Understanding Lithium Vs. Lead Acid Help
 

Real quick. I have a 2010 Bad Boy buggy. It is time for new batteries and I really want to put Lithiums in. My desire is to get as much distance as possible between charges.

So much great info on this site not really finding what I am looking for.

1. If I usually use Trojan T145s 6v by 8 batteries. They have all these different ratings. example Capacity Minutes at different Amps, Capacity Amp Hours from 5 hours to 100 hours and Engergy in Kwh.

2. all the Lithium options are not really lining up. I see 48 volt at 100ah or even 120ah. Some say they are putting out 54 volt instead of 48 will that hurt the motors?

How do they compare it seems like I would have to buy a 300ah to get the same numbers.

Where is a good place to start. I do not mind spending the money but do not want to drop $3k-$5k and not be happy.

For the Lithium Experts what would you recommend under $5k. Not that I want to spend that much.

Re: Understanding Lithium Vs. Lead Acid Help
 

i am by no means an expert. what i have found is flood acid batterys charge to 50.9 and you use up to 50% ending at 48.4 volts. lithium you can take down to 20% charge ( the pack i have is 50volt and can go to 40volt. only a 47ah costing about 1000$ to my door.) got mine from evbatterycenter. they dont have anything right now due to illness. think you could do with a 120ah and be fine. pack GP54120-17 says you should get around 58 miles.
would think youshould be able to do something for under $3000.

Re: Understanding Lithium Vs. Lead Acid Help
 

Thanks Jethaulin. I am excited to start this project. I will make sure to post videos and pictures as I go. After reading lots of reviews I am going to wait for EV Battery Center to start production again. I see that a lot of guys really like them.

Re: Understanding Lithium Vs. Lead Acid Help
 

question 3. How do these lithiums systems handle temperature. We will be using the bad boy during winter with temps down to just below freezing say 28 degrees and as high as 98 in the summer. Anything special I need to think of?

Re: Understanding Lithium Vs. Lead Acid Help
 

I can't speak for the cold weather (I live in Miami and just got my lithiums working last week) but they do make one hell of a difference. I have the 58V 52aH pack. I read on here that the aH ratings differ between the two chemistries because of the usable range and that I should get 20-25 miles of range on a full charge with the pack I got. I purchased the DIY setup with wifi BMS and am all in about $1200. Sold my old batteries and charger to recoup some of those expenses but since the batteries are a different size and shape, expect some fabrication to get them mounted.

Acceleration is crazy- usually you don't fee a thing accelerating between 90-100% throttle, but even at high speeds a little tap sends you backwards a bit. You have much less voltage drop upon acceleration- if you ever put a multimeter on your lead acid pack during acceleration, you will see it drop 10V or more, this just a couple. Couple that with the fact that when my pack is dead at 52V, it still performs better than my old lead acid pack at full charge. 400 lbs lighter too.

To answer your question about damaging the motor with the extra voltage, I pushed the cart pretty hard and the motor never broke 88 degrees. Granted, I don't have the body and seats back on yet but I'm encouraged. I would be more concerned about your controller and what it is rated to handle.

Re: Understanding Lithium Vs. Lead Acid Help
 

I have built several lithium cars based on the notoriously fussy RXV platform using all stock controllers & motors, inceasing the voltage some, and never had a problem. The 48v DC motor is just gonna love being in the 53v territory.

Re: Understanding Lithium Vs. Lead Acid Help
 

Im planning to go with some used chevy volt packs due to the ease of getting them and the low cost.

Re: Understanding Lithium Vs. Lead Acid Help
 

Try to get the seller to reveal the battery pack resistance before you buy a used lithium pack. Unlike lead acid it's pretty easy to hurt lithium batteries and once resistance is high amperage exchange is diminished.

Re: Understanding Lithium Vs. Lead Acid Help
 

what is used to measure this resistance a VOM ?
what is a high number or a low one ?

Re: Understanding Lithium Vs. Lead Acid Help
 

That's a really good question Nota. I was wondering the same thing.

Is 2 Ohms normal or very high? Does it matter the difference between LiMnCo vs LiFePo vs Li-something-else? Or are all lithium batteries pretty similar with regards to resistance when they are healthy?