Hi. When my house batteries died, I decided to upgrade to lithium batteries for longevity. I invested on a decent battery and a new solar charger that is compatible with lithium. I didn’t know at the time that lithium batteries are not powerful enough to start the generator. I cannot return the battery so I am stuck with it now. I learned that it is possible to connect the generator to a battery of its own. I think that’s a good solution but I’m not sure if I can pull it off. I’m not technically savvy when it comes to electronics. I found the wiring diagram but couldn’t make anything out of it. Has anybody tried this before? I would appreciate a walk-through as to how to disconnect the generator from the house batteries, attach it to a new one, and later connect them to the house batteries for charging purposes.
You'll need to provide more details to get any useful feedback - such as the battery you installed, generator, etc.
In our 2021 View 24D, we have two Lithionics 125Ah Group 31 batteries installed in parallel. I've started our Onan QD 3200 diesel generator in subfreezing temperatures with less than 15% charge on the two batteries - and suspect the generator would start with only one battery turned on.
Assuming everything is wired properly and the lithium battery has some charge in it, it should be able to provide enough power to start a generator.
Though more details would be needed to understand what's happening in your RV.
I have one 100amp lithium and onan marquis 7000 gas. I think this is a weak setup. Not sure adding a second battery will solve the issue as the generator is just too big.
I checked the specs for our Lithionics batteries. Each battery can provide a surge of up to 400A for no more than 30sec. With two batteries, our batteries can provide surge current of up to 800A for up to 30 sec.
Do you know the surge discharge current spec for your 100A battery?
Do you know the starting amps required for your generator?
If you have a 7000 generator - seems like a single 100Ah battery won't provide you very much power. Adding a second battery might solve the generator startup problem - and also double the amount of power you have available for boondocking (without running air conditioners).
Check in your generator manual to determine starting amperage required for your genset. A 100ah LFP with 100amp bms can should be enough to start most gasoline or propane genset. Bigger gensets sometimes have their own Fla starting battery with higher CCA than lithium.
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Jim. Former, 2021b Micro Minnie 2108DS
Medically grounded, but still lurking the Micro Minnie Discussions
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