MOTORHOMES HAVE TWO MAIN CHALLENGES:
THEY'RE TOO HEAVY, HAVE TOO LITTLE POWER AND POOR CHARGING

READ MORE ABOUT MAKSPOWER LITHIUM BATTERY SPECIALLY DESIGNED FOR MOTORHOMES HERE

CHARGE YOUR BATTERIES IN THE COLD

The AGM and GEL batteries commonly used in motorhomes are both heavy lead batteries.
Lead-acid batteries with a stated capacity of 100 Ah will usually only give you 30-40 Ah or 30-40% of the stated capacity.
This is because lead batteries that are fully discharged break very quickly, lose capacity and become even slower to charge.
Many people experience dead lead-acid batteries every year after winter storage of their motorhome.
AGM and GEL batteries of 100 Ah weigh approximately 32 kilos.
Makspower 100 Ah LiFePO4 batteries (more than twice the power, weighs less than 14 kilos.
If you replace the 100 Ah lead battery, you have achieved 18 kilos more payload.

If you have a 200 Ah lead-acid battery, a Makspower 100 Ah battery will easily replace this battery.
Then the weight is reduced by almost 50 kilos.

Many people who gain experience with Makspower batteries find that they no longer need to take a portable generator with them.
Then you can quickly reduce another 15 kilos.

If you replace the 200 Ah AGM or GEL with the Makspower 100 Ah battery and replace the aggregate, the payload is increased by approximately 65 kilos.
Now it's starting to help.

LiFePO4 batteries, also known as lithium batteries, absorb all the power they are supplied with.
A makspower 100 Ah battery can be charged with up to 100 amps.
On most power packs there is a switch where you can choose lead acid battery or lead GEL battery.
You can see the switch on the far right of the image.
One of these settings will give you the correct charging voltage for your Makspower Lithium batteries.

How much does the alternator charge?
It turns out that the alternator is controlled by the electric block and that it rarely charges more than 18-20 amps to the living room batteries.
That's low, even for a lead-acid battery. If you charge a lead-acid battery, the charge will quickly be reduced to well below 20 amps.
The last 20% of a lead battery are infinitely slow to recharge.

A lithium battery will accept 20 amps practically until the battery is full.

Charging with a Euro 6 car is even slower. So what do we do?
There is a challenge with Euro 6 and charging. In order for the vehicle to have the lowest possible emissions, charging is limited to a minimum. All newer motorhomes have this problem or challenge, depending on how you look at it. For the most part, the vehicle does not charge on uphill slopes, but it does charge more on downhill slopes when the vehicle is rolling.
The end result is that it charges very little in Euro 6 cars.

More powerful charging with DC to DC charger
A DC to DC charger is a battery charger that draws power from a 12 or 24 volt source and passes it on to the next battery. It is simply a battery charger of 12 or 24 volts and not 220 volts. The DC to DC charger draws power from the starter battery and delivers it to the body battery. This forces the alternator to charge more to keep the starter battery charged.

DC to DC chargers are available in different versions and up to 70 amps.
Some DC to DC chargers can be programmed via Bluetooth and an App, to start charging at a predetermined voltage on the starter battery

and stop charging at a different voltage. In this way, you can achieve very good charging, which is particularly useful when you have

converted to makspower lithium batteries.

WILD CAMPING, LIFE IN NATURE AND ENOUGH ELECTRICITY
Yes, it's entirely possible to create a solution where you get power for long periods of wild camping.

Lithium batteries
This battery type delivers the stated capacity.
They're quick to charge and they hold their voltage for a long time so you get the stated capacity.

Lithium batteries and solar charging
Many of our motorhome customers have reported that the solar cells charge the Makspower Lithium battery more than the old lead batteries.
Why is this the case?
The internal resistance in Makspower Lithium batteries is much lower than in lead-based batteries. This means that more of the current

ends up in the battery rather than being converted to heat as it is in a lead-acid battery.
Moreover, a lead battery degrades very quickly. The internal resistance becomes even greater and charging is even slower.
Lithium batteries degrade much more slowly.
In other words, you get significantly more out of your solar panels with lithium batteries.

Choosing solar panels for motorhomes
Solar panels come in several versions.
Flexible, Semiflexible, Semirigid (New from Makspower), Foldable solar panels and panels with aluminum frame and glass front.

Flexible solar panels. Can they be used on motorhomes?
This panel type comes in several versions. What Flexible solar panels have in common is that they are very thin, can be bent quite a bit and come in many different designs.
cell types and surface materials.

Flexible solar panels also have different back plates.
It can be aluminum sheets which makes the panel slightly stiffer. This version is relatively solid.
Some panels use PCB plates. Prind Circuit Board. It's the same material used on electronics cards.
The material is quite rigid and robust.
Other panels have a back plate of a softer plastic material. These panels are very light, flexible and quite fragile.

Foldable solar panels
This type of panel is made up of two to three fold-out panels, based on lightweight flexible solar panels.
Folded together, they take up little space and look like a

Surfaces on flexible solar panels, mirror finish or UV resistant EFTE material?
The solar panel must be exposed to the sun and UV rays for a long time. They must be able to withstand that.
Cheap solar panels usually have a mirror-like surface. This is the cheapest material.
We have customers who have glued this type of panel in place, only to find that the surface coating flakes off after a short time.
Then there's the big problem of scraping off all the glue and getting ready for new panels. In particular, this is a big problem when the solar panels are
glued to the deck of a boat.
If the surface coating is of poor quality, you can assume that the solar cells themselves are also of poor quality.

What you should look for is a surface in the plastic material EFTE. This is the most UV-resistant surface available on this type of solar panel.

Solar panels with glass and aluminum frame
This is a panel type we see everywhere.
The technology is well proven. The panels are very solid. The glass surface withstands UV rays for a long time. The price is favorable.
The weight is a little high. The panels come in many versions and with cell types in many variations.