40AH LiFe Battery Pack - For Sale

ok. dumb question on the surface. but if the weight changes significantly with LiFe then obviously other changes are needed (hull changes? replace lost weight with lead? other?). I suppose I could look up the details of battery types, sizes and weights, do my homework, but simply asking seemed easy enough. I have the UV-18 conversion on the 26 and it reduces the weight by about half. So too the Life? and so too a shorter body? Or are the LiFe heavier and packed into the same space (and thus need a two-by-four added to the body)? Or are the home-built LiFe designed to fit the full hull of the 26 and similar in weight?

skip

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Originally Posted by skip

ok. dumb question on the surface. but if the weight changes significantly with LiFe then obviously other changes are needed (hull changes? replace lost weight with lead? other?). I suppose I could look up the details of battery types, sizes and weights, do my homework, but simply asking seemed easy enough. I have the UV-18 conversion on the 26 and it reduces the weight by about half. So too the Life? and so too a shorter body? Or are the LiFe heavier and packed into the same space (and thus need a two-by-four added to the body)? Or are the home-built LiFe designed to fit the full hull of the 26 and similar in weight?

skip

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I would be willing to bet Slüdge can't answer any of those questions :rollguy

I suspect only Billyf can answer them. Not knowing the specs on the LiFe batteries makes it pretty hard to know the length hull that would be needed.

I was obviously picking at him - if you remove fifty pounds of lead batteries and replace them with thirty pounds of lithium batteries, your scooter will float like a cork unless you add twenty pounds of lead.

The beauty of the UV-26 is the ride. It is so stable mainly because it is so heavy. If you cut the body down, you will lose some of this stability. (I can tell because my UV-26 rides better than when I use the UV-18 body - but only a little.)

I can't imagine putting lithium batteries into my UV-26, but I am very interested in doing it to my UV-18. I'm still keeping my eyes open.

(And the UV-18 is much more than half the weight of a UV-26 - Rodney's website says it's 70 pounds versus 93.)

I have built packs for both my 18 and 26 gavin hulls after following Billy's advice (Thanks for all the help Billy!) I built the 26 setup about 2-1/2 years ago and I want to say I needed to add a couple pounds. Last year I built the 45 aH pack for the 18 hull and it was a tight fit, but was able to get everything in the hull. Burn times on the tester was a little under 3 hours, so for folks like me who only visit cave country once a year or two and are not doing push dives I really like not having to carry multiple sets of batteries. Also works out well for offshore dives where you may be spending a couple nights onstie at a wreck. The only problem I have has was when I setup the 26 body. During weighting, I had a weight slip while carrying it to the truck and blew the circuit board. Had a small fire inside but quickly took care of it and was able to salvage all the cells and just needed to replace the board. Haven't used the 26 setup since I built the 18 as I like carrying the lighter scooter :-)

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Originally Posted by rmurray

... I had a weight slip while carrying it to the truck and blew the circuit board. Had a small fire inside but quickly took care of it and was able to salvage all the cells and just needed to replace the board. Haven't used the 26 setup since I built the 18 as I like carrying the lighter scooter :-)

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Stay away from the Cadallac motel :-D

Nice, I swear it wasn't me!
I now have the weights setup so the threaded rod runs through the weights, which also makes it easier to fine tune the trim. I was half undressed when I heard the pop and saw the scooter move. I know exactly what it was and it was hell trying to get teh nose cone off with the negative pressure from the fire.

I like the idea of a Mako LIFE conversion, who is or has done that?

I recently built a 40ah LiFEPO4 pack for my gavin 26. The prismatic batteries are ~17.5 lbs lighter than the genesis lead acid batteries so I replaced the center pvc bulkhead with a steel bulkhead that weighs ~13.5 lbs. The remaining ~4 lbs. were used to achieve perfect trim and buoyancy.

I dive this pack and have for awhile... Great investment and solid build by Billy.

Charger is not included
The SS motor mount & bulkheads are not included.

The LiFe are lighter so 21lbs of lead needs to be added

This pack uses prismatic cells

Most of my packs are used in SS UV26 but there’s a pair in some gavins.

LiFe is different than LiPO or LiION, yes they are all lithium but they act different when exposed to water and the emergency procedure is to submerge in water.

During my initial build I did not take into account of the reduced weight, we showed up at JB and it floated like a cork, so I drug it up on the beach and threw in some soft weights, not enough so di that 3 time. Finally got the weight right and we went diving. So what did I forget; sand, sand, sand! So I wound up dumping half gallon of water out. Battery back has been running strong for 5 years since then.