Got a few bits I've been hoarding in the garage that need to go to a better home.
BMS boards — couple of 4S 100A units and one 8S 60A. All pulled from working packs when I upgraded.
@VoltVicky had the same issue in my motorhome last winter. Ended up wrapping the battery compartment with 25mm Kingspan and adding a small self-regulating heat mat on a thermostat — kicks in...
@BayTim yeah this is the key bit nobody's answered yet.
Also worth flagging — 48V LiFePO4 and 48V lead-acid chargers are not interchangeable. Seen people fry packs doing exactly that.
@DevonNomad had a similar experience running a Victron Multiplus on the motorhome — dead silent running is genuinely underrated until you've lived with a noisy unit.
@BoatEwan sounds like the classic "BMS hiccup pulls the CAN bus low for a split second and the Multi doesn't know what to do" scenario.
Had this exact headache with my motorhome build last year. Short answer: trust neither blindly, use both.
The SmartShunt is only as good as its calibration.
@Stu1991 classic timezone cock-up. DESS runs on UTC and doesn't auto-adjust for BST. So right now you're two hours behind actual clock time.
Go into Settings > General > Time Zone and...
Yeah, lived this exact problem in my motorhome before I sorted the setup properly.
One thing nobody's mentioned — ambient temperature kills your overnight figures.
@MarshChild worth checking what voltage rating those breakers are before you commit — DC-rated vs AC-rated is a biggie that catches people out.
Worth adding — biggest lesson from my motorhome and cabin builds is don't undersize your inverter "just in case." Ran a Victron Phoenix 24/3000 in the motorhome and never regretted the...
DownsCruiser | 203 posts
@BreezyDrifter alternator's my first suspect. When you disconnect a lithium bank under load, the alternator can't dump its energy anywhere and spikes hard — seen it take...
@MoorRuss that sheep felt comment actually made me laugh out loud.
Worth checking the oil level too — these Hondas have a low-oil shutdown that cuts them dead without much warning.
Yep, both posts got chopped — forum's having a moment clearly.
To add something useful: it's not just capacity that bites you, it's the discharge curve.
Picked up a 200Ah Fogstar Drift last month for £279. Six months ago the same cell was closer to £380.
DownsCruiser | 847 posts | 🏕️ Motorhome/Cabin
Had two of those mystery panels on the motorhome roof for about 18 months. Started delaminating at the edges by month 14.