Well, good morning guys and welcome to the vlog! We are at the Xscapers
Convergence here in Lake Havasu City. And.... Hooking up with Shawn from Battle Born
Lithium Batteries.... Yeah! Our company's actually called dragonfly energy but our
consumer brand is Battle Born Batteries. So we're out here this week kind of
meeting up with some of our customer base and.... Meeting some new customers that
are interested in using our Battle Born lithium batteries... On board, on board any
kind of vehicle!....We are planning a trip around the world in this vehicle and....
Lithium batteries are on our list! You know, we have 520 solar on the roof... But
we just want to make sure this truck is dialed in while we're still here in the
States...Before we head on over to Europe! And lithium batteries are pretty high on
the list!....Okay Shawn, so this is a 2007 Mitsubishi Fuso
expedition truck and it's a very unique creature but our batteries are... The current
ones are right down here!... Yeah! Looks like you got three lead acids down there... Yeah so 3 AGMs and I'm not gonna lie they were, 3 to 5 years old..You know, we are the 3rd owners of
this rig... Right!... So I've heard that there's some potential challenges for
putting lithium batteries right there!.... You typically don't want to put lithium
batteries outside. It kind of makes me cringe even seeing any battery outside
like that. Just exposed to the elements! Usually you have some kind of a box around
it. But your lithium batteries are gonna, they cost a little bit more money. You
want to protect them, you want to keep them inside if you can and also ahhhh...They.. Do you
have some temperature concerns? Which I want to let you know... These batteries do
also uuuhhhm...Your AGM batteries are gonna run at a severely diminished capacity below
freezing. Our batteries are a diminished capacity below freezing also! They won't
take a charge below 25 degrees but they still will discharge. So having them
outside, if you're gonna drive this rig around the world, I want to recommend you
put the batteries inside. That way you don't have any worries! I'm not saying
that we have the space.... Because we don't have much space in this box! But
let's show you, you know, where the infrastructure of our electrical system
is..... So right down here under our dinette is where most of the components and
infrastructure lie. What do you see in here that obviously there's room for
batteries?... Sure you have plenty of space for the batteries in here and then it'll
protect them from the elements. Because if you and Rebecca are living in here....
It's probably never gonna be below freezing in the vehicle!... Yeah!... We just
recommend that you keep the batteries above freezing at all times! And that
really they just work, they just work fine! They never end up shutting off. But your
Tristar Morningstar MPPT controller works great with our batteries.... Okay!... And then
this is just a standard pure sine inverter here... It is!...It's a very basic inverter.
It'll work fine. There's some other parts we're gonna put into the system which you
can evaluate once you do the install but... Everything looks fine to me! It looks
like it will drop right in!... Okay!.... Sitting then over here next to our 12-volt
refrigerator, down there is the ahhh...What do we have here? Is that your xantrex charger?...That's or xantrex
charger... Yeah! That we're gonna swap out for a progressive dynamics converter.
Which will charge, It's designed to charge lithium batteries. But there are some
things that if we're gonna, If we have an opportunity a tune a system to make it
work as effectively for you, we're gonna we're gonna take that opportunity! But if
you do have a component that will work with our batteries, we will absolutely
let you know that! That way you can save money and not have to buy that new part.
And we do that every day at our office!.... So let's show you the rest of our system
so you can assess on how many batteries do we need! Because that's... I know our
vehicle is totally different than most RVs but let's just show Shaun what we have
and how many batteries we might need. So I showed it earlier but that is a
12-volt refrigerator. And then over here, we have...A Wallace and a 12-volt diesel
cook top. So the 12-volt fires a circuit board and the heat comes from diesel
fuel from our tanks!.... And then right here on the floor is one of the vent
registers. And that is a very low voltage, 12-volt
fan!... And ahhh... We'll take you to the heater here in a sec.... On the minor end of things
there's obviously a water pump, LED lights scattered throughout the camper.
And then that's a very basic 2000 watt inverter....And then up top here, we have
one of those max fans.... So right here in the back of the camper is where our
heating unit is. So it's fuelled by diesel with this the electronics, just a blower
and then like the ahhh..the electronics of the furnace...Exactly!... So you use very little power
actually.... Yeah! This, like I said this vehicle has a very, low footprint. And
that's an ESPAR hydronic heater. So it will also block heat our engine as well
on cold nights!... Okay we are back inside the truck out of the wind... So what do you
think about our systems? I know, I'm not a guru or anything but I think we have a
pretty small footprint!... You literally, you do! This is literally a tiny home on
wheels! Thanks again for inviting me into your home. It's a beautiful little home.
If anyone's ever not gotten the chance to see the inside of one of these
Mitsubishi Fusos, they got pretty creative, whoever built this thing! And I
know been Rebecca or the third owner.... Yeah... But you know, I think it's a neat
vehicle and ahhh...In my opinion, based on the fact that you have a 2000 watt inverter,
I would think that you're gonna need a minimum of two batteries for that. Since
you're gonna drive the van around the world, you guys are kind of different
than a lot of people so.....In the past people have done it...Hahahaha!....Right! Sure, definitely!...You know...
We know people have done this before that right?... Personally each of us have encountered
people who have done it. And we know that the challenge is it's always a good idea to
have more storage power.... Redundancy...Right, redundancy. So I'd recommend you get
three batteries for this rig since you got room for them... Yeah and I think we even have...
Some in spare as well.... I think that's a good idea because with some of the
things we have planned in the future... We have talked about upgrading to a 3000
watt inverter. And if we, you said it's like 1,000 watts per battery kind of a thing...Yeah!
Pretty much, pretty much!.... So if we, we want to leave room for some growth I think!
And we also have talked about the possibility of getting a very small roof
mounted, low-profile, air conditioner for the cab. And
having the potential, I'm not committing to anything, of with a soft start, being
able to run air conditioning off the batteries!... That sounds like a great idea!
You know, I know it's totally possible! We'll have to talk about the inverter for that...
Thank you so much for being here at the Xscapers Annual Bash....Battle Born and
dragonfly energy, they are very active in the RV community. They didn't have to be
here! You guys are here, sponsoring the event.... But you're also here going around
to everybody and... Just talking, doing assessments and just being part of the
community! And that's.... A big thing!... That's one of the, you know, one of the.. I
appreciate you saying that. And thank you for recognizing that! That you know, we
really try to be a part of this community. The RV community and the
escapees and Xscapers convergence have embraced us as part of your community. So
thank you for that! If anyone out there is watching from this event, we've had a
blast! It's been a great time! We've met so many interesting people!
And you know.. And like you said, we had an opportunity to come around and do some
personal consultations with people. Which is always a good thing. It's always
a good thing to help someone understand what's actually happening in the power
system in their RV and what the shortcomings of it are. I think that's
really important with lithiums to... Because I know everybody has questions. You know,
like how many should we have? And how much does it cost? What what else do I
have to buy with it?..It's very new technology...So having you come out and
actually be there and talk in person, I think it lends just alot of comfort to people... This new technology is at a
price point where you don't have to be like on the space shuttle to install it!
Everyday people are now installing lithium... One of our batteries cost less than an iPhone
10! And an iPhone 10 doesn't come with a 10 year warranty!...I was just gonna say, it doesn't
have the lifespan of an iPhone 10... So you know, give us a shot, take a look. It's not as expensive
as you think. Over time it adds a lot of value to your experience and that's why
we're out here to kind of educate people about how we change that experience of
boondocking. Or you know, even just staying in the parking lot overnight, you
don't want to deal with that battery anxiety! You don't to be wondering about...
Battery anxiety...Is my heater gonna work all night? Is my heater gonna work all night?
And... If you want...There's nothing worse than waking up in the middle of the night to
that beeep beeep... I've taken pills for BAS before... Yeah, yeah.... They have a lot of side
effects.... But I'm looking forward to not suffering
from BAS anymore..... Yes, so yeah!... We're, you know, just take a look at our website.
We're working on a new thing coming in 2019. We'll be able to do live video
consultations for sales over the telephone so... Keep an eye out for that!
We're launching a new website in this couple of months! And there'll be a place
there where you can schedule an appointment with us and get one of our
sales pros to ahhh...To help you understand your system and ahhh...What we can do to
help you make it better!...That would be great!.... Alright guys, thanks for watching! Hit
that SUBSCRIBE button. Check out ahhh... Battle Born lithium batteries, dragonfly
energy and stay tuned because... It sounds like we're gonna be installing some
lithium batteries here within the next week or so... Pretty excited guys! Thanks
for watching. We'll see you later, bye!