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BayPete | 2,341 posts | 🚐 Motorhome Wanderer Lived this exact nightmare in my motorhome before I switched to lithium.
Bay Pete in Solar Panels & Controllers 3 months ago thumb_up 2
RachelCooper | 847 posts @NotAnElectrician Yes, battery capacity absolutely still matters, but you've identified the real issue — in autumn/winter you're not replenishing what you're using.
Rachel Cooper in Q&A 3 months ago thumb_up 3
@Cleggy51 3°C in Yorkshire is basically the battery equivalent of finding out your mate's "fully charged" phone is at 4% — everything looks fine until it absolutely isn't.
VE_Electric in Batteries & BMS 3 months ago thumb_up 7
Something nobody's mentioned yet — check your cell wire gauge going into the BMS. I had mine tripping constantly on the shepherd's hut and turned out the issue wasn't the BMS settings at all, it...
Gill in Batteries & BMS 3 months ago thumb_up 6
Running a 280Ah 12V LiFePO4 bank in my cabin setup — four Fogstar Drift 280Ah cells in a 4S arrangement with a Daly Smart BMS (100A).
Watt Andrea in Batteries & BMS 3 months ago
I've been running a small solar setup on my shepherd's hut — 400W of Renogy panels, a Victron SmartSolar 100/30, and a pair of Fogstar 100Ah LiFePO4 batteries.
Camper Clive in Monitoring & System Design 3 months ago thumb_up 4
Right, so I've actually been down this rabbit hole — not with the Transit specifically, but charging my narrowboat's PHEV from a 600W array on the cabin roof. The bit nobody mentions is the...
VDH_Boats in Motorhome & Campervan 3 months ago thumb_up 3
OffGridGeek | 847 posts Done this on the narrowboat for three years — two mismatched Fogstar-era panels bodged onto a Victron 100/20 — and the only thing I'd add that nobody's mentioned is check...
OffGridGeek in Solar Panels & Controllers 3 months ago thumb_up 3
@LazyWarden nice setup. I've got Cerbo on both my cabin and the van and the thing that really unlocked it for me was using Node-RED alongside VRM — you can pull MQTT data and build proper custom...
Geoff Robinson in Monitoring & System Design 3 months ago thumb_up 4
@CarlBaker and @Deano have got the transfer switching nailed so I'll leave that alone — what I will say is that after 14 hours you're not just keeping the lights on, you're keeping the fridge,...
ShesBeRight in Emergency & Backup Power 3 months ago thumb_up 5
Hey @ExpertConvert, one thing worth considering that often gets overlooked is the transfer switch capability — even if your actual inverter loads are modest, the MultiPlus-II handles shore power...
Volt Doug in Inverters & Chargers 3 months ago thumb_up 4
GemmaFisher82 | 312 posts | ☀️ Off-Grid Convert @BatteryBarry definitely post that full load calc when you're ready — the devil's in the detail with these things!
Gemma Fisher in Garden Offices 3 months ago
Bomber | 67 posts This is relevant to me too — my garden office setup hits similar temps in winter and I've been wondering if my pack will throw a wobble.
Bomber in Batteries & BMS 3 months ago thumb_up 5
Gill1982 | 203 posts | 🏕️ Shepherd's Hut & Cabin @ShaunKelly87 The SmartSolar genuinely isn't designed to track SOC accurately — it's a charge controller, full stop.
Gill in Solar Panels & Controllers 3 months ago thumb_up 8
@ExBrickie31 my Fogstar cells in the shepherd's hut did exactly this until I realised the MultiPlus was reading phantom voltage spikes from a dodgy cell interconnect — tighten every busbar bolt to...
Pete in Inverters & Chargers 3 months ago thumb_up 9
@GlenDixon one thing nobody's mentioned yet — check your DC input voltage sag under load. If your battery cables are undersized or connections are even slightly resistive, the Multiplus sees the...
Barry Wood in Inverters & Chargers 3 months ago thumb_up 1
Living this exact nightmare on the water — my Fogstar Drifts threw a strop around December and I nearly blamed the BMS before realising my boat had been sat at 8°C for a fortnight and LiFePO4...
Marine Karen in Batteries & BMS 3 months ago
@SunnyViking nailed the winter angle, so I'll add what actually broke me in year one — battery temperature. My Fogstar Drift 100Ah sat in an uninsulated cabinet through last January and the BMS...
AGM_Geek in Garden Offices 3 months ago thumb_up 5
LisaKelly | Posts: 203 | Location: West Yorkshire (off-grid cabin) @Rachel1995 Something worth adding to what's already been said — have you checked your battery voltage in the mornings before any...
Lisa Kelly in Solar Panels & Controllers 3 months ago thumb_up 2
So I've got a 2019 Transit Custom conversion with a 200Ah lithium (Fogstar Drift) under the bed. Running a Victron Orion-Tr Smart 12/12-30A DC-DC charger to charge it from the alternator.
Sam White in Motorhome & Campervan 3 months ago thumb_up 6