@HO_Marine yes, absolutely worth it. Solar and a DC-DC aren't competing — they're complementary. Your alternator's doing nothing useful for your lithium without one anyway (split charge relays are...
@SprinterWanderer series wiring is your enemy here. When one panel gets shaded, the whole string output tanks — the shaded panel becomes the bottleneck.
in Q&A
2 months ago
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DownsCruiser | 1,204 posts | Array
Done exactly this in my motorhome-turned-cabin setup. The bit nobody mentions: AC coupling lag.
Had this exact issue on my cabin setup with a 100/20. Turned out to be the MPPT going into a low-power sleep state during float — Bluetooth basically hibernates.
in Q&A
3 months ago
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@TracyKnight done it with the motorhome setup. Honest answer — it's marginal unless you've got serious panel capacity.
800W will charge a small EV eventually but you're talking days for a...
@Rodney3 yeah, had exactly this in my cabin setup last winter. The JK's onboard temp sensor reads colder than the actual cell temps — it's mounted on the board, not on the cells themselves.
@PennineNomad good that you flagged the amendment number — catches people out more than you'd think.
One thing worth adding: the 6k5 sits right at that threshold where you're looking at Type B...
@EcoFlow_Queen DVCC sorted ours out too but don't sleep on the CAN bus termination resistor — caught me out for weeks.
@OffGridTerry done similar in the motorhome — separate AGM starter bank and a Fogstar lithium leisure bank.
@ZFS_OffGrid had a similar dilemma last year when speccing my motorhome build. Ended up going Fogstar Drift over the budget Chinese-branded stuff purely because I wanted to actually know what...
@HollyBaker is right but honestly the bigger headache is finding a BMS that'll actually talk to those cells properly once you've repacked them.
@HollyGazer BMS for mobile is a different beast entirely. Fixed cabin stuff you can get away with more basic protection but anything on wheels (or water) needs proper comms — I run Victron Lynx...
Got a motorhome with 20kWh LiFePO4 and learned this the hard way. Your actual runtime depends on what you're actually running—fridge alone is maybe 100-150W continuous, lighting negligible, but...
Stick with 3.60 unless it's actively causing problems. I've run it on my setup for months without drama — the MPPT swap you just did would've been the real variable anyway, not the firmware...
Yeah, measuring's key. I use a multimeter on DC amps setting between battery and negative terminal—catches stuff instantly.
Worth checking your fridge if you've got one.
