Installing a WF-8955-AD-MBA converter in your RV to charge Lithium batteries
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 21 ก.ค. 2024
- I recently upgraded from two lead-acid batteries to two LiFePO4 batteries. The converter (WF-8955-PEC) in my 2017 trailer was not designed to charge lithium batteries so I had to replace it with a smart converter (WF-8955-AD) that can charge lithium batteries.
Swapping out lead-acid to LiFePO4 batteries video: • Swapping Out Lead Acid...
00:00 Preparations and considerations for replacing the converter
02:14 Removing the old converter
06:30 Installing the new converter
10:55 Confirming the new converter works
11:22 Closing comments
Items used in this installation:
Canada - WFCO WF-8955-AD-MBA Main Board Assembly - amzn.to/3S8lrA7
USA - WFCO WF-8955-AD-MBA Main Board Assembly - amzn.to/3tIQfy4
Canada - AOlithium 12V 100ah LiFePO4 Battery - amzn.to/47dw4WJ
USA - AOlithium 12V 100ah LiFePO4 Battery - aolithium.com/products/12v100...
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I searched everywhere for a video to swap out lead acid batteries with lithium ion, as well as the converter upgrade. I found many, but none of them were as detailed as yours. Thank you so much for taking the time to post these!
I'm glad you found them helpful. Happy camping!
Thanks! You made that easy.
Our family loves your videos, I think our 11 year old daughter might be you’re biggest fan. One tip on this project - use electrical tape to insure the orange marrette at the end of the black jumper wire is secure. Road vibration could cause it to fall off, which could cause a short or worse an electrical fire as the black wire is your hot (live) wire. Cheers!
I would add removal of the marette should the original wire from the converter is long enough.
I'm not sure why the marrette is on there. The old one had it on and the new one came like that with it on. I just installed the converter in the exact same manner as the original. Couldn't hurt though, to put some electrical tape over it to secure it better.
Looks like the two black wires are soldered together, you would have to de-solder to remove it completely (little bit more advanced on the DIY scale). Cheers
Love this how to video! I’ve been toying with the idea of upgrading batteries and the converter in our trailer. You have given me some confidence to achieve that! Thank you very much as always you guys rock! Happy campfires guys hopefully see you camping this yr. 🏕️
Awesome! Thank you!
Needed this! Thanks!
Thanks, very good video
That converter will show that it's charging in lithium mode when the charging LED is blue.
I also agree that it would be a good idea to wrap some electrical tape around that wire nut. One less thing to worry about while driving down the highway.
Nice video! 😊
I didn't know there were any lights on it. I'll have to take a better look once I get it out of storage.
The LED is easy to see on my 8735-AD converter but I'm not certain where yours is located. Also, the converter should be supplying 14.4 to 14.6 volts back to the battery when charging in lithium mode. My unit took a few charging cycles before it finally detected the lithium battery and switched over to the correct mode. It has been rock solid ever since. I hope this helps.@@CampingwiththeColes
And as a bonus, the wife's a nurse if you accidentally electrocute yourself lol! Just kidding, nicely done. We mentioned to you at the RV show that our lead acid battery died end of last season and so we might as well upgrade. Excited to get the trailer out of storage in a few weeks so we can check our own converter label and figure things out. Oh, and taking pics on projects like this is always such a good idea, we try to do that with EVERYTHING we unhook or take apart! Hopefully the converter on our '21 trailer will not need the converter upgrade, but now I think we could do it if need be with this video as a guide.
I like taking a pic incase I get a little mixed up. Since starting doing TH-cam videos, Cheryl tells me to record everything I do to the trailer. It just about triples the time it takes to do anything but it gives us content to put out in the off months and you wouldn't believe how many times I go back to my own videos to see how I did something LOL.
We'd LOVE to change to lithium, but it's to expensive for us right now, so when we get our trailer out of storage in a couple weeks, we are going to go with 4 6V batteries. That should give us all the power we need when we go boondocking.
GREAT video, and since we only live " down the road from you" maybe we'll see you in a campground sometime.
LiFePO4 batteries have really come down in price over the past year. You might want to look into it a little more. Lots of benefits over lead acid. If you see us at a campground, don't hesitate to say hi.
The Epoch 300AH is a screaming deal @ $999, so is the 460AH @ @ $1999
@@GooseTravels1 Plus the cost of the charger.....4-6V batteries comes to $950 and has 460 AH.........That's gonna work just fine for us.
@@CreativeCustomDesigns Its not 460ah, its half that if lead acid/agm. The 460 lithium is the full 100%
I am just curious, what were you guys charging the Lithium Batteries with before adding the converter ? Can you just drop a 12V charger on them and expect them to charge ?? or do you at least need some sort of AC-DC charger.
I actually added the converter at the same time as the batteries. But I also bought a battery charger to do a quick charge on the batteries if I need to. You can also use it if you haven't upgraded the converter to get a charge up to 100%. Here is the one I bought amzn.to/3IX2N8V
Great video, I see you have two lithium batteries on the tongue of your trailer, did it come with two batteries previously?
Did this change your tongue weight of your trailer ?
The trailer came with 1 lead acid battery. A few years ago I went to two lead acid batteries. Last fall I switched to 2 LiFePO4 batteries. The 2 LiFePO4 batteries and the metal battery box weigh less than the two lead acid batteries on their own. Here's the video where I swapped them out th-cam.com/video/pSdJeniyLNI/w-d-xo.html
I’d be interested to know what voltage you’re getting at the batteries when the new converter is charging. My trailer came with the WFCO “AD” (deck mount) converter installed by the factory but I discovered that the converter won’t switch to a lithium charging profile automatically because of voltage loss along the wires between the converter and the batteries. They are 6 AWG wires and about 25’ long. It looks like you have a longer run from your converter on the rear wall to your batteries on the A frame.
I did some screen recordings of the app when doing various things with the batteries. When the trailer is plugged into shore power, the batteries show that they are being charged at 13.36 volts. The batteries show that they are charging right up to 100%.
Have you tried depleting your lithium battery to less than 50%? That may help the converter kick into Boost Mode which may also trigger the lithium detection.
I brought both batteries down to 0% once and 45% once then back up to 100% plugged through the converter. The rest was just topping it off from around 90%. I expected it to show a higher charging voltage above 14V but it never did. The batteries still show that they are getting up to 100% though. They're not stopping at 80% or 85% like I thought they would at the lower voltage. Maybe I need to run them down a couple more times.
@@CampingwiththeColesVery interesting. I'll be curious to hear if you see the blue LED when you pull the trailer out of storage. Safe travels!
These things are far from automatic. Mine would never switch to lithium mode. Called and complained they sent me a resistor to plug in between two leads to trick it into switching. Still no blue light and too low of voltage
Hi Ben, Cheryl, and Jax.
Just curious on how long you can last on battery power?
I’m thinking about doing the same. Aiming to be able to last 4 or 5 days running the fridge and water heater (aka hot water heater 😆) on propane. I also have a Jackery type station for my small devices.
Any info would be greatly appreciated 🙏🏻
Thanks and keep up the awesome work. Hoping to run into you guys someday. 👍
We did 72 hours on battery at Killarney last fall. We have two 100ah AOlithium batteries. At the end of the 72 hours we still had 54% left in the batteries. Our fridge and water heater were both on propane. New trailers these days come with only 12V fridges but ours is older so it also works on propane. If it was just a 12V fridge (no propane option), I'm guessing we would lose a day or two.
@@CampingwiththeColes
Awesome! Thanks so much.
I’ll be running everything on propane for sure. At it’s only myself solo camping so I can be quite frugal with energy usage.
Again thanks 🙏🏻.
There was an extra wire with a Marr connector on the end attached to the power wire of the new converter. Does anyone know what that was for? Just curious.
I don't know. The old one and the new one both had that. I didn't have to attach any wires and put it on.
The wiring diagram states “Available As Branch Circuit”
So basically you could use it to power a new outlet, lights, etc.
@@adamsalton125 thanks for the info!
@@CampingwiththeColes
personally, I would disconnect it. There really is no place on a trailer/motorhome/boat for marrette connectors. I'm surprised that the previous one hadn't fallen off. Not very nice having a 120v live wire rolling around in your fuse/breaker box. Also I would be inclined to maybe once or twice a year take the cover off and check the tightness on your screw down connectors. They can get loose in bumpy conditions and the heat up or worse. Thanks for the video and was nice to meet you and Cheryl at the RV show in TO. Cheers!
Did you install a dc to dc charge controller between your truck and trailer?
No I didn't. Still not sure if I need one. Any thoughts?
nation rv training - tech Tip Tuesdays suggested “No” if you don’t change any circuitry😳 I am converting our WF8735P to a EF8752AD to support an LiFePO4 battery. My concern is if the battery gets to low could I overheat the power lead in the seven pin trailer lead. By the way, really enjoy your videos, and thank you for your fast response. What ever I find out, I will let you know.
Thank you for the video. I appreciate your channel. However, I am not ready to go with lithium ion batteries just yet. There are way too many fires caused by their failure for my taste.
8 didn't think anybody is putting Lithium Ion batteries in trailers anymore. We put in Lithium Iron Phosphate batteries (LiFePO4). They are much safer than lithium ion.
@@CampingwiththeColes Oh! I guess I misunderstood. I am not familiar with such batteries. Looks like I need to do some research huh?😀
Does your batteries also charge going down the rd
Yep
@@CampingwiththeColes did you have to change anything with your alternator feed
As far as im aware LifePO4 batteries need 14.4 volts to fully fully charge. Most of these converters that fit in the same spot don't provide that voltage. How did you achieve the voltage required for LifePo4
The converter is designed to detect the type of battery then provide the necessary voltage. After installation and use I determined that it wasn't detecting LiFePO4 and was only charging as if it was a lead acid battery. I contacted WFCO and found that I needed an update to the converter. The update had to be done manually at WFCO which means I had to uninstall the converter. In the USA they require you to send in the converter for the update, then they send it back. In Canada they just sent me a new updated converter and I didn't have to send the old one back. I installed the new updated converter and now it detects the LiFePO4 battery and charges it accordingly.
@@CampingwiththeColes So it outputs the 14v charge rate? I bought a updated converter that says lithium compatible but still had a 13.6v output regardless of the type. Only time i got 14.4 or higher was when i depleted the battery to 0. It says "multi-stage battery" which doesn't actually charge it to 100% and harms the battery cells internally. It's good if you have that 14.4 charge for sure on lithium.
@@CampingwiththeColes We recently switched our converter as well, and while it says it is charging, it takes longer than we expected.
How did you determine yours wasn't detecting the LifePo4 lithium batteries?
How did you contact WFCO about the exchange?
We are also in Canada, so would be same process as yours.
I bought the converter made to charge LiFePO4. It fit in the same spot.
@CampingwiththeColes We bought the same, the auto detect, but, it doesn't seem to be detecting our lithium batteries.
Was wondering how you determined that yours wasn't detecting in the end to contact WFCO?