Drew Callahan

I’ve got the Aterra’s battery box open and I’m staring at what was supposed to be a state-of-the-art lithium setup. The charge controller’s readout doesn’t match the battery voltage. The inverter’s cutting out under load it should handle. The wiring upstream of the main breaker is undersized—I can feel the heat on the insulation. This … Read more

A shop quote for installing a 12V lithium battery system on a Class B van runs $2,500 to $4,000 in labor alone—sometimes more if they have to rework your existing wiring or jury-rigged solar already in the rig. That number hung in my head the first time I sat down to map out what a … Read more

I’ve pulled apart enough rigs to know where manufacturers play it cheap, which jobs look harder than they actually are, and which repairs will cripple your wallet if you let them slide. The Hymer Aktiv is a capable little van, but—and this is the mistake I see constantly—most owners run it with the factory 12V … Read more

Want to know why you’re waking up to a dead battery pack when you thought you had hours of charge left? Odds are solid it’s one of three things: your Beast Mode came from the factory with a charging system that was never properly configured for lithium chemistry, your solar controller is running on default … Read more

I was somewhere around mile 280 of a late-October push through the Oregon high desert when I realized my Strada’s lead-acid battery was genuinely done. Cloudy skies, temps dropping into the 40s at night, and I was rationing the fridge to 30-minute intervals because the battery couldn’t hold a charge past sunset. That’s when it … Read more

You’ll hear two completely different stories about lithium upgrades on a Roadtrek Zion. Dealer service departments will tell you the stock charger and solar controller are fine, that you’re better off sticking with lead-acid because it’s “simpler,” and that any custom electrical work voids your warranty. RV forums and real-world boondockers will tell you the … Read more

The Pleasure-Way Ascent ships from the factory with a 12V electrical architecture that was adequate—maybe—when these rigs were designed for weekend trips and full-hookup campgrounds. But run one off-grid through a January cold snap, and you’ll discover that the stock lead-acid setup doesn’t have the reserve capacity or charge acceptance to keep your furnace ignition … Read more

Winnebago’s owner’s manual doesn’t spell this out: the Travato’s factory 12V setup was engineered around lead-acid chemistry and a modest daily power budget. Drop a lithium bank into that same bay without understanding the charging architecture, BMS handshake, and solar controller behavior, and you’ll hit walls that no factory documentation prepared you for — voltage … Read more

I opened the battery compartment on a Thor Sequence I’d picked up at auction and caught a whiff of something sharp—not quite burned plastic, not quite sulfur. The moment my eyes adjusted to the dim light and I saw the crusty white corrosion climbing up those lead-acid terminals, I knew exactly what had happened: the … Read more