I want to replace the house batteries

[M109guy]

Hi all, new 2020 Entegra Cornerstone owner. I’ve watched virtually every Cornerstone YouTube video. I haven’t seen any videos or pics of the house battery area. If anyone has any I’d love to see them. I’m thinking of eventually upgrading to lithium. Does anyone know the dimensions of the house battery area? If there are threads in the forum covering this with pics please send them my way. I’m on a trip with my 2017 Winnebago Journey 36M and have the recently purchased Entegra in storage so I can’t look for myself at the moment. I apologize if I should have started a new thread. Let me know and I will.

[paul65k]

Originally Posted by cweinell

I have a 2018 Entegra Aspire 44R and the 2 L16 house batteries need to be replaced and I wanted more storage. I was considering Lithium batteries and saw your reply. What is the downside to using Lithium batteries? My coach has 2 Solar Panels on it if that makes any difference.

If your charger can charge AGM it will charge Lithium

Everyone thinks their coaches are "Different" but lithium charges at almost the same rate as Lithium and definitely above the voltage needed to reach 100%

[Gary.Jones]

Lithium batteries are not the same as AGMs or flooded. Their chair profile is different, very different. There are several threads on here that talk about this issue.

There is no question that you can install lithium batteries. A battery is a battery. The issue is how much problem it is to charge them appropriately and how much trouble you need to assume as the owner in charging them appropriately,. None of the charge profiles for the inverter/chargers that are installed in most Entegra coaches can be charged. The problem, as I understand it, is in how much of the needed charge information for Lithium batteries is included in the VegaTouch system. My understanding is that virtually none of the parameters needed for appropriate charging of Lithium batteries is included in the VegaTouch software.

The guy that seems to know most about this whole issue is Don Boettcher (757Pilot) and I am sure that Don will be along shortly to jump into the discussion.

Several of the Lithium battery threads have been up here in the past 6 months. Do a search at the top of the page. I'd suggest trying ENTEGRA: Lithium house battery or similar wording and you can include 757Driver with your search string and you should turn up a bunch of threads on the subject in the past 12 months. My understanding of the situation is that it is no where close to a "set it and forget it" situation to change to Lithium.

Gary

[Gary.Jones]

M109Guy

I have described the process of changing house batteries on my 19 Cornerstone to new AGM L-16 batteries in several threads up here on the forum. I was going to publish a step-bv-step thread on the subject since I successfully changed my house batteries last summer but I got sidetracked with other priorities, and instead have added detailed descriptions of the process and pitfalls into other threads on the issue.

In addition, LWBAZ (Larry Becker) has published several pictures of the wooden box that the L-16s sit in on forum threads in the past 6 months.... I think I have seen the picture at least three times in different threads. What I can tell you is that there is a wood box that holds the four batteries (L-16s) nested in a tight square configuration in the right ~ 80% of the box. The batteries are held in place with metal rails on the bottom so they cannot come apart and "walk". In the remaining 20% of the box, on the left side, are the main battery bank cables that come into the box and exit the box.. The problem in dealing with the battery change is that the box is maybe 6" taller than the L-16 batteries themselves, which means that all the wiring from battery to battery and from and to connections outside of the box are contained in that ~6" of space above the batteries, so I had to make virtually all of the connections and disconnections while lying on my side in the basement and working with my left hand and arm. A smaller guy might be able to squat in the basement and work with their eyes and both hands but for me it was work by "feel" and with great care not to get any shorts or problems.

Ill try to find that picture for you and post it on an edit.

EDIT: the search capability at the top of this forum is the bomb.... Here was my search string ENTEGRA: battery box LWBAZ and it was the first possibility that the search process brought back. Here is the link and it shows Larrys picture as the first post.... https://www.irv2.com/forums/f278/hou...-564385-4.html

Give that a try to see what you are up against.

Edit: Also, if you cant find my descriptions, I will try to help find them for you. I will be traveling all day tomorrow (Tuesday).

Gary

[757driver]

Originally Posted by M109guy

Hi all, new 2020 Entegra Cornerstone owner. I’ve watched virtually every Cornerstone YouTube video. I haven’t seen any videos or pics of the house battery area. If anyone has any I’d love to see them. I’m thinking of eventually upgrading to lithium. Does anyone know the dimensions of the house battery area? If there are threads in the forum covering this with pics please send them my way. I’m on a trip with my 2017 Winnebago Journey 36M and have the recently purchased Entegra in storage so I can’t look for myself at the moment. I apologize if I should have started a new thread. Let me know and I will.

With a stock 2020 Cornerstone with Vegatouch you will not be able to properly charge lithium batteries. There are limited Magnum charger settings/parameters included with Vegatouch.

A possible work around would be to unplug Vegatouch from the Magnum bridge and plug in a Magnum remote which then can be properly programmed for lithium.