Great video. Thank you! The only addition I would make is regarding AGMs. The battery manufacturers I've spoken with recommend that their batteries never be taken below 50% capacity. That means your 100AH Group 31 is is really 50AH usable. (That's the situation I'm in). If I were to replace it with a 100AH Lithium, I could use almost the entire 100AH, effectively providing twice the capacity in the same space, at less weight. For true apples/apples comparison, you have to effectively double the AGM price for equivalent Lithium. Now we're talking $700 for 100AH usable AGM (and twice the space) or $800-1000 for 100AH usable in a lithium such as the Battle Born. On the flipside, I can run my Northstar AGM under-hood, and I don't think I'd dare put a $1000 battleborn in that environment in the mountains of Utah when temps drop to -15F and our southern Utah trips can easily reach 130F under-hood in the summer.
This is the video I wish I had years ago. Masterfully explained from the ground up. Thank you Paul and team at EQUIPT for taking the time to explain this complicated topic in such a layman’s way. The best hour I’ll spend today was watching this. Phenomenal. Please keep these videos coming. ~ Eric
This is a very thorough, clear, and coherent overview of supplementary electrical systems for vehicles used for overlanding/camping. Thank you so much!
Our suggestion would be to connect a grey anderson coupler to the wiring from the inverter and then plug that into the grey anderson inputs on the power pack. Those grey couplers are rated to 50amps, should be plenty for most inverter applications.
Most folks are adding inverters for laptops and camera gear. Laptops can be used with DC power cables to avoid the inverter but there are a few things out there that need an AC plug. Pure sine is what you need for the larger scale inverters but an average laptop is somewhere 80-100w so you don't need a huge inverter for something relatively small like that. Many of us make a point to avoid AC accessories which means we can skip the inverter entirely.
@@Equipt1 yes, that is what I thought. I'm building my own overland vehicle and I in order to cut on extra weight (and expenses) I'm trying to avoid the inverter. To charge a laptop, say you have a DC25, how would you plug it in? Thanks
@@viajesjaipurofficial As far as I'm aware, most laptops use DC powered batteries, You should be able to find a DC specific charger cable. Take a look at the following link I found with a brief Google search. I would go this route if I needed a laptop on the road. This may not be the perfect solution for every laptop but it shows what's possible. diycamperconversion.com/12v-laptop-car-charger-powering-laptop-without-inverter/ Hope that helps!
Just a quick question - I have a dual battery set up with a dc-to-dc charger. How would/could you jump or charge your main battery from the house battery?
Great question! In this scenario, best practice would be to carry something like a jump pack as a back up plan, just in case the main battery gets killed. The National Luna DC systems are not designed to back feed voltage to the main battery under the hood. The circuitry does not allow for this. On the flipside, the National Luna solenoid systems are mechanical connections that allow for two way current transmission. Generally, lithium batteries that are designed for deep discharge and recharging (fridges, electrical accessories, lights, etc.) and not designed with cranking amps in mind. We would suggest something like the Noco Boost line of jump starters. Hope that helps clarify!
@senseidadproductions I have the same setup you are describing, utilizing a 40A DC>DC for my house battery. I ran an experiment, and it has worked out well for us, so it stayed. I ran secondary battery cables from both of my batteries to a Blue Sea 3-way cutoff switch. From this switch, there is also a third lead going to my winch. I utilize the switch for a few purposes: 1. I use it as a winch disconnect to prevent accidental or malicious triggering of the winch solenoid. 2. I can run the winch off the main battery as described in this video (preferred), or run it off the house battery in an emergency situation where I couldn't start the vehicle to utilize the alternator. 3. I can bridge the main and house batteries to self-jump start the vehicle should the starting battery get run down or damaged for some reason. I also carry a lithium jump pack, but have been in multiple situations where I've tried to help stranded people, and their starting battery was ran down to almost zero voltage (dome lights left on usually). In that case lithium jump packs don't recognize the battery, and the safety features prevent it from sending any amps. I've found lithium jump packs to be useless if the starting battery voltage is too low. If I'm going somewhere really remote, I'll also carry jumper cables for ultimate redundancy. Everything is a space and weight tradeoff. Hope this helps. I'm sure there are better ways to accomplish what we have, but it has worked awesome for us, and has saved us on a couple occasions. Cheers!
@@TRAILPOWER Thanks for the perfect explanation. I too have carried cables to temporarily connect the two batteries but your idea about a 3 way switch is much better. Thanks again!
LifePo4 will discharge just fine below 32F without hurting them. (specs on my renogy 170AH say -4F) You just don't charge them below freezing. But you can run a heating pad on them or use built in heating features on some batteries. Most DCDC chargers these days can restart the BMS on a lifepo4 batteries. (Redarc DCDC for example). I think it was a pretty big miss on your part to not mention the useable amp hours of AGM. Also, the explanation about voltage drop over state of charge was pretty jumbled. You used the word capacity, never mentioning voltage. Props for sitting down to try to explain all this stuff in one sitting, but it is kinda full of inaccuracies.
Thanks for the feedback, all great points. This is meant to be a general starting point for folks and from there, we can have more detailed conversations or they can begin doing their own research. As you know it's a never ending rabbit hole and it's impossible to cover everything in an hour long video, there's always more to cover. People need to do their own research into the specific products they plan on using and we can help with that.
Great presentation Paul. Is there ever a scenario where it may be appropriate to consider replacing a stock alternator with a more robust alternator that could provide greater power or efficiency? Thanks!
There is definitely a place for high output alternators. I've built several desert racer cars where it was absolutely key to get a high output alternator that could keep up with the massive and extended power draws and the abusive hot/dusty conditions, as well as shrinking the pulley to reduce the alternator working RPM when you're hanging out at high RPM most of the time.
If I wanted to get an electrical/solar system installed on a truck with a camper, who would you recommend going to for the install and would the NL power packs be one of the best ways to go about it?
@@arturv83 I wouldn't. That system seems so antiquated. I personally would build something in from scratch and if I wanted an all in one pre built system I would look at renogy or blue yeti or something like that. It's really not that difficult to buy the individual components you want and build a system in to your rig. 100ah liFePO4 battery, dc to dc charger, some usb and 12v ports, a mppt solar charge controller, some fuses and terminal blocks connectors etc, and a solar panel or two. Best of the best in the mobile solar world for components is Victron, best batteries are battleborn and lithionics, best budget brand imo is renogy.
