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Adventure Driven's photos and videos of their M1079

mkcoen

mkcoen

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Video and article are both great Seth!

I got back from doing the Idaho Backcountry Discovery Route last week. A warm shower would have been nice along the way.
 
mkcoen

mkcoen

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Adventure Driven said:
Did u drive your truck? And yes a shower is so nice to have after a long day
Click to expand...
No I took my POV. From my place to Canada and back was 5495 miles. While the BDR was about 20mph the rest of the trip was at around 80mph. Plus there were spots that it wouldn't have fit. We were trimming trees just to get my RTT past so no chance the LMTV would have without a chainsaw. Plus there were some pretty tight spots with oncoming traffic that would have required someone backing up about a mile.

Road to Burnt Knob.jpg
 
Mos68x

Mos68x

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Holy crap! Although I love the idea of a light battery setup to replace mine, I just can’t even come close to justifying $1k per battery to replace mine. Right now I have about 7.5kwh worth of battery power and that would cost me over $6k, and that’s not even considering the fact that my battery power is only about half of what I want before I leave for my travels.
 
Jbulach

Jbulach

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Mos68x said:
Holy crap! Although I love the idea of a light battery setup to replace mine, I just can’t even come close to justifying $1k per battery to replace mine. Right now I have about 7.5kwh worth of battery power and that would cost me over $6k, and that’s not even considering the fact that my battery power is only about half of what I want before I leave for my travels.
Click to expand...

I hear yah, they’ve been on my “dream” list for a long time.
It’s been a long time since I researched the lithium batteries but the weight was only one selling point. My memory might be off but I think the cycle life was around 10x a flooded acid battery. So.. if true, and you manage them correctly and don’t kill them prematurely, the price would be about a wash. I think the reserve capacity was also greater, that you supposedly can get away with around a 1/3 less batteries due to lower acceptable discharge voltage. And I think they can handle a lot higher discharge rate.
 
A

Aernan

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Virgin lead in a lead acid gets you 300 cycles. Most lithiums get 3000 cycles and you can fully cycle the lithiums.

I like the ability to drop them into an existing lead acid solution. When I get the box on the back I will have a sizable lithium bank. I plan on back charging my lead acid batteries and only using them to start the truck and run things in the cab. If you plan on doing house batteries you would want a BMS.

The best use for this large pack would be running a high power amplifier or an inverter from the starting battery. Or if you have retrofitted a large electric winch it would allow you winch for a short distance with the motor off.
 
A

Aernan

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I have been studying up on electrical stuff. If you get a used tesla battery you can get 5.2 kw for ~1300. To contrast those drop in replacement lithium are 100 amp hour * 12 v = 1200 watt hours so 1.2 kw for $1000.

$1300 / 5300 watt/hour = 0.245 = $0.25 watt/hour
$1000 / 1200 watt/hour = 0.83 = $0.83 watt/hour

I may not end up using a tesla battery. In that case I would buy LiPo or LiFePo4 cells and make a giant pack. It's costly but most likely cheaper than the battleborn battery. Those batteries are ideal when you don't want to add a smart charger. Perfect for direct replacement of existing lead acid.
 
A

Aernan

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The tesla pack is 24V nominal. You can't use it to replace your starting batteries unless you want to do some kind of 24 -> 12V Dc:DC step down. For my application I want/need 48v DC so I can run a DC powered air conditioner. From that single voltage I can generate 110 AC, 24v DC, 12v DC or whatever I need. With the 24V DC I could back charge the main starting battery pack. I also may opt to buy a 110v AC noco charger and simply charge the starting pack that way. It ensures that power only goes one way.

It is by no means and apples to apples comparison. If you need starting batteries and you are not putting a living space in the back the battleborn would be ideal because they are a simple drop in replacement.
 
O

Ohiobenz

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Aernan said:
The tesla pack is 24V nominal. You can't use it to replace your starting batteries unless you want to do some kind of 24 -> 12V Dc:DC step down. For my application I want/need 48v DC so I can run a DC powered air conditioner. From that single voltage I can generate 110 AC, 24v DC, 12v DC or whatever I need. With the 24V DC I could back charge the main starting battery pack. I also may opt to buy a 110v AC noco charger and simply charge the starting pack that way. It ensures that power only goes one way.

It is by no means and apples to apples comparison. If you need starting batteries and you are not putting a living space in the back the battleborn would be ideal because they are a simple drop in replacement.
Click to expand...
So if the system has a smart VSR between the standard 4x12-24V battery bank, and the Tesla 24V battery it would keep both banks charged via alternator when driving, solar when parked, and 28V generator as backup, right?
So then what happens if the whole system has held charge, the batteries are connected via the VSR and I start the truck? Does that mess with the Tesla battery?
 
coachgeo

coachgeo

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Aernan said:
.... It is by no means and apples to apples comparison. If you need starting batteries and you are not putting a living space in the back the battleborn would be ideal because they are a simple drop in replacement.
Click to expand...
Am puting former ambulance box on back of mine for habitat. Going 24v in habitat for consistency such as using the habitat battery bank to keep truck battery OEM wired bank topped up. Also my cab AC (actually a liquid chiller) is 24v. Granted this plan came about while I assumed the OEM truck battery bank was charged via the 24v side of the alternator. (or am I still misunderstanding how the FMTV alternator charges the 4 batteries?)

Ambo inverter was removed prior to sell so I could just as easy install a 24v-->110 inverter formerly where the other 12v one was. Us inverter to power a cheap 110v AC unit and other 110v items. Then install step down to 12v send into wiring of the OEM Ambo 12v. (LED lights mostly, a few 12v sockets and a few fans). My portable liquid chiller unit (24v) and my stationary chiller unit (110v) can be used to chill bed cover(s) cool sheet(s), cool vest(s), poncho's etc for inside or outside use when it is more logical to just cool the person than a whole space. The 24v chiller will cool person(s) in the cab and ambo when driving. Just do not see logic in cooling whole cab or aluminum box compared to just the person(s) when your in reality just sitting inside a them; seat belted, for long periods of time; not getting up and moving about.

Plan is for solar to also aid in powering my small home (1000w). Due to cost of batteries, have not decided yet on charge controller. Either a medium sized bank of battery for ambo and a controller that has a grid tie feature to defray power cost int he home or a larger bank that the home and/or ambo can use. I prefer the large bank... but cost esp. when factoring in annual battery replacement..... grid tie seems more logical, at least according to my friend with 30yrs in solar industry
 
Last edited:
A

Aernan

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I'm happy to go into my design but you should know there are quite a few ways to set this up.

In a classic two battery setup the simple way to do it is with a giant diode that charges the second battery(bank). There is large voltage drop so the second battery never fully charges so the smart VSR was designed to take care of that.

If you want to go to lithium of any form you need a system to control charging it because they don't like to be overcharged where lead acid does not really care. The battleborn and other drop in replacement batteries have internal smart chargers that do that for you. The tesla expects a BMS and charge controller to be connected. So a simple VSR won't work unless you put a charge controller in between.

I am going to separate my starting batteries from my house batteries completely. I don't intend on using the alternator to charge my house battery at all unless it's an emergency. Alternators are only 50% efficient and the truck already gets terrible MPG.

My house battery will be charged from solar with a MPTT inverter that generates nominal charge voltage for my pack. I most likely will be using a Victron Energy (VE) unit acts as an inverter (110 AC) and a charger for the pack. It can also take 110, 220 from the mains or a generator or both and charge the battery and generate house 110 AC.

https://www.victronenergy.com/inverters-chargers/quattro

From the batteries I get 48v DC which I run through a "DC disconnect" which can disconnect the load if the batteries get too low. That's how I will power my air conditioner and any other 48 v DC loads. It will also go to a 48 -> 12v DC inverter to generate 12v for house lighting and anything I can find that runs on DC. Step down transformation is very efficient (94-98%).

That fancy VE device makes regular old 110v AC which I can use for things like a microwave or laptop chargers. In addition I can buy a Noco or any other brand lead acid charger which I could configure in two ways.
1. 4 output Noco with one output per battery.
2. 1 24v DC output which I run to the pack as a whole.

I think I will opt for 24v option most likely. The pack does not wear level well because the inner batteries (close to the frame) only get used when starting the truck where as the outer ones are always used. (starting and 12v to accessories like lights and TCU). Charging the batteries individually is ideal.
 
O

Ohiobenz

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Aernan said:
I'm happy to go into my design but you should know there are quite a few ways to set this up.

In a classic two battery setup the simple way to do it is with a giant diode that charges the second battery(bank). There is large voltage drop so the second battery never fully charges so the smart VSR was designed to take care of that.

If you want to go to lithium of any form you need a system to control charging it because they don't like to be overcharged where lead acid does not really care. The battleborn and other drop in replacement batteries have internal smart chargers that do that for you. The tesla expects a BMS and charge controller to be connected. So a simple VSR won't work unless you put a charge controller in between.

I am going to separate my starting batteries from my house batteries completely. I don't intend on using the alternator to charge my house battery at all unless it's an emergency. Alternators are only 50% efficient and the truck already gets terrible MPG.

My house battery will be charged from solar with a MPTT inverter that generates nominal charge voltage for my pack. I most likely will be using a Victron Energy (VE) unit acts as an inverter (110 AC) and a charger for the pack. It can also take 110, 220 from the mains or a generator or both and charge the battery and generate house 110 AC.

https://www.victronenergy.com/inverters-chargers/quattro

From the batteries I get 48v DC which I run through a "DC disconnect" which can disconnect the load if the batteries get too low. That's how I will power my air conditioner and any other 48 v DC loads. It will also go to a 48 -> 12v DC inverter to generate 12v for house lighting and anything I can find that runs on DC. Step down transformation is very efficient (94-98%).

That fancy VE device makes regular old 110v AC which I can use for things like a microwave or laptop chargers. In addition I can buy a Noco or any other brand lead acid charger which I could configure in two ways.
1. 4 output Noco with one output per battery.
2. 1 24v DC output which I run to the pack as a whole.

I think I will opt for 24v option most likely. The pack does not wear level well because the inner batteries (close to the frame) only get used when starting the truck where as the outer ones are always used. (starting and 12v to accessories like lights and TCU). Charging the batteries individually is ideal.
Click to expand...
Since I'm still in the developing stages of the design, could you possibly move to coachgeo's thread as well? I would love to discuss this without hijacking Adventure Driven's thread - since their system is done already...
 
Adventure Driven

Adventure Driven

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A member here asked that I post a photo of our winch mount, we had it custom made at CBI Off Road, the winch is a COME UP Brand, 18,000 24 volt.

Cheers
Seth

IMG_1728.jpg
 
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