RV

Hey there, I’m Drew Callahan. After traveling over 80,000 miles across North America in three different rigs, I’ve learned a lot about the ins and outs of RV living. One of the challenges I’ve faced is dealing with diesel heaters, particularly when they refuse to light on those chilly mornings. Many folks assume that if … Read more

I’ve spent enough mornings elbow-deep in the battery compartment of a Chinook Bayside that I can practically diagnose its power problems by sound alone. The click-click-click of a dying lead-acid bank trying to crank the inverter. The way the lights dim halfway through coffee because the voltage sags as soon as the compressor kicks in. … Read more

Mess up a lithium battery swap on a Melbourne and you’ll spend the next three weeks troubleshooting a system that won’t charge, won’t discharge, and leaves you stranded with zero margin for error in the field. I’ve watched owners install a lithium bank that’s technically compatible on paper but fundamentally incompatible in practice — dropped … Read more

I’m looking at the battery terminals on my Galleria right now — corrosion creeping up the cable lugs, voltage sagging to 10V by dinner time, and the alternator spinning its wheels trying to keep up. That’s what a lead-acid bank in an RV tells you after a few seasons of real use: you’ve hit the … Read more

“Drew, I’m looking at this Thor Dazzle with what the seller says is a lithium battery setup, but the wiring looks sketchy and I can’t tell if it’s actually safe or just a ticking time bomb.” That’s the conversation I had with a friend last spring, and it’s the exact reason I pull the battery … Read more

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