Hi there.
While I'm not a camper guy, I can give my two cents here in regards to changing the 12v Lead-acid to Lifepo4:
I have been working on building my own 12v Lifepo4 as my EV's "starter" battery (instead of the heavy an inefficient SLA battery that the car comes with).
While I know that some Nissan Leaf owners have done this swap, I would strongly recommend against it. Especially in any PSA/Stellantis vehicles like my Corsa-e (or the Vivaro).
The main problem is that EVs have an onboard DC-DC converter. This converter is usually constant voltage (usually above 14v), which means that it's not suitable for properly charging a Lifepo4 battery (or any Lithium really).
I went through many loop-holes to try to step down the voltage and limit the current with my DIY Lifepo4. While I was partially successful, the car didn't like the Lifepo4 and would bring up a number of warnings/faults.
In the end I decided to save weight by switching to a smaller deep-cycle AGM. It's on order, haven't received it yet, but I believe it should be fine. Lithium batteries have a very low internal resistance in comparison to Lead-acid, so they will "pull" a huge amount of charge from the DC-DC converter. This is both not safe for the Lithium and not recommended for the DC-DC converter's lifespan.
So in short, my recommendation is not to touch the 12v battery life, but just add a Lifepo4 leisure battery and charge it up with solar and/or a proper B2B (battery to battery) charger. There are some one the market like the Victron Orion Tr Smart and the Renogy DC-DC.
Just make sure that you choose a model with the correct charging amperage for your leisure battery.
Also, keep on mind that most EV's onboard DC-DC converters are rated at 1400w-1800w.
You don't want to run them at full load, as this can cause them to overheat and prematurely fail. So do your math properly...
While in theory you could just connect a 12v inverter directly to the car's 12v battery, I wouldn't do this for prolonged times and wouldn't pull more than a few hundred watts...
I think that adding a leisure battery with separate charging is the best solution for a camper van. This will also allow you be more flexible if you need (add more capacity, etc...).
While I'm not a camper guy, I can give my two cents here in regards to changing the 12v Lead-acid to Lifepo4:
I have been working on building my own 12v Lifepo4 as my EV's "starter" battery (instead of the heavy an inefficient SLA battery that the car comes with).
While I know that some Nissan Leaf owners have done this swap, I would strongly recommend against it. Especially in any PSA/Stellantis vehicles like my Corsa-e (or the Vivaro).
The main problem is that EVs have an onboard DC-DC converter. This converter is usually constant voltage (usually above 14v), which means that it's not suitable for properly charging a Lifepo4 battery (or any Lithium really).
I went through many loop-holes to try to step down the voltage and limit the current with my DIY Lifepo4. While I was partially successful, the car didn't like the Lifepo4 and would bring up a number of warnings/faults.
In the end I decided to save weight by switching to a smaller deep-cycle AGM. It's on order, haven't received it yet, but I believe it should be fine. Lithium batteries have a very low internal resistance in comparison to Lead-acid, so they will "pull" a huge amount of charge from the DC-DC converter. This is both not safe for the Lithium and not recommended for the DC-DC converter's lifespan.
So in short, my recommendation is not to touch the 12v battery life, but just add a Lifepo4 leisure battery and charge it up with solar and/or a proper B2B (battery to battery) charger. There are some one the market like the Victron Orion Tr Smart and the Renogy DC-DC.
Just make sure that you choose a model with the correct charging amperage for your leisure battery.
Also, keep on mind that most EV's onboard DC-DC converters are rated at 1400w-1800w.
You don't want to run them at full load, as this can cause them to overheat and prematurely fail. So do your math properly...
While in theory you could just connect a 12v inverter directly to the car's 12v battery, I wouldn't do this for prolonged times and wouldn't pull more than a few hundred watts...
I think that adding a leisure battery with separate charging is the best solution for a camper van. This will also allow you be more flexible if you need (add more capacity, etc...).
