Talk Morgan Forums Morgan Sports Cars Morgan Three Wheeler & Super 3 Itty bitty battery

I'm working on a Lotus Elan project and was wanting to try one of the new tech Lithium Iron Phospate (LiFePO) type batteries as they are quite small and very light (3.3 pounds!), but before I modded the car to relocate the battery to the engine compartment I thought I'd try one out on another vehicle to see if they are really viable. Let's see...what do I have that would put a minuscule battery to a proper test. Hmm...how about a huge V twin?

So it's been about 4 weeks now that I've had an Anti Gravity YTX12 battery (about 3.5" by 5" by 5" tall) rated at 720 cranking amps (really) in the Morgan 3W and it works great. Probably only 20 starts or so thus far, but it spins the motor over faster than the relatively new lead acid battery (rated 320 cranking amps I think) that was in there before. Indicated battery voltage is fine and so far no worries. Had to make a tray adapter to keep the battery in place as it's so small it just wanted to fall through the stock battery tray!

Only down side is the cost

Here's a pic:

Well done!

Daft name notwithstanding, the big issue with non-lead batteries is the circuitry to make them act as 12v, and protect the battery eg from deep discharge... not sure how you assess those bits!

By that do you mean individual lower voltage cells wired in series? I.e. just like lead acid batteries (which have qty 6 2V cells in series)? Can't see that as an issue.

Deep discharge of lithium batteries is a potential issue, but on a vehicle with a functioning charging system and low running current demands (M3W) I don't see it as a practical issue. Then again, that's why I'm running one "in real life" to see how it holds up.

Although more expensive I would get the EarthX Li batteries with the built-in charge management system.

EarthX E36D is the one you want. Has a special controller to prevent full discharge/overcharge.

No - the special charging requirements... eg see https://www.powerstream.com/LLLF.htm

Your car alternator is not going to provide a charger for these batteries so the battery basically includes a charger / circuitry. All well and good, but you wouldn't want that bit to be low quality!

If the EarthX are certified from r aircraft I seriously doubt they are low quality.

Totally agree. Are Antigravity the same?

I've been using a Magneti Marelli 53034 Lithium battery in mine for nearly three and a half years and almost 20,000 miles with no problems