wired for solar...sorta! (MC4s on the roof)

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Originally posted by podwerkz

Interesting read, most of that info I had already seen, but more info is good.

The WFCO is only bringing the Battle Born battery up to about 13.6 or so, which is of course, fine for lead acid.  I hope and assume that will be enough for my use, for now, but we will see once I get the solar controller and panels installed. 

I say '13.6 or so', because FOUR digital meters read slightly differently, varying from 13.60 to 13.78...its like having four watches that all read different times. The only Fluke I have does not display tenths. Bummer.   
Yeah I bought this BB battery for another use, long before I was even looking for a small camp trailer, I'm just thinking since I have it, I'd like to use it there. But I'm not 'stuck' with it, I can always swap in the stock Interstate battery if this 'upgrade' does not work well.

Thinking about all the work moving the BB battery inside the pod, re-routing all the cables, installing a LI compatible converter upgrade, and then 'babysitting' the BB battery as far as temps and SoC....plus the investment in the battery itself...makes my head spin! Adding water to the old-school Interstate battery a few times a year does not seem so bad after all, even with less amp-hours available.

If by some turn of bad luck, if I leave the expensive BattleBorn in the box on the trailer tongue, and someone steals it, jeeze. A lot of expense to me, for some tweaker/thief to get $5 at the local salvage yard!

In fact, I have a few PWM and MPPT solar controllers (for lead acid batteries) on hand already, and using one for the roof panel and one for the portable panel will greatly simplify things. 

I may end up going that route, for now. 

You won't need to worry about the Li battery temp if you have it inside the trailer. Just disconnect any loads and charge sources from it while you're in cold storage. One nice thing about Li is that you can leave it at just about any SOC while in storage. Do that with PbA and its a boat anchor. When you want to use it just heat up the trailer a bit before charging the battery. 

Re watching out for SOC, the upper end will take care of itself if you have your controller set around 14.2 or 14.4. Not sure you need to change from the WFCO controller. The only time it might be a problem is if you were relying on the generator rather than solar for charging while boondocking.  In that rare event you could also charge it from your tow vehicle which would give you 14.4V max. 

You probably would want to have your controller keep an eye on the low side SOC so you don't have to fret about that. It looks like the Relogy controller has an LV alarm function but its set at 11.1 for PbA, too low for your Li battery. Not sure if you can adjust that. 