Lithium Conversion

Well the time finally came to upgrade to a lithium battery. The eight year old Trojan lead acid failed soon after being put on the battery tender for winter storage. 

It soon started making excessive gurgling sounds, was very thirsty for water, and had a steady voltage decline, all in the space of a few weeks. It did not take long for me to pull the plug…literally. I had been hoping to get at least one more season, but it did have a pretty good run. It’s demise provided a great excuse for a bit of a mod.

I was soon heavy into research mode on lithium batteries and their charging profiles. Lots of information out there, and like everything else, lots of opinion. Narrowed down my info sources to a few that I felt were really dialled in to the technology, and offered very helpful web sites or vids. One chap, an interesting guy in Australia, has a great YouTube channel (Off Grid Garage), and is very much into analysis and testing…right up my alley. He may not know everything, but he sure does work hard to validate his information, and figure out a solution.

The more I learned, the more I realized this mod might morph into something far larger than just a new battery. Drop in lithium replacements, using a simple charging kluge and a good monitor are a popular option, but given the considerable cost of the lithium battery, and its unique charging characteristics, I found I wanted a more robust and technically integrated solution. Dale’s requirements on the other hand were quite simple…make it so we don’t have to worry about battery capacity ever again.

I soon realized I wanted to move away from the Trimetric components and into the world of all things blue…Victron Blue.

Although the Trimetric controller can be adjusted to handle a lithium charge profile, the appeal of an integrated charging ecosystem, with robust monitoring capabilities, was just too hard to resist. The scope soon included the battery, converter/charger, solar controller, and of course a monitor. Big scope and price for sure, but a solid investment to serve our travels well.

Finding a battery manufacturer was the first order of business, and soon decided upon a Volthium battery. A Canadian company, with great specs, quality build components, and a solid warranty, sealed the deal. It was also good to know that Volthium is now the battery of choice for new Altos. Settled upon the Victron components required (desired), then set about planning and designing the work to be done.

I wanted to have a schematic to map all the various wiring connections, and I found a good online software program at diagrams.net. Very flexible, it allowed me to create a schematic that even incorporated scaled images of all the components in the charging system. This really helped ensure that my planned installation would not cause any China Syndrome style meltdowns.

a big help to help validate the connections

A common component of many RV and van conversions is the use of buss bars. These effectively move the battery terminals into the electrical system area, minimizing wire runs and centrally distributing the power to the system components. One could call it an enterprise service buss...IT folks will recognize this term. High quality bus bars and fuses quickly add up in cost, and this led me to look at the Victron Power In distributor. A simple mod to the part facilitates adding fuses, making it even more functional. Incorporating this was a no brainer.

The new battery is 200ah, in a 4D format. Considerably larger in capacity than the previous Group 31, and will fulfill Dale’s sole requirement perfectly! A new battery box is required, and a bit of work to re-jig the area where it will sit. More line items for a growing task list. 

As well, with the new charging components being installed, I knew a total re-wire of the electrical cubby would be worthwhile, and long overdue. I’ve seen the wire looms created at the factory, and although ideal for production assembly, the extra wire stuffed into the cubby makes quite the rats nest. Organizing the wire runs and clearing out the excess will free up a lot of space, and make it all nice and orderly.

a bit of a mess...if you like things orderly

Lots of planning and organizing over the winter…all between shovelling out from our many snowstorms. Fellow Alto owner Alex and I consumed a lot of coffee mulling over every aspect of the project. Theses sessions actually carried over from last summer, when we did a Victron component mod on their Alto. A lithium conversion is on the horizon for them as well, so lots of research and analysis to be shared. Great having another person to help sort through the details and provide another angle on solutions.

Brought the Alto home a bit early, as I wanted as much time as possible available before our first camping excursion. A wise move as this is a big project, with many many tasks. A long checklist was developed over the winter, and I was sure glad it was there to keep track of everything. Don’t want to delve too deeply into the minutia, but I started with getting the battery box installed.

The new box, very similar to the existing, only much longer, barely fit between the vertical support posts of the bike rack…we are talking margins of only a half inch on each side. The box is a tad wider, so the back support bracket had to move a bit as well. Naturally it was held in place by that damn windshield adhesive that SC is so fond of. Holds fast, but a pure bastard to remove anything from its tenacious grip.

needed to make a new bracket

just barely fit...but it did

The new battery fits the box well, with room to pack in some foam protection. I fabricated a hold down bracket to secure the battery from any bouncing around, and provide a little theft deterrence. 

Alex came over to help with the box install, we made some minor adjustments, and soon had all the pieces in place and bolted down solid. Only when we test fit the box top did we both realize that we had forgotten to run the two nylon straps under the box. Took everything totally apart again, positioned the straps, then bolted it all down again. Much faster install this time around though. Practice makes perfect I guess.

Once the outside work was done, I spent about three days sorting out the electrical cubby. Stripped out all the old components, then set about cleaning up the wiring. Not necessarily a required task, but I figured this should be the last time I’m poking around in there, may as well spend a little effort cutting excess wire. A serious puzzle to figure out how best to clean it up, and a lot of work.

Pulled the main distribution panel out of the wall, and brought it out enough to lay it on its face. This became the new distance for every wire...and I mean every wire! Started with the DC wires, unwrapped every loom to figure out what ideally belonged together, then worked them neatly to the panel. After much sorting of wires, I then cut the excess from each wire, crimped on new spades, and then re-attached to the panel. One connection at a time so there was no chance I would screw up a circuit. Ended up with a much nicer looking bundle of wire, and a pile of scrap.

no small task to get to this point

only a few left to shorten

getting there...lots more room now

nice!

The AC side was a brute, as the wire itself is much harder to work with. One wire at a time again, they all eventually became shorter and neater. I positioned the wire bundles to fold back into the cubby when the panel was put back.

pile of crap

Alex was over and we looked at the final positioning for the Victron components. The distributor was the one piece that had the most re-jigs over the course of planning, the final orientation not only providing good access to the fuses, but also was in the right position to let me re-use the main battery wires, those nice new ones I ran during the Trimetric install.

the bus bar component...with the fuse hack

Finished up most of the install and wiring, then Alex dropped by again to help run through the final check before we flipped the switch. All was fine...was here really any doubt?

I had asked Volthium Support for their setting recommendations for a Victron environment, and we started programming the components. It went smoothly for the most part, but we did run into an issue with a firmware upgrade. A little overnight research and a bunch of texts back and forth with Alex led to a plan to give it another shot. Alex suggested using only the iPhone to update, as this method had worked well for him. Sure enough, this solved the problem and the programming was soon finished. I plan to run with the initial Volthium values for a bit of a shakedown, then I will tweak them a bit based on the research I did regarding lithium charging profiles, and the distillation of that information into the parameter values I want to use. I think that will be a separate blog post, as this one is already long enough!

This was probably the biggest mod I have done to our Alto, in terms of research, analysis and pure roll up your sleeves effort. Certainly this sort of lithium conversion can be a lot simpler…and for many it is. For me though, the Alto is also one big mod project. Can I make a platform that is already fabulous, a little more fabulous…well yes I think I can.

Huge shout out to Alex for his analysis, alternatives perspectives, and get your hands dirty efforts. Can’t wait to dig into his Alto conversion. Awesome stuff.

Update: A companion post about the technical analysis behind the mod, and some thoughts on charging can be found here:   https://routealto80.blogspot.com/2023/10/lithium-conversionthe-nitty-gritty.html