PINNED - 230Ah (245Ah certified) A grade cells Amy, Docan

[shirley_hkg]

They won't go anywhere if your Bounder died.

[Burgerman]

According to Bounder themselves, box is 290 x 375 x 304. It'd be snug but it'd fit. Not sure if I trust them tho. It seems oversized for grp 24. I don't want to pay $500 for it to not fit.

Some bounders have a grp27 batter box fitted. They look like they are taking a dump at the rear with the batt sticking out the back even more than normal. Thats a longer box than 24s.

Which is why:

Postby Burgerman » Sun Oct 26, 2025 5:18 am
No. Well it might, but MEASURE VERY CAREFULLY.

[Scooterman]

It's a good idea the user being able to temporarily switch off the annoying clicking brake

Looks like your van BM.


youtu.be/UKD5pO47b-A

[Burgerman]

Thats a newer version than mine.

[Burgerman]

Battery box on bounders sticks out the back looking pretty ugly. The bigger one sticks out even more presumably.

Like this?

[emilevirus]

I ordered the Bounder Plus with long base so I might have grp 27 box. Will confirm with the guy tmrw. If so, I'll order 314ah.

[Burgerman]

What batts does it have now?
Theres a clue! If they are 27s then it must be the big box...
If 24s and theres space remaining, same thing.

[emilevirus]

What batts does it have now?
Theres a clue! If they are 27s then it must be the big box...
If 24s and theres space remaining, same thing.

Don't know. I just ordered it without batteries. Will get it by december. I called them and the group 24 box is 11.43" x 14.80" x ~12" high which should fit.
Anyway, ordered 8x 314ah. $512 shipped. Hopefully it fits!

[ex-Gooserider]

Flip side - running the ancient 90Ah (6s x15Ah) Headway cell pack I just put in my admittedly weedy Jazzy, I'm charging every 10-14 days and putting in 50-65Ah per the PL-8....

I'd be worried running the 230Ah pack because I'd never remember to charge it every couple of months...

ex-Gooserider

[emilevirus]

Wow.. After my order, they received 340Ah cells (real capacity 365+Ah) the SAME size as a 280Ah. It's INSANE. You could fit 365Ah in a grp 24 box.

[Burgerman]

To fit a grp 24 box it must be 54mm thick max.

[emilevirus]

According to my measurements, it should fit. Will see when I receive them in about 2 months.

[Burgerman]

Take a look here:

A GRP 24 is 210mm inc terminals tall maximum (190 in practice).
And 168mm wide. And 260mm long.

And usually fitted side by side.

Giving this as the only possible arangement that will fit a 160 or 230Ah (244Ah) cells x 8.

There isnt another arangement that fits.

[wchl25]

Docan USA in Texas has the 230 ah cells in stock so I am thinking about getting them. I need my frontier to have a greater range for hunting and camping.

I have a few questions about switching over to the lithium cells. I think I'm going to run without a bms, I have a zxd for a power supply and a Junsi X8 hobby charger to charge them.

First question is how do you accurately keep an eye on the battery level so you know when you are getting low? I doubt the gage on the control will be of much help. Is there some sort of external gage that could be hooked up and mounted somewhere?

Second question, is there anything special that needs to be done before assembling the pack? Pre charging, soaking, ect....

Third question, What charge settings should I be using in the charger? I've never used it for these type of cells or that much power.

Thanks for any suggestions.

[ex-Gooserider]

You can mount a low cost digital volt meter anywhere on the chair or even just make a quick checker by attaching it to an XLR plug and sticking it into the charge socket on your joystick. If you want to get fancier you can wire a hobbyist LiPo-pack 'cell checker' into the same type plug you use for your balance wiring and stick that in for checking every so often.

If using a volt meter, you are less concerned with the actual voltage as you are with watching how it changes when you maneuver in the chair, especially starts, stops, hard turns, etc. When you are fully charged it will hardly change at all, and if it does, it pops right back up to the previous value. As you discharge it starts to change more when you hit the juice and take a bit longer to come back. If you start getting very low, you might start dropping a LED on your joystick power indicator - if you see that, charge ASAP...

However you will rapidly develop a 'feel' for how much power you have and stop worrying about it - if I was going on a hunting / camping trip I'd make sure I was fully charged before I left and just not worry about it, as the pack will last FAR longer than you do... As a comparison - granted it's a weedy chair, but when my Odyssey rebrand batteries were brand new, and in my normal use, I would be dropping LED's by the end of the day. Similar use on my 90Ah Headway pack, I'm going 10-14 DAYS between charges, and putting back 60-70Ah...

Not familiar w/ the Junsi charger, but on my PL/8 I'm charging at about 25A if the power supply can put out enough juice... In the US, the ZXD we love can only do 25A on 110VAC (you get the 50A it does elsewhere if you can manage a 220V hookup) The 230Ah cells have a lower C-rating than mine, so I think you still want to charge at about that rate... In practice you probably want to charge at the maximum rate the charger can put out...

ex-Gooserider

[Burgerman]

As above.

But I will comment anyway!

Docan USA in Texas has the 230 ah cells in stock so I am thinking about getting them. I need my frontier to have a greater range for hunting and camping.

Get them while you can...

I have a few questions about switching over to the lithium cells. I think I'm going to run without a bms, I have a zxd for a power supply and a Junsi X8 hobby charger to charge them.

All good.

First question is how do you accurately keep an eye on the battery level so you know when you are getting low? I doubt the gage on the control will be of much help. Is there some sort of external gage that could be hooked up and mounted somewhere?

After config, and setup and a little use then you will soon see that you go about a week of normal use before you need worry about looking at a guage. Thats the point of fitting enough battery in the forst place. If you see a couple of lights out on the controller you might want to charge it or at least look at the levels with a cheap battery level gauge that shows cell voltages.

If its 3V you are done. After that theres not much left and going further will very rapidly drop the cell voltage lower than the recommended 2.50V lower limit.
See my cheap meter that I plug in and check if unsure. Everything from hobby batts to chairs...
Amazon, hobby shops, eBay etc
https://www.isdt.co/bg-8s-2.html?lang=en
I keep one in a bag with phone, keys, money strapped to my knee. But you wont use it after you work out how hard it is to use up a big lithium battery.

Second question, is there anything special that needs to be done before assembling the pack? Pre charging, soaking, ect....

Just charge each cell full. Individually as a 1S cell. So that thee pack will be reasonably rapid to balance once assembled.

Third question, What charge settings should I be using in the charger? I've never used it for these type of cells or that much power.

As much power as the charger or the power supply is happy with really.
Remember that with a 244Ah capable battery you might need to actually replace 230Ah even if theres still 15Ah remaining. Presumably you wont often discharge them that far though. If you do, and you charge at say 30A then thats going to take 8 solid hours plus a little more to balance and for the slower CV part. So say 9 hours to be safe.

So 30A is OK even if the pack is very discharged.
Even 20 is OK as most of the time you will not be returning that much!
So you can charge at whatever rate that the situation and time available seems to make sense.

So set say:
30A
3.550V
And unlike the PL8 where we can choose a termination current like say 800mA I dont think that you can do that on the Junsi chargers. At least you couldnt. It may be possible now. Not sure.
If not then its set as a percentage of the CHARGER AMPS. Which gets a bit more complicated.
Lets say you want 800mA termination. And it will be something similar to this.
You set say 30A charge. And working out how to get 800mA is harder. So 10% of 30A would be 3A. So 2.5% of 30A would be almost perfect at 0.75A.

So set that as the termination "percentage" of the charge rate.
Also set it to max balance current possible.
Set to never start balance before or lower than 3.450 to 3.500V per cell.
And never to end charge before this balance has been achieved regardless of termination current.

Now charge and use. First charge will take a while to fully balance everything up.
And charge and use a couple of times more but watch the charge end carefully.
Heres what should happen. It should reach 3.550V and all cells should reach that same point, and this is called CV (Constant Current stage or absorption for retards) All cells will be balanced and at CV.
And it will have been this way for 15 to 30 mins. Then charge will (should) end.

If CV takes longer than 30 mins post balance being achieved, then increase the terminaton current. By changing that % value to a bigger figure. If it is at CV for LESS than 15 mins, post balance, then set a smaller percentage. This is not critical. So set this in use by small tweaks over time. Heres the issue. When you change that charge Amps, then this means that percentage figure is now wrong... Thats why the PL8 where you can just set say 800mA instead was better...

So once you get it sorted dont change the charge current unless you save it as a different profile and with a different % termination to match.

Did that help!