LITHIUM POSITIVES
After nine months of living in our van full-time,
we’d had no issues with our lithium setup, and
we’ve since discovered that the scenario we
described above was not battery-related, but
rather a wiring issue. Let me explain…
We were parked at an RV-friendly site in
outback Queensland. It was the middle of the
night, so we couldn’t just whip out the generator
and turn it on to revive our power source.
So in the darkness, stressed and confused, we
sought what little sleep we could and at the
break of day woke the kids and drove onto a
roadside stop where we could run the generator
and hopefully make some calls for help.
Being a Sunday, though, we couldn’t find much
except for what the internet was telling us. We
were advised to disconnect the sensors, test
the voltage of each battery to determine if they
were shutting down as a safety mechanism
due to one of the batteries being faulty, then
reconnect all the sensors and charge up to 100
per cent and see how they go.
Luckily for us, Wayne carries a voltage tester,
so he was able to carry this out himself. We
noted that all the batteries were registering
the same voltage and appeared to be fine
after being fully charged with the generator.
When we finally were able to get someone on
the phone, we were told that it was most likely
due to the fact we had been free-camping for
a whole month and not allowed the batteries
a ‘decent’ charge up on 240V power (although
we had almost full charge via solar and/or
generator every night during that period. We
couldn’t see how the charge from a generator
or solar was considered ‘inferior’. To us, full
charge was full charge, regardless of the
means of input.
So off we went to a powered site to allow the
batteries a solid 240V charge. Our van was
plugged in for three nights.
DEJA VU
Just shy of four weeks later, in another
unpowered campsite, we awoke in the middle
of the night to the same alarm. This time, the
voltage dropped even faster and within half
an hour the power had completely shut off.
We were stressed out, tired, and confused
once again. The only positive aspect was that
at least it was night time so our compressor
fridge was still able to stay cold.
Wayne inspects the BMS
– what could the problem be?
50 \