2021 View / Navion Battle Born Install Report

[Ontario Don]

Hello – I hope all is well in everyone’s Winnebago World.

A while back I reported that we were waiting for our new View to be delivered... well, after 10 months we finally got it mid September. We are quite pleased, as the delivery inspection did not reveal any big issues and the fit and finish is not too bad. Some rushed carpentry here and there, but nothing that can’t be fixed in some spare time.

One of the first things we did was replace the factory AGM batteries with a couple of Battle Born 100 AH batteries. The process was pretty straightforward, but I do have a couple of tips to pass on.

The Battle Borns sit about ½” taller than the factory batteries, so I had to flip the retention brackets top to bottom to make them work. There is lots of room in the step well battery box, and was happy to see that Winnebago has left a good deal of slack on the cables to allow for some tugging and repositioning here and there. Of more significant interest, the as-installed parallel cables were too short. Because of the different geometry in the location of the terminal posts on the Battle Borns, the parallel cables were short by a frustrating couple of inches. Halfway into the job I had to drop tools and head out to my friendly neighbourhood off-grid enterprise and buy some new ones. I picked up some 18” 2/0 cables and continued on with no other surprises.

The reprogramming of the Xantrex XC inverter / charger and Zamp solar controller was
straightforward, and all appears to be working just fine. The batteries seem to be resting comfortably at 13.4 volts, which is where Battle Born told me they like to sit.

I have not installed my Amp – L – Start chassis battery maintainer yet, so have not seen the stock Chargemate Pro that Winnebago has included to ensure the chassis alternator is taken care of while charging the LiFePo4 batteries. I will drop a post when I get that done. Not sure if that will be this year; things seem to be turning to Fall up here quickly. I also have not installed my Victron 712 battery monitor, as I am giving some thought as to where to mount the shunt assembly in the step well battery box. I think I am going to use a mini bus-bar to collect the negative cables, instead of trying to stack them on the shunt (there are three of them). After our first trip I can see where that monitor would be handy to have with these batteries, as all reports seem to be correct; you can’t really tell where the batteries are sitting just by looking at the resting voltage.

That’s all for now, everyone keep safe out there.

Cheers!