 pm

Thank you very much and welcome aboard JWFitz. I remember when I was counting down the days until I could go full time, and next month it will be two years that I've been living in the Arctic Fox and I still love every minute of it, well maybe not EVERY minute but almost every minute.

I did the same thing you're doing, I tried to buy everything I thought I would need when I went full-time before I sold my house and hit the road. One of the things I found out is you need far less than you think you will. I'll bet in two years I haven't worn half of the clothes I brought with me, or used half of the tools. I've been slowly getting rid of clothes, but I'm still hanging on to all of the tools.

Tom

Barney Ward

9/9/2017 04:58:45 pm

After reading about the new batts, I understand that both of my Morningstar controllers will charge the Lithium batteries just fine. That is good news for me. When my AGM batts die again, I will likely swap to a batt like yours and only use one battery. That would save me nearly a hundred pounds on the trailer tongue.
As far as shock on your batts goes, the springs on your truck and trailer pretty well do away with shock to the body of the camper. Toss happens but that is different than shock. Batts strapped down will not have impact type shock.

9/9/2017 08:36:15 pm

Since your AGM's are pretty new it should be a long time before you need new batteries, maybe by then the technology will be even better than it is today and the prices may be more in line with competing lead acid batteries.

That's what I hoped was going to happen when I needed new batteries but life is full of twists and turns and you never know what's going to happen, I guess that's what makes it interesting.

I keep going back and forth on where I want to put these batteries. I started out thinking I would put them right where the old batteries are, then I changed my mind and decided I would put them under the bed, and today I took some measurements on the cabling I would need for putting them under the bed and now I'm back to thinking about putting them where the old batteries are. Fortunately I've got time to figure it all out.

It looks like the weather guessers are having trouble figuring out where this hurricane is going to go, And it looks like Alabama is not out of the question. the way it looks to me all those South Floridians that are evacuating are evacuating right to where the hurricanes going. I'm glad I don't have to deal with that anymore.

Tom

Your comment will be posted after it is approved.

UPS came today, I wonder what's in the boxes

Leave a Reply.

Archives

CONTACT THEBOONDORK