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I did some more digging and Shorai definitely have to be careful with as far as charge capacity life. Sorry I thought I considered them before but I can't find my list. I did a different setup. It's a lot more expensive though but are designed for large cube high compression motors, to start them and keep them running.
I talked to them about charging and they said they are made with a different type of lithium cells that do not explode no matter what is done to them. When hooked up to anything but the provided charger (like a lead charger) it will damage the battery though.
He stated the battery is not really charged from the alternator, it is more maintained when hooked to an alternator, and the level of the battery when maintained with an alternator is 90-100%. With a battery with less capacity it does use the alternator to charge but at a slow rate and needs a slight higher voltage than what the voltage rating for the battery actually is. I am using 16v and need just around 18 to charge the battery by the alternator. I guess the cells are designed to be charged off an alternator also and are not like an RC car battery even though they are both lithium.
Hope this helps a little. Shorai seems to be similar but a lower capacity overall. Really interested to see the longevity of it because the lithium batteries are supposed to last a lot as longer too.
I am still on the fence about these lithium batteries. I have been using them in RC cars for many years now and the ones made for full size cars are not much different. What I don't get still, is how they charge. In the RC car world, the charger setting are completely different from a lithium to a lead acid. If you try to charge a lithium on the lead acid setting, it will explode the battery. I will try to find out the differences in how they charge and post them up. The way I see it, a standard alternator is just not meant to charge a lithium. The other thing I don't like is if you go below something like 10.8 volts, it ruins the battery. Lithium is not forgiving at all! I do love the compact size and light weight...
This is my concern and why I probably wont switch either.
Nice setup there! How did you mount your battery cables? If you don't mind can you show me pictures up close? What type of battery hold down bracket did you use? Thanks!!
Originally Posted by HioSSilver
Same ine I've been running for about 3yrs op. They seem to be good batteries. I laid mine down
I have also used lithium polymer packs for RC models and the need for a specific charger is due to the fact that lithium cells needs to be balanced. So each cell is charged separately via a special connector with that specific charger, but when charged from the alternator that is obviously not the case. One of the reasons for this is that lithium cells do not like to be drained too low, if that happens they could just die and then your complete battery is toast. So I think it's a good idea to charge/balance the cells with a designated charger frome time to time.
05-19-2016, 11:00 AM
