Battery Reference

Just for reference, I took a picture of the batteries before pulling it all apart. I put the batteries in the garage, wired them back together (series-parallel) and put a charger on them. There are also a couple of small gauge wires attached to the battery bank. On the lower left negative terminal is the temperature sensor and the battery voltage sense for the solar charge controller is upper left to lower right. I took the picture just in case someone else needs to re-install the batteries. After lifting these batteries out of the box and into the car makes the LiFePO⁴ batteries look better and better. Less than half the weight for twice the useable capacity.

I take the batteries out of the RV since there is a very small parasitic drain which I could fix with some longer cables. The Progressive Dynamics converter is just attached to the catastrophic fuse and it appears to always draw a little bit of power. I also have a dc-dc converter to provide 5v to the Raspberry Pi that is collecting data from the charge controller. Today (Thursday) we went back to finish the winterization by pumping RV antifreeze through the water lines and pump. To power the pump, I just brought the small lithium jumper box I use on the Ural. I removed the dc-dc converter for the Raspberry Pi and the TPMS booster that I had installed in the battery compartment. I am bringing the TPMS system from the truck/5th wheel to use on the new-to-us RV. I don’t remember seeing any TPMS sensors. I have eight sensors but I may need to order a couple more if the system allows different tire pressure on the trailer. I don’t think it does so I can’t monitor the tow dolly tires and the Prius rear tires.

I picked up some 2/0 AWG arc welding cable and connectors to install the Victron battery monitor in the coach. I had also picked up a hydraulic crimp tool to use instead of the hammer crimp tool I used on the 5th wheel installation. The tool came with a large selection of die sizes and according to a table on the Internet, I would use a 70 die for the 2/0 AWG cable.

After stripping the insulation, you insert the wire and pump the handle to apply 16 tons of pressure making a hexagonal crimp. The wire was still a little loose so I switched to a smaller die. The crimp was tight but it looked "over-crimped". The recommendation is to look for heavier copper lugs.

After crimping, I covered the lug with heat shrink tubing for a nice finished lug. I had purchased 3' of the 2/0 AWG cable and for now, installed a lug on both ends. Once I actually install the shunt and a negative bus bar, I just need to cut the two cables to length and install two more lugs. I just wanted to try out the crimp tool and it worked great. What is now shown is the anti-oxidant that is put onto the bare copper before being crimped.

Over three years of activity tracking on the Apple Watch got me a virtual award. Exceeding my move goal 1000 times. Granted, I never increased it from the default but I did exceed it by 2x, 3x, or 4x almost 400 times during that period.