Boondocking With Lithium Batteries: Can we do it?
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 14 ต.ค. 2024
- Welcome to Campin with the Confers! We're thrilled to announce that we've been selected as Follow The Sun ambassadors by SoftStartRV, makers of the innovative all-in-one solar package. Join us on our journey as we put this cutting-edge technology to the test!
SoftStartRV has equipped our Grand Design RV with a SoftStartRVSolar package which includes top-of-the-line components by Renogy, including an inverter, lithium batteries, SoftStartUP and solar panels, allowing us to explore the great outdoors while boondocking and dry camping off the grid. As novice solar enthusiasts, we're excited to learn alongside you about how solar energy works and what it can power.
Throughout our adventures, we'll share our experiences and discoveries. Can this all-in-one solar package provide enough power for our RV's needs? What appliances can we run, and for how long? Together, we'll uncover the ins and outs of solar energy and its practical applications in RV living.
In this video we share the partial installation with Mike Sokol @RVelectricity , and our boondocking experience at @HarvestHosts (affiliate link with discount below!) Benton Family Farm, testing out our lithium batteries. Can we make a cup of coffee off grid? That is the big question!
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We hope you enjoy this video and that it inspires you to keep your adventures going! Happy camping and safe travels from our RV family to yours! Thanks for watching!
✌🏼Mike and Shelley💙
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Would you boondock on a farm? How do you feel about solar? We are going to give it a try!
If I could boondock on a farm..I think I would enjoy it and I'm all about Solar anything ❤🙂
Glad you met up with Mike Sokol. He's brilliant. His trailer has our power system. Enjoy your boondocking adventures!
Yes, we’re glad we met Mike too. He is a hoot to hang out with and knows just about everything when it comes to RV solar.
Sounds like you had a great birthday Shelly and this harvest host was a great start so many cute animals. I agree I never really knew the difference between and Llama and an Alpaca either Your donkey farm animal conversation cracked me up.. Sweet place safe travels!
It was a really nice harvest host. The animals were a plus but the property was nice for our walks too
We will be following you on this mission! We also know nothing about solar, it confuses the heck out of us!! We have a suitcase panel but have never had to learn how to use it or if we have to have a separate inverter. Thanks for sharing! Looking forward to learning with you!
It’s going to be an adventure for sure. Thanks for following along with us.
I'd run the fridge on propane while dry camping/boondocking. You probaly have 2 30lb bottles, so it would run for weeks off that. Same with the water heater. The portable panels work really well since you can move them throughout the day. Unless you have a roof full of panels, you'll likely find the portables working as good or better than the roof mounted ones, especially when the sun is not at its peak, mornings, evenings, etc.
I agree on the propane and we will be doing that from now on. We wanted to see what it could and couldn’t do. Question about the portable panels. I have a 200 watt and a 100 watt that I can hookup with their own charge controllers built in. The factory plug on my rig that receives the portables has a 10 amp inline fuse. I assume those two panels will blow that. Can I just put a new line in with a bigger fuse to handle the panels?
I will be looking forward to your solar installation and how it goes. As some comments have said already I also don't really understand inverter will solar.
We will be putting out a new video each month with our experiences and upgrades so stick around and we can all see how it turns out together.
Happy birthday 🎊
Thank you so much! 😊
Eager to see how everything will come together. WE know nothing about solar. I've bugged the cox's a bunch of times though about generators and solar. We've also used the every plate camping. Sometimes I switch up the companies to keep getting a discount
It’s slowly coming together. We will see how it goes. Mike and Barry have answered a lot on my questions too.
Happy Belated Birthday!
Thank you!!
We are just learning about this too. Fun drone work! Oh no. Hopefully, your batteries are ok. We have been looking into the suitcase solar panels too. Coffee is Sooo important! What a learning curve. Thank you for showing us the process. -Michelle
It is a learning curve for sure. Stick around though. There is more to come. We can all learn together.
Thank you for this video.
I’m getting ready to install Soft Starts in my AC units.
I’m hoping a Honda 2200 genny will get one started.
I have the ‘23 260RD and am looking at solar options. Any information on make, model of inverter, solar panels etc and cost would be appreciated.
Thank you.
All of our components are from Renogy. We have the 3000watt inverter and 2 100 amp hr batteries. Once we have everything complete we will have a link to a package that will have everything you need
@@campinwiththeconfers thank you.
Your water heater runs on propane and 12v, no need for inverter. You must have a propane/110v ac fridge. Maybe a 3 way, but doubt it. So to run fridge on 110v, you need the inverter. I would run on propane when boondocking though, more economic. I would put 600 watts at least of solar on top, and get a Expion 360ah Lithium cube, maybe 2 if you want to run the a/c for a couple of hours. I am going to put 760 watts of solar on the roof and 1080ah of lithium so I can boondock for 2 week or so. I won’t run out of power but I only have to come in to dump tanks, fill water, grocery, and laundry at a campground maybe once every 2 weeks. Great video!
We are just getting our setup started. We will probably expand it once we figure what we can (and can’t) do
Having problems hooking up the 5th wheel hitch. Do you back it up into the hitch slow or pretty quick.? It seems the hitch takes jarring when hooking up? I don’t like that! Any pointers is appreciated. It may take me 20 min to get it hooked up. It gets frustrating.
We don’t have the 5th wheel anymore, we swapped it out for a gooseneck. When we had the 5th wheel I remember we had to hit it with some force to get it to lock into place.
After hearing the bison, bears and dork conversation 😂😂..I had a hard time putting my focus back on the lithium batteries 😂😂..But I did get back on track.. Looks like those lithium batteries came through in the end..Two questions..1) Did Mr. Mike buy the giant lighter❓😂😂 and 2) Is there something in the water ❓ I've noticed a lot of your fellow TH-camrs talking to animals too(En Route with Chuck and Cherie)(Glam Fam Campers)😂😂🤣🤣.. I'll be on the lookout for you final review of the lithium batteries 👋🏾♥️🙂
lol. No he did not get the lighter and Mike is always talking to the animals lol. He’s hoping that one day one of them might talk back.
Wow, I have 2023 260rd, our cabinets go to the ceiling and I have the 12v compressor fridge. My wife may like your layout. She can’t reach the 2nd and 3rd shelf above the sink. Also you have a cabinet between the MW and cabs above the sink. We have a wine rack. My wife wants me to build a cabinet there. Ours came with 380w solar panel to support the 88ah battery to run the fridge. But my solar charger crapped out on me. Not sure yet what’s up with that, but my battery ran below 50%. So now my battery won’t charge past 71%. So I have a bad cell. As I stated on a previous comment I want to install some Lithium. I guess this will give me the authorization from the wife to spend that money.
There you have it. Get the new batteries before she changes her mind!!
We upgraded our battery, but haven't added any extra solar capabilities. Perhaps someday.
We did discover that our battery lasts about 48 hours to run fridge. My spouse inadvertently bumped the battery disconnect switch while rummaging around in the front bay. We were so relieved that the issue was just a flip of a switch!
It’s a process. One step at a time makes it a little easier on the wallet for sure.
I can't find a single valid reason to stay with lead acid. Lithium and solar has been a literal game changer. There's no comparison. Spend the money and cry once. You'll be glad you did.
Agreed. Now we just have to learn how everything works and how long we can go. A new learning curve for us but I think it’s going to open some new boondocking doors for us for sure.
Alpaca farmers have Llamas to protect them. Llamas will kick and stomp a coyote trying the get an Alpaca. The farmers also use Great Pyrenees dogs to protect herds.
I don’t know alpacas would protect the lamas. I have heard donkey’s will do the same thing.
@@campinwiththeconfers you got it backwards. Llamas protect the alpacas. Llama’s are very protective, they despise coyotes but the are smart enough to know the difference between a farm dog and a coyote. So, they don’t mind Great Pyrenees dogs around.
You will find voltage is not a good indicator for LI batteries. They have a flat discharge curve unlike AGM. Most likely they will add a shunt for amps in and amps out. I have no doubt you will do a watts audit and figure how many watts each device uses and then plan and build accordingly. As for AC with solar, I would leave that off the list, too much power even with a soft start. Most install the soft start to reduce the generator needed to a smaller unit. Enjoy the learning curve.
It’s been fun so far. We have learned a lot but still have a ton to figure out. Thanks for the comment and for watching. If you have any tips or tricks for us we will take all the help we can get.
I love black coffee on a fireplace old fashioned way what about you
I like the cowboy coffee too.
Same here
coffee maker? build a fire and a $5.00 percolator from a dollar store and make some damn coffee, dont reckon that the people that settled the land that you are on were worried about solar panels and pwer inverters.
BE RESOURCEFUL
I do love some cowboy coffee but no fires at the harvest host. We were really just trying to test the batteries to see what all we can do with them.
If you have AGM or lead acid batteries, 10.4v you are dead and probably killed some cells. If lithium, it shut off before damage. That’s what the BMG does.
We are lithium now. Just learning all the settings for the inverter and charge controller. I’m pretty sure we have them all set correctly now.
B
4
I would have stuck with lead acid batteries since they are not in the living space. They are cheaper, made to function in cold weather and if in a place where the gases they give off are not in a habitable space, there's no problem. LIPO batteries are not magic. They are more expensive but are sealed so can run indoors without being dangerous.
No battery functions as well in below freezing temps but YOU SHOULD NOT EVEN USE/RUN LITHIUM BATTERIES IN BELOW FREEZING TEMPS IF THEY ARE NOT THE NEWER TYPE (even more expensive) WHICH HAS BUILT IN HEATING SYSTEM WHERE IT WILL WARM ITSELF UP SOME WITH IT'S OWN ENERGY (if needed).
I would also consider getting a DC to DC charger installed so your battery bank will charge from your alternator while driving.
Ours do have the self warmers in them. It’s all new to us so we are learning as we go.