Battery management with shore power and solar?

[leeloo]

In my eyes you can`t get a setup more compact, lightweigt or cheaper, than with that solution:

Vanlife / Overlanding off-grid battery solution(s) with solar

We all know our discussions about the use of the Ecoflow River Pro (and similar products (goalzero, jackery, bluetti) as a electricity concept and battery setup in our rigs, to save weight and space. I did use this Setup for the last years, what was strong enough for fridge, notebook...

www.overlandbound.com

How to charge
Cigarette lighter socket (100 watts),
110/220v shore power (1200 watts),
Solar Charge Controller: 500 watts (11-60 V, 15 A)
optional: by 12v «dc dc booster» (example with 240 watts at xt60 Port)

What can it power up?
2x USB-C with 100 watts
several USB-A connections
4x 110v/220v sockets 1800-2400 Watt
12v cigarette lighter socket 12.6V 10A (126w Max)

And it is portable, easy to move between your vehicles, helps you too enywhere at an outage. Everything is working together, you have an excellent battery monitor and an app for getting control.

I did love my old battery DIY Project - out of 2011:

Today I cant do it better anymore, without to get much more bulky, heavy and expensive. But yes, probably - more powerful...

But yes, you can try. Please list here the used components, the size and the weight. Let me bet - your solution is heavyer, bulkier? Dont delviers the same?

trippin

my biggest gripe with the ecoflow is the connectors to charge. At both ends - xtc60 to cigarette lighter plug, they are crap. With the cigarette plug thing, you can cut it and put an anderson, or some other thing, but at the other end - nothing you can do about it.
Right now I would go for a victron power pack, in my opinion, you can customize what ever connections, it is more compact and offers more possibilities to hide it somewhere in the vehicle.

 

[OTH Overland]

We went with the Redarc Mananger 30 in the JK, expensive, but it is an all in one powerhouse that is super simple to install, 30 amps of DCDC charging, Shore power, and solar input. Can fully recharge my 100ah LiPo battery from the engine in a couple of hours, rather than most of a day when I was using a Jackery 1000 with cigarette lighter charging.
Mounted the unit and house battery where the rear seat used to be.

 

[James Deaton]

Battle born told me their batteries can be charged at 50A. Can you help me understand why you only chose a 30A model?

 

[shansonpac]

I have been really happy with this unit. I keep my Li Ion battery plugged in all the time when parked between trips and it switches to "storage" mode once the battery is fully charged. All of my controllers are Victron (solar, DC to DC, and AC) and separate. I have been very happy with their performance.

Blue Smart IP65 Charger (120V and 230V) - Victron Energy

The Blue Smart IP65 Charger is the new professional battery charger with built-in bluetooth. Find a Victron Energy dealer near you.

www.victronenergy.com

 

[OTH Overland]

As far as I know, Redarc does not make a manager unit larger than 30 amps, and we wanted the compatibility with the RedVision system. In addition we tend to travel on our trips daily so it's not often that the battery is below 50% except perhaps in winter, and it is usually fully charged in an hour or two of driving so do not see a need to push more than 30 amps further taxing the vehicle alternator. We used to carry two 100 watt portable solar panels, but on a standard trip they were never getting used. Now we only bring them to expos or when we plan to camp in place for more than two days. I did add a thermostatically controlled heating pad under the battery so it will remain above freezing when in use in winter time so that we can get a charge into it.

 

[James Deaton]

We’ve been checking these out:

Redarc 40A

BCDC Classic 40A In-vehicle DC Battery Charger

The REDARC BCDC1240D is a 12V, 40A In-vehicle DC to DC Battery Charger designed to keep your auxiliary battery charged when driving or with portable solar panels when parked.

www.redarcelectronics.com

Redarc 50A

BCDC Classic 50A In-vehicle DC Battery Charger

The REDARC BCDC1250D is a 12V, 50A In-vehicle DC to DC Battery Charger designed to keep your auxiliary battery charged when driving or with portable solar panels when parked.

www.redarcelectronics.com

 

[leeloo]

Alternator is a consideration, is it uprated ? with 25 amp redarc you can charge easy even big 200 amp packs. So how big is the pack you install ? Where is it ? For 50 amps you need thicker wires, ads cost, volume, you might need to run those wires in tight places.
I think 50 amp is overkill, but depends a lot on what vehicle you have ( actually the alternator rating and how much headroom it has ) and what you charge.
A big draw can kill an alternator quickly..

 

[James Deaton]

My 2019 Nissan Frontier has a 110A alternator.

Using a clamp on DC Ammeter I measured the current on all the positive wires going to the battery, at 3000 rpms, with the A/C on and the music blaring (so the amplifier and subwoofer were working).

The meter showed 32A.

My research shows this means there are 78A more current available from the alternator, assuming I want to run the alternator at 100%, which I don't for longevity sake.
I have 4AWG wire ordered and on the way, along with battery lugs and an Anderson SB120 connector kit and crimper.

*I keep mentioning a50A DC-DC charger because BattleBorn told me on the phone to charge the two 100Ah batteries at 50A with a shore power conv/charger or DC-DC charger.

James

 

[John and Mandi]

We also use a Blue Smart IP65. In our opinion it's more useful since we can also use it for any battery such as the van's etc.

 

[James Deaton]

That’s a cool little product. I have about a 25’ run from the truck battery under the hood to the trailer batteries in the very back of the trailer. Hence the 4AWG wire…

James