Battery upgrade?

[Katon]

Hey! So I am planning to upgrade the battery since I have range anxiety lol I was looking into bolton ebikes and wanted to know if any of you had experience upgrading your bikes with a bigger battery or have a dual battery set up? and if so are there any safety issues I need to worry about? 😅

[RiderDan]

Same here with the range anxiety.  😂😂  A dual battery setup would be nice if you do it right.  Paralleled correctly, it would reduce the power draw from each pack by 1/2, which will get you longer pack life (charge cycles) as well as range.  The problem is, just about all the parallel adapters I see out there are not true parallel, but rather switchers.  You'd still get the benefit of range, but not the reduced current draw.  At worse with these switchers, you'd see the same battery life as normal, but boost range safely.  Basically the same as using up one battery then swapping to the next, except it does this automatically.

If you try to parallel packs without some type of protection like a switcher or true parallel protected adapter, you'd have to make sure you match the voltages 'exactly' when plugging them in, and use 2 similar packs with similar age.  If that's too much trouble, just mount the second pack unplugged and switch manually when the first pack runs out.  Parallel connection of 2 packs at different voltages without protection will cause a potentially huge current from one to the other, causing all sorts of problems including fire and explosions.

Alternatively, you can get another pack with a higher AH rating.  The stock Rad packs are 48 volts at 14AH.  You can get a triangle pack, but personally, I don't like the way they're mounted just sitting in a bag velcro'd to the frame.  I've found a newer battery case that might just work for my RadRover5 mounted in the stock location on the downtube.  If built using the newish Samsung 50E cells, it'll get just shy of 20AH at 48 volts, a range increase of 1.4 times.  I just need to verify the fit, then start building them.  If all works out, I may start building them for sale for those interested, but that could be a ways out with the current delays in sourcing cells worldwide.

The easiest thing to do if you "need it right now" is to just get another Rad pack if you can, mount it disconnected on a rear rack, and manually switch when you run out.  It'll double your range with very minimal effort.

[crorris]

I'm kind of lucky because my wife has a Rover too, but she never goes with me on my long rides. So, I take her battery with me when I go farther than 25 miles. I wouldn't mind just having a second battery too, but I want to be able to swap it out vs. running in parallel or adding another mount. The Rad batteries are so expensive. I'd almost rather buy a whole second bike instead and have all the other spare parts. 

I wish there was a less expensive aftermarket battery that plugged right into the standard Rad mount/connector. I search pretty extensively. Has anyone else found one?

[Joel52334]

I'm kind of lucky because my wife has a Rover too, but she never goes with me on my long rides. So, I take her battery with me when I go farther than 25 miles. I wouldn't mind just having a second battery too, but I want to be able to swap it out vs. running in parallel or adding another mount. The Rad batteries are so expensive. I'd almost rather buy a whole second bike instead and have all the other spare parts. 

I wish there was a less expensive aftermarket battery that plugged right into the standard Rad mount/connector. I search pretty extensively. Has anyone else found one?

RPB has an exclusive contract with its manufacturer.  Special mount plate, special battery.  There is a variety of mount plates to 3D print on thingiverse.com, do some searching there.  RPB is very reluctant to give any "schematical drawings" out.  You have to take all your own measurements.  That's a bit of a PIA.

[paulcstaley]

Alternatively, you can get another pack with a higher AH rating.  The stock Rad packs are 48 volts at 14AH.  You can get a triangle pack, but personally, I don't like the way they're mounted just sitting in a bag velcro'd to the frame.  I've found a newer battery case that might just work for my RadRover5 mounted in the stock location on the downtube.  If built using the newish Samsung 50E cells, it'll get just shy of 20AH at 48 volts, a range increase of 1.4 times.  I just need to verify the fit, then start building them.  If all works out, I may start building them for sale for those interested, but that could be a ways out with the current delays in sourcing cells worldwide.

If you decide to put some of these batteries together for sale please let me know. I would love to have more range.