Lithium Rhino (recommendation?)

[CMA8611]

I’ve been looking at upgrading my power supply from old lead acid. I have a Yamaha Drive 2 that is completely stock and I don’t have much plan to mod it up. The cart is used solely for golfing at a local course. I’ve been looking at Eco Battery along with Lithium Rhino. Price for price, both are similar. I know Eco has been around the block for a bit so they’ve got some track history. Lithium Rhino is a newer player in the battery game. Warranty consideration is always a welcome and while Eco claims an 8 year warranty, but as someone who spent time working as manufacturing warranty’ admin, their warranty is really just 36mo. The prorate escalates quickly enough in subsequent years thereafter that calling it a warranty at that point is purely a sales tactic.

Now that leads me looking at the young Lithium Rhino, who at least advertises a free warranty for six years before a much more affordable prorate kicks in. The caveat here is a young company and who knows where things will be X years from now in today’s lithium market. Support wise, I did reach out to LR and the owner did take time to discuss my application. It was at least nice to talk with a human.

Bottom line, I know there are much cheaper offerings out there, but many start to fall of the way side when you read the reviews for support etc. In my opinion, a US based support system that you can actually reach on the phone ranks high in my book.

Bottom line, I like what I see for tech details that are provided by LR, however I don’t have the lithium experience to know what other important factors should be looked at and inquired upon. With all that being said, anyone here in the group have any experience with Lithium Rhino or know anyone who has? Has the experience been positive. Lastly, if anyone checks out their site, is there additional technical detail I should be looking for?

[FrippGamecock]

Interesting enough, I had a conversation with Don Plowman of Plowman’s carts today. He is carrying the Lithium Rhino and he says he’s installing at least two a day and he’s really high on the product. He previously carried Allied and stopped because of quality concerns.

[CMA8611]

I ended up going with the Epoch 48v 105 Big Box. Price was a little bit better as they were running a 15% sale. I was torn between the Eco, Rhino, and Epoch. Obviously Eco has been around the block for a bit, Rhino is fairly young, and the Epoch Big Box is newer in their lineup. I hung around each Facebook group and the Eco/Epoch groups have a decent size following, and tech responses seem quick there. I did like the Eco/Epoch small round dash gauge better than the square style lcd monitor of the Rhino. If looking cart specific kits and folks are a little less handy, I’d say Eco would be the route. If you’re handy and can do some basic mounting mods and understand battery systems, then Epoch/Rhino is an option. Bottom line, I came in at about $1800 after the sale with the Epoch. If I’m playing a round by myself, I’m averaging about 1% per hole. Amperage’s haven’t been any issue on any of the heavy load tests I’ve done on it. Only downer I guess is my charger is 15a whereas the Rhino is 25a. Frankly it charges over night and I just unplug it when I head out to work. Obviously time will tell how things stand up.

[CMA8611]

Couple photos.

[mdees88]

Originally Posted by CMA8611

Couple photos.

I really like that the power switch can be mounted on the dash and the 2" gauge makes for a clean install.

I just installed an Epoch battery a couple weeks ago. It has been working well so far for my pretty hard, off road driving (navitas 600a controller).

I was wondering if you get a warning after you charge your battery called "full charge protection"? So far I have go that on all but one charge. I also have 2 cells that are usually ~.05v lower than the rest after charging. Just curious how normal this is...

[CMA8611]

Originally Posted by mdees88

I really like that the power switch can be mounted on the dash and the 2" gauge makes for a clean install.

I just installed an Epoch battery a couple weeks ago. It has been working well so far for my pretty hard, off road driving (navitas 600a controller).

I was wondering if you get a warning after you charge your battery called "full charge protection"? So far I have go that on all but one charge. I also have 2 cells that are usually ~.05v lower than the rest after charging. Just curious how normal this is...

To my understanding, the full charge protection warning means it’s charged and that it’s turned off the charge. My guess is the person who wrote the app probably could have used better term, but that might have got lost in translation with the homeland where all these batteries come from.

As far as voltage spread, there will be some slight differences. I’ve got one cell that sits .03 as the low from the high. The rest sit about .01 from one another. I think that sits within the tolerance zone.

My only complaint is the battery gauge. The contrast is a bit funky, so you have to bend down and look at it dead on to see it easily. But I’d take it over the ugly square box displays. The things I like are the remote power switch, along with the deautsch style main plug on the battery.

If anyone is looking at this model, the battery studs are a bit short. However the bolt down studs use the same thread and are slightly longer. I had to get some longer mounting hardware as the Yamaha has a honeycomb like underside. The ring terminals in the 2awg cables I used were a little too thick of the original studs, but the mounting bolts were sized right.