Fantastic video and setup! I used the EG4 LL's at our off-grid cabin and love them. Now, I am planning on doing a similar system such as yours for our motorhome. We will need two inverters and probably 4 batteries, since our motorhome is 50 amp and a lot of electric with no propane. Thanks for the great content. I can't wait to watch the rest of your videos in the series. Thank you!

Several people mentioned this, you can have a 12.8V down-buffer battery that is charged from the 48V system. A single 100Ah 12.8V LiFePO4 battery can provide all the load/startup current required for things like jacks and so forth. That way the DC-DC charger does not have to provide all that power... it can just trickle-charge the 12V system. There are two easy solutions for this: (1) Use a Victron Orion series 48-to-12V *charger* (not just a 48-to-12 DC-to-DC). Use only the amperage you need such that it can always catch-up and fill the 12.8V lithium battery back up. It can be pretty cheap. I often get away with just 6 to 12A DC-DC chargers because my 12V loads aren't long-term-continuous. (2) Even cheaper, use a Victron 75/15, 100/20, or 150/35 charge controller. 48V -> FUSE(mandatory) -> "solar" side of charge controller, and then battery side goes to the 12.8V LiFepO4 battery and you are done. It will trickle-charge the 12.8V battery at up to (15, 20, or 35A. totally programmable) so as long as your average 12V consumption does not exceed the trickle-charge rate, it will always catch-up and fill the 12V system battery back to full eventually. I use solution #2 all the time for all sorts of things, particularly emergency gear that must be powered all the time and work for a few days even if the main battery system craters. Note that the fuse is mandatory because solar charge controllers sometimes clamp the "solar" input in emergency over-voltage-protection situations. 150%-200% fusing is best... so 20A @ 12V = 5A @ 48V so use at least a 10A fuse. For example. You don't want the fuse to get too hot at the full charge controller load. -- Shorepower solutions... don't bother with a transfer switch at all. Just have shore power run into a battery charger for the 48V system, under your control so you can set load-support voltages and so forth. Lots of options there for controlling when the chargers kick in, etc. Nothing stops you from having more than one battery charger hanging off of the shore power connection either. The EG4 chargeverter would be a good choice. -- Solar: Remember that you can always have discrete charge controllers in the system. The solar doesn't have to all go through the all-in-one. A Victron 100/20 or 150/35 for example (the 75/15 is not 48V capable on the battery side). Minimum solar input voltage is thus around 65V which is 3 x 100W panels in series or 2 x residential panels in series. That's all it takes. As many charge controllers as you want, really. One can also use a "boost" charge controller. These are not as efficient but can handle tiny solar configurations such as 2 x 75W panels in series, 1 x 200W (24V) panel, or 1 x residential panel. Basically 25V to 48V on the solar input -> charges a 48-60V system. -Matt

I kept my 12v lifepo4 battery hooked up to my 48 to 12 volt victron converter so it work as a capacitor of sorts for higher amperage loads. It’s similar to how your car uses the alternator for the loads but it will also use the battery to even out high amperage surges. The converter also acts as a battery charger, keeping it topped off at the voltage you wish. Works great!

We run our RV completely off grid at our farm and our place in the desert. The EG4 batteries and inverters are our system of choice and we have had the system in the desert running for 3 years as of now. The system at the farm consists of 28 400 watt panels mounted on dual axis trackers twin 6500 watt inverters and 12 of the 48v eg4 LL batteries (60KWh’s) we have the main components mounted in a insulated container with a 8000 BTU A/C. The system works flawlessly but if you need help the guys at Signature Solar are more than capable to help you by walking you through repairing your system.

This is exactly the information I've been looking for. The benefits of of going with a higher voltage always pays off. More power, less weight. The RV'ers dream.

Your videos are priceless because you detail specs, work plan , execution, any unexpected findings and thoroughly resume how things end up working out. This saves me lots of money, time, frustration and flattens my learning curve. Thank you and keep up the good work

Speaking of cable thickness - one really cool benefit of using a 48v system is that it runs 4x the POWER through the same size cable, or in other words: you can use much smaller cables than you would need for a 12v system with the same wattage. power (watts) = voltage x current (amps)

Your system really does make a lot more Sense than 12v

I just subscribed. I am new to all of this but plan on going out full time in 6-7 months. I just bought a brand new cargo trailer and it will be delivered in about 4 weeks. I have been doing my research night and day 24/7. I want the best of the best on a thin budget. My 1400 BTU mini split will be here in 2 days. I was pretty confident I was sold on the EG4 system but after watching this video I am 100% sold! I also think you answered all my questions concerning what battery to go with. I think you did a great job selling this system as well as educating me on it a little further. I plan to do everything the way you did it with one battery to get me started (funds/budget right now) and incorporate a server rack in my build for future add on battery storage. Thank you sir and I will be binge watching your videos tonight.

I know you are selling the RV, but you could eliminate the issue with the 12 volt side flicker by using your original 12v battle borne battery in the 12 volt side as a buffer. Then the Victron 48/12 volt would mostly just be charging the battle borne 12 volt battery. Just add it to the 12 volt buss. Also you should be able to use the camper’s original converter on a switch to charge the victors in the scenario where you remove the entire 48 volt array.

You can add a 12v capacitor that will give it the little exrea energy those things need.

How do you feel like the simplicity of this system compares to the more complex setup you have on your new rig?

Thanks for these videos very informational😊

I would place a thin wooden slat between the battery on top and the bottom ones. The heat that is generated by the batteries need air flow around them are they will trip into fault mode.

😄👍Good Stuff, Great Tips

thank you for making this video

Also bus your batteries rather than paralleling them with each other first. So, for example, by using a Victron Lynx Distributor (which has all the fuses), and you have say two 48V batteries to hookup, you just hook up each battery to the distributor separately. The distirbutor is the "bus", and the battery wiring doesn't have to be ultra-low gauge. 2 AWG (100A) battery wiring or even 4 or 5 AWG (50A battery wiring), depending on the size of the battery. No need for 1/0 or 2/0 or huge thick wires like that. The awsome thing about bussing with a Lynx distributor is now you don't need a main battery fuse AND you can parallel as many batteries as you like (no parallel limit since each battery has its own fuse). You still want a disconnect of course to make maintenance easier, and there are varied solutions to that. But the distributor takes a whole lot of work out of the battery hookup. And even though this may seem crazy to some people, it takes almost no work to wire up a system bus capable of handling 10kW. It is literally just 4 x 50Ah 48V (51.2V nopminal 16s LiFePO4) batteries, or 2 x 100Ah 48V (51.2V nominal 16s LiFepO4) batteries bussed to the lynx. Poof, just like that, 10000W with 2 AWG wiring. And for the inverters, same thing. Just allocate 5000W and have two inverters. Again 2 AWG wiring to each inverter. Not 1/0, 2/0, 4/0. And so forth. -Matt

Only thing that kept us going 48v is the efficiency loss of the dc-dc converter. Everything gained is loosed to that.

This is super helpful! Thank you for sharing! I am curious couldn’t you have stood the batteries up? Feels like they would have taken less space that way ?

Hi, thanks for all the information. Couldn't you use a bunch of 48v to 12 v step down converters that are available on amazon for about 20 dollars instead of using the victron converter? You could break up your DC loads to a few bus bars and have your tempermental Truma as the only load through one of the converters.

Great video! If you would have run a communication cable from your batteries to the inverter, wouldn't it have given you the same info as installing a shunt? About to install this same system.

Interesting .How do you keep those batteries from freezing if your RV is in cold weather? I can see if you are in it, you'd be heating the main cabin and they'd be fine, but I'm trying to figure out how they could be in the belly or a shed outside by stationary RV off grid. Have you kept this system till today? Thanks!

I wonder if it would be worthwhile keeping the 12 V battle born in play, running the 12 V systems but being charged independently from the solar system. Just a thought. Nice job on the video and the explanations, I'm building a similar system

Seems like that top battery is going to slide foward land on those bus bars short everything out and burn up your rv.

Where did you tie the 12 volt output from the 48-12 volt converter? Did you run the output lines all the way to the panel by the frig? Wire size?

Just for my information, why did you set the 12v current coming out of the converter at 14.10v? I'm guessing it won't hurt any of the 12v appliances or fixtures either?

If you were to use solar panels to charge all 3 of these 48v battery banks; how long would it take in full sun and how many panels would get it done the fastest? This is my big dilemma/question right now.

Your Ethernet cable for connecting your batteries, where did you purchase them with the RS 485 connection?

Could you link the specific T-fuse that you purchased. Just so happened I bought two EG4 batteries and the all in one prior to your videos and just got back to cold Indiana. Ready to about wire it together. Your videos have eliminated some potential headaches for me.

For a system that’s supposed to be simple it sounds very complicated

I have a system that uses 3 of these batterys ( non display ones) This is powered by 4350 watts of solar and providing power through a 6,000 watt inverter. all on a 40 foot motor home.

Upgrading Eleanor to send her packing…. Poor Eleanor 😢😢

I was looking at something very similar but unsure now as I don’t think 30amps is enough to run my jacks. If I have to buy multiple converters, I may as well stay at a 12v system.