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Vic is right that battery voltage is only somewhat useful for determining State Of Charge (SOC) for a battery when it is being used, but is OK if you want a rough idea when you know nothing is running and the sun has set. In this situation, I would ignore the 50% 'rule' (which is not a rule...

Besides the obvious absurdity of this, it also apparently semi-vaporware. Who in their right mind would put down a non-refundable $50K deposit on vehicle that they have not even built the prototype of? There seems to be an increasing trend of startups who make a slick rendering of some...

If those are the specs for your controller then to looks like it will explicitly support LiFePO4 -just change the battery type to LiFePO4. However there is an older version of the same controller, that does not have an LiFePO4 mode (which is the one Wallowa has). If it turns out you have the...

Yes there is a measurable advantage to MPPT over PWM. There is no simple answer on how big the advantage is - it is highly dependent on the specifics of your panels, the environment your usage and batteries. The range is around 10 - 35% more power from MPPT over PWM. The explanation is...

If you guys can post the specs that are available on your ZAMP charge controller, we can tell you if it will work. The numbers should be in the specifications table in the owners manual. There is a pretty good chance your existing controller will work. If there is a 'GEL' battery type, it...

Do you have the manual for your ZAMP? If so, what are the absorption and float voltages for the AGM mode (and for any other mode it may have)? That will tell us how well it would work with an LiFePO4 battery. I don't have any experience with Battleborn, or any other drop in lithium...

A couple of comments: 1. What are the available charge profiles on your ZAMP controller? LiFePO4 is really not that picky, so one of the existing profiles may work well enough. There are also other reasons to upgrade, but it may not be a requirement. 2. Look beyond Battleborn for a...

Unfortunately the answers are no, no and no. While that charger could charge two different battery types, they would need to be separated for charging. You also don't want to put an AGM in parallel for discharging as the AGM would not do anything due to the lower resting voltage (all the...

There are a couple of reasons they suggest connecting the battery first, primarily because MPPT charge controllers can support multiple battery voltages. Without the battery connected, the controller can't sense the voltage and doesn't know what to output. I think once it has been...

On the 10,15 and 20A models there is a user replaceable automotive style blade fuse built into the controller, next to the VE.direct port. If the controllers actually burnt out from disconnecting the battery, anyone with a lithium battery with a BMS would have a ticking time bomb, the BMS can...

Another option, if you have space to store it, is the little giant step stool. You can use this either as is, as a step stool, or remove the back legs and make it removable steps like the other options. I tried several options on my flatbed before arriving at this, and it definitely seemed...

My understanding is that you either have to buy parts from the guy selling the grey market heaters (who knows how long he will be around), from a European dealer, or pretend you have a Winnebago and buy from their parts department with a huge mark up. I may still make the switch at some point...

The Truma Combi looks great, and I would like to replace my Attwood heater and water heater with this at some point. A much more modern and efficient design than any of the US RV heaters. My issue is that it is not cheap, and are not sold to the end user in the US. The only way to get them...

I am not sure this is actually a concern. I have disconnected the battery on my MPPT many times while under power, with no issues. Victron also seems to be OK with this configuration - there is a fuse built into to the controller itself, and in many of their suggested configurations there is...

Great advice from Vic, as usual. I would agree that a fuse is not necessary if you are mounting the solar controller in the battery box, or close to the batteries. The controller has a built in fuse to protect itself, so an additional fuse would only to be to protect the wiring. If the...

I think we are on slightly different frequencies - my point was that the ZAMP PWM is the choke point, and thus you won't loose any power (voltage or current) from using thinner wire. Your amperage is well below the limits for 10 AWG wiring (>30 amps, se below) and again the fuse is...

We are also the rough it type, and plenty of our camping is still out of backpack, or drybag. I fell that our Fleet flatbed is about right for the two of us, but couldn't imagine having 5 organisms in there for a 3 day storm ;). Just make sure you are going into this with your eyes wide...

Assuming your ZAMP controller is a PWM controller (which I think it is) then the thinner wire won't actually make any difference in the amount of power you get. The PWM controller is already 'throwing away' the voltage above the battery voltage, so there is no less power produced by having...

I went with a simple/inexpensive Al tray (ute bed) which I installed myself then added the accessories I wanted. For me with a Tacoma, weight is an issue, and all the commercial options ended up being VERY heavy. The Ute bed itself weighed less than bed I removed, and I added very light...

I guess I was thinking about keeping the vent fan running at an equivalent flow rate as the heater air flow. In each case you are bringing dry air from outside in and pushing an equivalent amount of moist air from inside the camper out. The heater doesn't remove any moisture from the air, so...

Neither the ACR or BMV can disconnect your 12V appliances from the batteries. The only two things that could do this are a circuit breaker or the Zamp solar controller and only if everything is wired through the load terminals. I don't even know if the Zamp has load terminals though. I...

The camper sits on plywood skids on the flatbed, just like the slide in models. At worst the skids could deteriorate over time (mine are OK almost 5 years in) but it would be easy to replace them. You can fill the space between the skids with XPS insulation foam. I would not add a horse...

I have been thinking about this, and conceptually is it really any different than opening the roof vent and turning on the fantastic fan? Essentially you are pushing out the heater flow rate of air out of the camper and replacing it with outside air brought in through the heater. For this to...

The under bed storage requirement rules out FWC and ATC unless you want to go with a FWC flatbed.

Is that one of the industrial heaters from McMaster? If so, I would be very careful using either of those in a camper, I think they specifically say not for use in an house or RV. They are also huge heaters designed for a much larger space, even on low they are around 30,000 btu/h. Also...