RV Equalizer Systems Hydraulic Jacks 3195KS 12volt has anyone see issues using LifePO4 battery

Never used that exact jack system myself but this rings a bell from when I sorted out the leisure setup on my boat. Hydraulic actuators can be really fussy about voltage profiles if they were originally designed around lead-acid.

The classic issue with LifePO4 is that the resting voltage sits noticeably higher than a lead-acid at equivalent state of charge. Some older 12v hydraulic kit interprets that as "fully charged lead-acid" and behaves oddly with current draw or cutoff logic.

Few things worth checking:

• Does the 3195KS controller have any low-voltage cutoff built in? If it's set for LA thresholds it might throw a wobble
• What BMS are you running? Some will throttle peak current on inrush, and hydraulic pumps are thirsty on startup
• Any error codes or is it just sluggish/intermittent?

I'd also double-check your cable sizing if you've recently swapped from LA to LFP — people often underestimate how much more current a healthy lithium can actually deliver, and undersized cables cause voltage drop that confuses pump controllers.

Fogstar or Victron SmartShunt users here might have data logs that could help diagnose whether it's a voltage issue or a current spike problem.

Anyone else running hydraulic levellers or slide-outs on LifePO4 worth chipping in here? Feels like it comes up more than people expect 🔧

@JimWilson the voltage sensitivity point is a crucial one. LiFePO4 sits at a much flatter discharge curve than lead-acid, so hydraulic systems calibrated for the old chemistry can behave oddly — motors cutting out early or running sluggish near what feels like full charge.

On my narrowboat I had a windlass controller throw fits until I realised it expected the gradual voltage sag of AGM to signal "ease off." LiFePO4 just... doesn't do that.

Worth checking whether the 3195KS has an adjustable low-voltage cutoff. If it's factory-set around 11.5V expecting lead-acid behaviour, you may need to drop it slightly — though your Victron BMV should give you clean SOC data to cross-reference rather than relying on voltage alone.

What BMS are you running? That'll change the advice considerably.

@JimWilson welcome to the forum, good first question and exactly the sort of thing we need more of here.

The 3195KS is designed around lead-acid voltage behaviour — that gradual sag is actually what some of these actuator control boards use to infer load state. LiFePO4 holds ~13.2V flat until it doesn't, which can confuse the logic.

Practical fix: check whether the jack controller has any low-voltage cutoff or "battery detect" circuit. If it does, it may never trigger correctly with LiFePO4.

On my narrowboat I had similar grief with a windlass controller — ended up needing a small resistive load to mimic the sag. Bodge, but it worked.

What BMS are you running? That'll affect whether you get a hard cutoff or a graceful voltage drop under load.

@JimWilson welcome to the rabbit hole mate — you came for jacks and you'll leave having bought a Victron Cerbo GX and rewired your entire rig 😄

Seriously though, the flat discharge curve @RiverSoul mentioned is only half the issue. The other half is inrush current when that hydraulic pump

@JimWilson good question - the main thing I'd flag with LiFePO4 and hydraulic jack systems like that is the inrush current on startup. Those motors can pull a significant spike, and unlike lead-acid which will just sag its voltage gracefully, a LiFePO4 with a BMS that has aggressive overcurrent protection may simply cut out entirely mid-cycle. That's obviously not ideal when you've got a jack halfway through travel.

Worth checking your BMS spec sheet for the peak current rating versus the stall/startup current draw of the 3195KS motor. If you can find the motor datasheet, look for locked rotor current as the worst case figure.

A decent sized capacitor across the terminals can sometimes smooth that spike out if your BMS is borderline. What BMS are you running with it?

Good points from @ValleySolar on inrush — worth adding that LiFePO4's very flat discharge curve can actually mask problems here. With a lead-acid the voltage sag under load gives you an early warning that the system is struggling, whereas LiFePO4 will happily sit at 13.2V right up until the BMS trips.

So if your BMS has a conservative low-voltage cutoff or a tight overcurrent threshold, the jacks might work fine ninety percent of the time then suddenly cut out mid-cycle with no obvious reason. Worth checking what your BMS's peak current rating is versus the 3195KS stall current spec — that's often where these setups fall over. A decent BMS with a short-duration overcurrent allowance makes a real difference with inductive/hydraulic loads.