swheeldon Report post Posted April 15, 2023 It is time to replace my coach batteries, and I keep hearing more and more about the benefits of LiFePO4 batteries. Sound like i need a special charging profile from my charger. I have a Xantrex Freedom 458 charger/inverter. Will this charger handle charging lithium batteries properly? thanks Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
dons2346 Report post Posted April 15, 2023 I know nothing about your inverter, sorry. But the easy explanation of the setup is to separate your house and chassis battery banks totally. Wire it so that your alternator only charges your house battery and then use a DC to DC charger to go from the chassis battery to the house battery. Reason being is that the lithium's can take a lot of current and you stand the chance of burning up the alternator. Make sure you use circuit breakers on everything. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
mdprince Report post Posted June 29, 2023 On 4/15/2023 at 12:31 PM, dons2346 said: I know nothing about your inverter, sorry. But the easy explanation of the setup is to separate your house and chassis battery banks totally. Wire it so that your alternator only charges your house battery and then use a DC to DC charger to go from the chassis battery to the house battery. Reason being is that the lithium's can take a lot of current and you stand the chance of burning up the alternator. Make sure you use circuit breakers on everything. Don - I think you meant to write - wire the alternator to the chassis batteries. The Xantrex Freedom 458 is what I have on my coach. AFAIK it will not properly charge the LiFePO4 batteries. It will charge them at a lower voltage, not fill them all the way and shorten the life of the lithiums !! If, we keep our coach, my plan is to call Xantrex and get a new charger/inverter and some lithium batteries. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
five Report post Posted June 30, 2023 (edited) I replaced both chassis and house batteries with what came as OEM....AGMs. At this point, to me, lithiums are not worth the cost or hassle of setting up a new charging system. I'm sure they'll be cheaper and easier to install in the years ahead. Edited June 30, 2023 by five Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
dons2346 Report post Posted June 30, 2023 "Don - I think you meant to write - wire the alternator to the chassis batteries." Yes, I meant to say that. Don't know which was working faster, brain or fingers. Probably fingers. When it came time to replace my batteries, the cost of two 8D AGMs which would give me 500 amp/hr with about 300 useful was very close to the cost of 400 amp/hr of lithium. A single 8D AGM weighs 162 pounds, the weight of my lithium is 90 pounds. I separated the house from the chassis. Charge the chassis with alternator and the lithium with a 40 amp dc 2 dc charger. I also have 760 watts of solar Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Callusgolden Report post Posted July 4, 2023 (edited) We converted our house batteries from 6 agm to 8 battleborn 100amp batteries with two 3000 watts inverters and 2 mppt charge controllers with 2600watts of solar panels on the roof. Absolutely love the new system. Can run all 3 ac in sunny days with no issue (put soft starts on ac). Kept agm batteries for chassis and didn't add the abilities to charge agm from lithium as it's not recommended for to alternator life. Generator can still charge both lithium and agm when needed. Edited July 4, 2023 by Callusgolden Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
wildebill308 Report post Posted July 4, 2023 Welcome to the forum. Sounds like a nice set up. Bill Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
