Any Lithium battery users?

[Pronto]

Looking at shedding the weight of the stock battery. Seen a vast range of styles, cranking amps, weight and prices. So far I've only seen one that can handle 150 amp alternator. I'm running a 200 amp but I figure the max draw I see is about 120 with dual pumps, dual fans and alky pump, etc.

 

[Frederickdav]

Should be interesting!

 

[Pronto]

Anyone?

 

[1984 t-type]

Man those things are expensive, gotta be a more cost effective way to save some weight

 

[Turbo6inKY]

Man those things are expensive, gotta be a more cost effective way to save some weight

But what do you do when you've done all the other things already?

Netting 55 pounds for $400 doesn't sound like a bad deal, really. Where else can you take that much off the car (ahead of the front axle, and up high, no less!) for that much money and essentially zero time? It takes longer to pull the carpet and sound insulation. Custom forged lightweight wheels are two and a half grand. Fiberglass bumpers take way longer to install and cost just as much.

 

[haywire4130]

Are there any downsides other than price to running one of these (cranking amps, lifespan etc)? If it performed like my optima and wouldnt leave me stranded i'd ching up for one for sure, def better than the hassle of trunk mounting like ive been considering doing. Pronto can you post a link to the battery(s) youve been considering?

 

[Turbo6inKY]

Are there any downsides other than price to running one of these (cranking amps, lifespan etc)? If it performed like my optima and wouldnt leave me stranded i'd ching up for one for sure, def better than the hassle of trunk mounting like ive been considering doing. Pronto can you post a link to the battery(s) youve been considering?

They require some more care. Lithium batteries don't like being cold, and they don't like being run dead flat.

So, keep the car in a garage. You could also get a battery warmer. If it's below freezing and it's sat for awhile and you don't have a heater, turn the headlights on for a bit to let the battery warm itself back up on a lower current before trying to use it to start the car.

And get a battery with undervoltage protection that'll cut the battery off if the charge gets too low. If a Lithium battery goes flat, it's done for.

On the plus side, a properly cared for Lithium Ion battery will last 5000-6000 charge cycles. That's like 10-15 years for a daily driven car.

 

[Pronto]

From my research, the "Deka" sized ~400cca ones can be had for $2-400 and weigh about 4 lbs. The higher priced ones come with built in electronics that protect againt over draining and over charging, polarity reversal etc. I think the biggest issue is the alternator amp output. There are plenty of small ones that would be able to start a TB engine.

 

[murphster]

I looked at getting one a couple years ago, as I don't have many places left on my car to save weight.... unless its a track only car rarely ever driven I would have definitely gotten the higher end one with built in battery management to prevent the over draining and over charging from the alternator. One over drain by accident and it would be lost. And of course over charging is bad, as everyone knows. I think it was around $700-$800 for one of those batteries from Lithium Pros, only weighed 5.5lbs or so. Throw in a charger and you're looking at around $1,000. I then found a Deka ETX 30L Big Crank motorcycle battery that has 400CCA for $100 and weighs 22lbs. Braille sells basically the same one for 3x the price. And compared to an Odyssey PC680 that has only 170CCA the Deka has a lot more juice.

So my question became saving 16.5lbs for the Deka compared to the Lithium. At $900 difference that comes out to 54.5$ /lb. Which really isn't that bad when you are out of things to do to shed weight. However, I had a heavy 50lb battery and saved 28lbs going to the Deka for $100. At 3.6$ /lb it was a great bang for the buck.

 

[haywire4130]

I looked at getting one a couple years ago, as I don't have many places left on my car to save weight.... unless its a track only car rarely ever driven I would have definitely gotten the higher end one with built in battery management to prevent the over draining and over charging from the alternator. One over drain by accident and it would be lost. And of course over charging is bad, as everyone knows. I think it was around $700-$800 for one of those batteries from Lithium Pros, only weighed 5.5lbs or so. Throw in a charger and you're looking at around $1,000. I then found a Deka ETX 30L Big Crank motorcycle battery that has 400CCA for $100 and weighs 22lbs. Braille sells basically the same one for 3x the price. And compared to an Odyssey PC680 that has only 170CCA the Deka has a lot more juice.

So my question became saving 16.5lbs for the Deka compared to the Lithium. At $900 difference that comes out to 54.5$ /lb. Which really isn't that bad when you are out of things to do to shed weight. However, I had a heavy 50lb battery and saved 28lbs going to the Deka for $100. At 3.6$ /lb it was a great bang for the buck.

I like the way you think! I actually have 2 of those on the shelf for atv/utvs too. Wonder what the weight difference between the etx30 and my optima is... time to bust out the scale and weigh my options (clever pun)

 

[1952ray]

I looked at getting one a couple years ago, as I don't have many places left on my car to save weight.... unless its a track only car rarely ever driven I would have definitely gotten the higher end one with built in battery management to prevent the over draining and over charging from the alternator. One over drain by accident and it would be lost. And of course over charging is bad, as everyone knows. I think it was around $700-$800 for one of those batteries from Lithium Pros, only weighed 5.5lbs or so. Throw in a charger and you're looking at around $1,000. I then found a Deka ETX 30L Big Crank motorcycle battery that has 400CCA for $100 and weighs 22lbs. Braille sells basically the same one for 3x the price. And compared to an Odyssey PC680 that has only 170CCA the Deka has a lot more juice.

So my question became saving 16.5lbs for the Deka compared to the Lithium. At $900 difference that comes out to 54.5$ /lb. Which really isn't that bad when you are out of things to do to shed weight. However, I had a heavy 50lb battery and saved 28lbs going to the Deka for $100. At 3.6$ /lb it was a great bang for the buck.

Wow,I think I would just take a laxative

 

[Turbo6inKY]

Wow,I think I would just take a laxative

A 28lb bowel movement would likely be fatal.

 

[Pronto]

I typically keep my regular battery on a trickle charger. I see several lithium batteries with controllers can use a regular trickle charger. Not really worried about volts dropping too low, more about the alternator. What's the typical amp draw with a double pumper, dual fans and an alky pump?

 

[gusszgs]

But what do you do when you've done all the other things already?

Netting 55 pounds for $400 doesn't sound like a bad deal, really. Where else can you take that much off the car (ahead of the front axle, and up high, no less!) for that much money and essentially zero time? It takes longer to pull the carpet and sound insulation. Custom forged lightweight wheels are two and a half grand. Fiberglass bumpers take way longer to install and cost just as much.

55LBS!! What battery are your running? I weighted my Interstate and it's 30 lbs

 

[gusszgs]

https://p10.secure.hostingprod.com/@www.voltphreaks.com/ssl/catalog/product_info.php?products_id=115

These look interesting........pricey though

 

[Turbo6inKY]

55LBS!! What battery are your running? I weighted my Interstate and it's 30 lbs

Dunno, never weighed it. I have it in my head a car battery weighs 60lbs. Probably because some monster battery that a BMW I once had actually was that much.

 

[Ross L]

I'll try one when the price gets down in the $300 range. I run one in my motorcycle. It was $150 shipped. 350cca. It can't weigh 2 lbs!

 

[Pronto]

Dunno, never weighed it. I have it in my head a car battery weighs 60lbs. Probably because some monster battery that a BMW I once had actually was that much.

I've checked the weight of the standard acid/lead 75 series battery and the range is 32 to 47 pounds. So a 5 lb battery would be a significant weight savings if it would work. I also checked the amps my double pumper, dual fans, alky pump and headlights draw and I came out with about 70.

 

[iwantatta]

If these batteries can't be run down, not worth it for the price. Gone through that with the different types of Optima batteries in the past and won't make that mistake again...even there yellow tops.

 

[Scott Atk]

Here's mine. Ballistic EVO3 with built in BMS. Cost was around $400. I'm just now getting my hybrid going but I ran it in my Jeep for months without issues. My wife took the car around the block last week and stalled it about 9 times so that was a pretty good test. Another data point is a lithium battery fully charged is 14.4v vs. a lead acid at 12.8. I just tricked the alternator to charge at 15, the fuel pump and ignition love it.