Hisun Sector e1 Battery replacement: any tips?

[Jamie Wilson]

On 2/22/2025 at 10:23 AM, Redfox said:

Is it necessary to change the 12v battery to lithium as well? Does the converter that converts 48v to 12v have to be changed out to?

No I left it alone. 

[Jamie Wilson]

11 hours ago, Redfox said:

On 5/16/2024 at 2:10 PM, Jamie Wilson said:

Wanted to give my info here so its documented and others know. I have had issues since day one with my Discover batteries on my Sector E1. The issue was the dealer i purchased it from was 3 hours away and both them and Hisun said i would need to bring it back to figure it out. after 3 years almost I was so tired of the low voltage errors "45C3" that i decided to replace the batteries. It was so much money and so many different stories/opinions I wasn't sure what direction to go. Last min i found Litime.com they had 51.2v 30Ah Lithium batteries. I reached out and they said they would be a direct replacement for the Discover batteries. So I ordered them. They emailed me back and as I found on the interwebs - contradicting information they said "These will not work, please deny the shipment or use for another project. The HP of your UTV is too much". Well I didn't listen and i accepted the shipment. Yesterday i took out my 8 Discover and replaced them with 4 51.2v 30Ah LiTime batteries. I installed them in parallel, I did an algorithm update on the Delta iQ 1200 using profile 233 (Closest settings to the LiTime Battery). and BOOM! it worked, and it worked like NEVER before! its so fast, two grown adults up the hill and hardly any drop, but best part at 50% charge it was showing ZERO errors. I would estimate the cart is about 2" taller now too b/c of the battery weight removed. I will update in a few weeks how they are doing. but as of now i would totally recommend and they were like $499 a battery b/c they have a sale currently taking 100 off each battery.           Hey Jamie  have you had any problems with the conversion to LiTime 4 pack 48v 30ah batteries. Did the battery BMS work well with the Delta Q charger?

I have had zero issues! I need to get the battery meter in the buggy updated to ready the battery level correctly but the Bluetooth app works perfect. I have way more range and so much faster. No low voltage errors. 

[GNFO]

On 2/27/2025 at 6:48 AM, GNFO said:

EVSupport has a better idea of the specifics, but your second sentence is essentially correct. There is a 12V system and a 48V system.  How you get to 48V doesn't matter:  8 Discover lead batteries in series, two 24V batteries in series, or even just a single 48V lithium battery, it doesn't matter from just the standpoint of getting to 48V.  (Total storage and available continuous amps for maximum motor power is a different matter of course). That 48V is used for the motor controller and runs the DC-DC converter for topping off the 12V battery. As I mentioned, I didn't change my 12V battery when I converted, and that was two years ago.  I'll probably check the 12V battery health like EVSupport mentions, but everything has been working just fine so far.

Thanks to EVSupport for the suggestion to check the 12V battery.  I haven't had any problems with any of the 12V accessories including the winch, but out of curiosity I unplugged the UTV and turned off the main pack batteries (they have an on/off button, the US version doesn't have the "big red button" disconnect.)  By the end of the day the 12V battery was reading 6V.  The moment I turned the main pack back on I could tell it was charging the 12V battery, so the fact that I leave the UTV plugged in was masking the declining state of the 12V battery.

Briefly looked for a lithium replacement because of the longer lifespan, but couldn't find one that I was sure would work with the charging designed for the lead AGM battery. So just replacing with the same.

[EVSupport]

You have just found your Duff 12v , its not a good idea to use a li 12v as they have a simple BMS inside that will simply cut off if too high a voltage, the DC to DC will then see open circuit. Not sure they will like that much, but constant disconnection and re connection isnt ideal. For what a 12v battery costs and perhaps 3 years life, I dont see the Li units as being of any value as a replacement.

[Redfox]

On 3/2/2025 at 8:01 PM, Jamie Wilson said:

I have had zero issues! I need to get the battery meter in the buggy updated to ready the battery level correctly but the Bluetooth app works perfect. I have way more range and so much faster. No low voltage errors. 

 

On 3/2/2025 at 8:01 PM, Jamie Wilson said:

I have had zero issues! I need to get the battery meter in the buggy updated to ready the battery level correctly but the Bluetooth app works perfect. I have way more range and so much faster. No low voltage errors. 

LiTime has dropped the price on the 49v 30ah battery to $369. That’s what I just paid 

[hdtran]

On 3/2/2025 at 12:41 PM, chris murray said:

ok here is my install 2018 Hisun Sector E1 had 8 AGM 6 volts in it and went with 4 48v Epoch Lithiums. The new charger is installed where the delta Q was and installed the new gauge on the best possible spot. charger port where the gas filler would be.

Chris Murray, thanks for the photos!! These are great! A few questions, as I intend to attempt a similar project in the next year or two (I'd keep the DeltaQ charger and leave it where it is):

(a) Did you move the charging port from "inside the glove box" to "where the gas cap would be"?

(b) How difficult is it to remove the dashboard panel to put in the battery gauge?

(c) Same question for the various panels in front of the bench seat and the front driveshaft tunnel?

(d) On a level of mechanical (and electrical) difficulty, where (1) is "changing the oil in a car" and (5) is "replacing drum brakes in a car"; for electrical, (1) is "installing/replacing a 120V outlet without electrocuting yourself" and (5) is "adding an electrical subpanel to your house without electrocuting yourself", how would you rate the difficulty of your overall removal of original batteries and installation of new batteries?

Thanks!!

[Redfox]

On 6/25/2024 at 4:44 PM, Jamie Wilson said:

51.2V 30Ah is the ones i purchased with Bluetooth.

What size wire is required to connect the 4 48v 30ah battery together?  What size wire is required to connect batteries to the battery charger? For the perfect balance. Thank you for your advice 

[GNFO]

18 minutes ago, Redfox said:

What size wire is required to connect the 4 48v 30ah battery together?  What size wire is required to connect batteries to the battery charger? For the perfect balance. Thank you for your advice 

I used 1/0 AWG cables between the batteries and kept the final cables that connected the batteries to the motor controller.  I was originally going to use a busbar like Chris Murry shows, but my battery maker specifically showed their batteries connected in parallel directly with each other in their videos, so I assumed they had designed them to handle it that way. A busbar requires longer cable runs (and therefore thicker to reduce losses).  There's nothing wrong with that and I'm sure there are good arguments for it but I chose not to mess with the stiffer cables and added installation.  Haven't had any issues in two years.

FYI, I installed the charging port like Chris Murry did, but put it on the forward passenger side of the UTV since that's close to the onboard charger and I didn't have to run a wire through the drive shaft tunnel. I had actually done that first when I bought the UTV, before I even thought about switching to lithium batteries.

[Redfox]

25 minutes ago, GNFO said:

I used 1/0 AWG cables between the batteries and kept the final cables that connected the batteries to the motor controller.  I was originally going to use a busbar like Chris Murry shows, but my battery maker specifically showed their batteries connected in parallel directly with each other in their videos, so I assumed they had designed them to handle it that way. A busbar requires longer cable runs (and therefore thicker to reduce losses).  There's nothing wrong with that and I'm sure there are good arguments for it but I chose not to mess with the stiffer cables and added installation.  Haven't had any issues in two years.

FYI, I installed the charging port like Chris Murry did, but put it on the forward passenger side of the UTV since that's close to the onboard charger and I didn't have to run a wire through the drive shaft tunnel. I had actually done that first when I bought the UTV, before I even thought about switching to lithium batteries.

Great info on the battery cables.  You know what size wire to use for connecting the battery charger to achieve a balanced battery pack?

[GNFO]

2 minutes ago, Redfox said:

Great info on the battery cables.  You know what size wire to use for connecting the battery charger to achieve a balanced battery pack?

Keep in mind I'm not an electrician. According to some of the guides I've seen, they would actually recommend thicker than 4/0, but that seemed excessive for the short runs and the fact that the existing cables were even thinner. The advantage of the busbar is that you could have thinner cables running from each battery and a thicker cable to the motor controller, but again my 1/0 cables seemed thicker than what the UTV even came with.  I'm sure EVSupport has better information and can correct me.

For the charger, I didn't do anything. Since my batteries have a CANbus connection to enable BMS self balancing between themselves, I just let them charge as installed off of the Delta-Q charger through the sevcon.

[Redfox]

2 hours ago, GNFO said:

Keep in mind I'm not an electrician. According to some of the guides I've seen, they would actually recommend thicker than 4/0, but that seemed excessive for the short runs and the fact that the existing cables were even thinner. The advantage of the busbar is that you could have thinner cables running from each battery and a thicker cable to the motor controller, but again my 1/0 cables seemed thicker than what the UTV even came with.  I'm sure EVSupport has better information and can correct me.

For the charger, I didn't do anything. Since my batteries have a CANbus connection to enable BMS self balancing between themselves, I just let them charge as installed off of the Delta-Q charger through the sevcon.

That’s what I needed to know. Thanks 

[hdtran]

For those of you contemplating swapping out your batteries, I found this video on youtube. I like that he goes into how to remove various nuts-and-bolts to remove the old batteries.

 

[GNFO]

12 hours ago, hdtran said:

For those of you contemplating swapping out your batteries, I found this video on youtube. I like that he goes into how to remove various nuts-and-bolts to remove the old batteries.

 

It's always good to see how someone else chose to do it, but I disagree with the way he worded his reasoning for changing the onboard charger.  Yes, you don't want to use the existing charging profile of the Delta-Q charger, but changing the profile is very easy if you have the right version file.  It just requires a USB stick and the instructions and absolutely does not require removing it from the UTV.  The manufacturer of the batteries I used (ReLion) sent me the files for the Delta-Q with a charging profile they had specifically made for them.  No point in changing out a perfectly good (and already installed) charger if you don't have to.  Others on this very long thread have used other profiles as well.