Will this battery work on the 2018 Radrover mini ?

ryan1685

100 W
Joined
Apr 3, 2015
Messages
126
I was doing some research on how to get some more distance out of my new 2018 RADROVER MINI which didn't entail peddling more. I found some places that sold external batteries that you could mount to the back rack. They state that as long as you plug in there battery into your on board radrover battery when it is at a full charge, it will continue to charge your onboard battery as it goes down from use from the secondary battery mounted on the back. Is this plausible? Or am I just being mislead on Alibaba once again lol.
 
something like this is what I am referring to

https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1000times-cycle-1000w-Electric-Bike-Lithium-Ion-Battery-48v-20ah-battery-lithium-48v-bike-battery-for/32384070329.html?spm=2114.10010108.1000023.5.24024ccbDYcUbR
 
how much more capacity/range do you want? that is the first question that needs to be answerd.

if you dont care about warranty with the original battery you can simply gut the existing shark pack battery that is pretty standard and just flood the thing with high capacity cells. usually i can cram 800~1000Wh into a standard shark pack depending on what the customer wants to pay for.
if you plan to never remove the battery you can simpy get another shark pack, use cheaper cells like the panasonic PF or samsing 29E and just put the packs in parralel. you will more then double the range and increase the lifepspan considerably.
 
In parallel with the factory on board battery? How could I accomplish this? Is there anyway that I could just throw a charging head that is used with the factory rad rover charger and battery and connect to the shark pack so that it charges the on board battery while in operation ? Seems like the simplest option in my opinion that wouldn't take any soldering, but I know very little about electrical, so maybe this isn't even plausible
 
you CAN put 2 batteries in parralel.

i would recommend tapping off the wire going between the original battery and the controller and just tapping off 2 leads (make sure they can handle the current) and put those on the second battery.

but be warned: ALWAYS make sure you have them on identical charge (that means the same voltage) when connecting them.
if you plan on keeping them both connected then you only have to deal with this once.
if you plan to do this often you really need to take care that you dont put a (partially) discharged pack on the bike when the other one is full or vice versa. you will melt cables and worse if you dont. the amount of current that can flow between the batteries is huge.

oce you have them connected you can use the charger to charge both batteries at the same time. just make sure the key thing on the shark pack is not cutting the power to the bicycle because then the second battery will not get charged and you end up with a massive inbalance and the entire deal will smoke your cables once you turn that key.

ps: do yourself a favour and dont buy that chinese POS battery. you will be dissapointed.
 
are you in this business of making batteries? When you write your replies my eyes glaze over. lol, I am not that bright.
 
Yee, i build batteries to order.
Anything from bikes to off grid storage.
 
Maybe when I get some more money I will have to solicit your services. Would I have to solder the leads from the shark pack to the on board battery to make this work ? Could you direct me towards some how to videos so I can understand what you mean ?
 
you have a shark pack on the bike already.
the holder from that battery has 2 wires coming out carring the current from the battery to the controller.
those wires need to be tapped off/spit and extended to the second battery. that is it.
that is a mod a half-decent handy guy near you can do for you. just make sure everything is properly connected and waterproof.

but the issue/question remains is what you actually want to achieve, just double the range you have now or even more?
depending on your needs you can choose what is more cheaper and logical do to. no reason to spend a ton of money if you are not going to use it or spending not enough and coming up short or worse (and what usually happens) spend a lot and still come up short.
 
soldering or crimping skills would be needed to parallel your packs. What is needed is called a Y connector, because it looks like a Y.

On one end, you need the plug that goes to your controller. on the other end, with the two plugs, you have one plug that fits your stock battery. on the other one, a plug that fits your additional battery.

The batteries need to be very simlar, same type close enough so that they are same voltage when full.. So if 48v, both need to be the same. not a 14 cell that charges to 58v with a 13 cell that charges to 54v. See what I mean? But they can be different size in capacity. like one a 10 ah and the other a 15, or whatever.

Then super important, charge both first ALWAYS, before you connect up.
 
Hi folks! New here and ready to learn!

Wouldn't it be just as easy to simply carry a second battery and swap them? You'd have the safety factor with the reserve in knowing that you have as much energy left to get home as you did to get there. Or, a simple toggle to switch from one battery to the other?
 
why swap them? its much harder on the batteries (more batteries to share the load means longer lifespan) and why carry dead weight around for the entire trip?
 
Plus It would be nice to have another battery with a higher ah rating. After loosing one bar on my Radrover mini stock battery, I start to loose about 25% of my torque. Which is kind of lame.


flippy said:
you have a shark pack on the bike already.
the holder from that battery has 2 wires coming out carring the current from the battery to the controller.
those wires need to be tapped off/spit and extended to the second battery. that is it.
that is a mod a half-decent handy guy near you can do for you. just make sure everything is properly connected and waterproof.

but the issue/question remains is what you actually want to achieve, just double the range you have now or even more?
depending on your needs you can choose what is more cheaper and logical do to. no reason to spend a ton of money if you are not going to use it or spending not enough and coming up short or worse (and what usually happens) spend a lot and still come up short.


I don't have a shark pack I only have the on board battery that looks like this

https://radpowerbikes.ca/products/radmini-electric-folding-fat-bike?variant=5921615806496.

Looking to put a shark pack on the back rack and have it in parallel with my factory battery
 
dogman dan said:
soldering or crimping skills would be needed to parallel your packs. What is needed is called a Y connector, because it looks like a Y.

On one end, you need the plug that goes to your controller. on the other end, with the two plugs, you have one plug that fits your stock battery. on the other one, a plug that fits your additional battery.

The batteries need to be very simlar, same type close enough so that they are same voltage when full.. So if 48v, both need to be the same. not a 14 cell that charges to 58v with a 13 cell that charges to 54v. See what I mean? But they can be different size in capacity. like one a 10 ah and the other a 15, or whatever.

Then super important, charge both first ALWAYS, before you connect up.


lol thanks for the insight, still sounds like it is above my paygrade.
 
ryan1685 said:
I don't have a shark pack I only have the on board battery that looks like this
https://radpowerbikes.ca/products/radmini-electric-folding-fat-bike?variant=5921615806496.
Looking to put a shark pack on the back rack and have it in parallel with my factory battery

that is basically a shark pack. they exist in a few versions and shapes but they are basically all the same.

IMG_1659_1024x1024.JPG


looks fammiliar?

putting a fancy dress in a cheap ass chinese battery does not make it magically better, just more expensive.

you can replace the batteries you have right now with much higher performance ones. or just go for broke and have a second battery. that should help the pack from sagging under load as it does now. but you need better cells then the ones you have right now. having crappy cells is what is causing the sag in performance. the voltage drops but the controller keeps putting the same current (note: i dont say voltage!) so lowering the voltage but keep putting the same current means you get less power out of the pack. the controller is not smart enough to compensate for this so you get less and less power and top speed until the pack is dead.
the crappier the cells the harder they sag and cut out well before they are empty.

having high end cells designed for this kind of load reduces sag and usually also increases capacity.

good cells are expensive and hurt the bottom line, that is why they are raking in the money on selling spare batteries and i keep in business repairing those POS batteries when people are done paying 700 bucks for a new battery every 2 years *just* when the warranty has expired...



edit:


just for shitsngiggles i pulled a battery from the shelf and pulled it. i was just finished working on it:

nfAg59il.jpg


looks fammiliar?

https://radpowerbikes.ca/collections/replacement-parts/products/radmini-battery-pack-2017

660 canadian dinars. and what do you get? 52 batteries worth 2 bucks a pop in a standard aliexpress battery holder...
i can smash 70 cells in that thing without even trying.

hers is a link to a chinese builder that makes them for 220 american roebels:
https://freeworld.en.made-in-china.com/product/QBSJIkXCnaYd/China-48V-E-Bike-Lithium-Battery-Panasonic-Shark-Pack-with-NCR18650PF-Cells-by-13s4p.html
 
Pig tailing will violate his warranty for his original battery. Yes better to parallel for long life less stress. Well void battery warranty on original model. First let's talk about the warranty that came with the bike can you cut solder and add wires and a battery to existing system.
Oh did I say warranty did you fill out your warranty card and send it back in when you bought it.
 
999zip999 said:
Pig tailing will violate his warranty for his original battery. Yes better to parallel for long life less stress. Well void battery warranty on original model. First let's talk about the warranty that came with the bike can you cut solder and add wires and a battery to existing system.
Oh did I say warranty did you fill out your warranty card and send it back in when you bought it.

Not yet, only had the bike for a few weeks. I have no clue about alteration to the bike. I will have to look into it.


flippy said:
ryan1685 said:
I don't have a shark pack I only have the on board battery that looks like this
https://radpowerbikes.ca/products/radmini-electric-folding-fat-bike?variant=5921615806496.
Looking to put a shark pack on the back rack and have it in parallel with my factory battery

that is basically a shark pack. they exist in a few versions and shapes but they are basically all the same.

IMG_1659_1024x1024.JPG


looks fammiliar?

putting a fancy dress in a cheap ass chinese battery does not make it magically better, just more expensive.

you can replace the batteries you have right now with much higher performance ones. or just go for broke and have a second battery. that should help the pack from sagging under load as it does now. but you need better cells then the ones you have right now. having crappy cells is what is causing the sag in performance. the voltage drops but the controller keeps putting the same current (note: i dont say voltage!) so lowering the voltage but keep putting the same current means you get less power out of the pack. the controller is not smart enough to compensate for this so you get less and less power and top speed until the pack is dead.
the crappier the cells the harder they sag and cut out well before they are empty.

having high end cells designed for this kind of load reduces sag and usually also increases capacity.

good cells are expensive and hurt the bottom line, that is why they are raking in the money on selling spare batteries and i keep in business repairing those POS batteries when people are done paying 700 bucks for a new battery every 2 years *just* when the warranty has expired...



edit:


just for shitsngiggles i pulled a battery from the shelf and pulled it. i was just finished working on it:

nfAg59il.jpg


looks fammiliar?

https://radpowerbikes.ca/collections/replacement-parts/products/radmini-battery-pack-2017

660 canadian dinars. and what do you get? 52 batteries worth 2 bucks a pop in a standard aliexpress battery holder...
i can smash 70 cells in that thing without even trying.

hers is a link to a chinese builder that makes them for 220 american roebels:
https://freeworld.en.made-in-china.com/product/QBSJIkXCnaYd/China-48V-E-Bike-Lithium-Battery-Panasonic-Shark-Pack-with-NCR18650PF-Cells-by-13s4p.html



For one of these 70 (high-end) cell batteries - mind you it must conform with the 2018 Model radrover, how much would you charge me to build one? If you are adding 20 cells to the same battery, you are in essence increasing the capacity by 40%, that alone would give me my desired distance without having to have a parallel setup. a 60KM range on full throttle is more than enough for me. I am getting close to 40KM with the factory battery. If I even wanted to go any further, I could always just bring both with me for a combined 100 KM range.
 
I wonder if the 2018 rad rover mini would work with this battery

https://delongbattery.en.made-in-china.com/product/wCoJWHUzrucd/China-5V-USB-Charging-Port-Rechargeable-48V-Ebike-Battery-13s5p-48V-17-5ah-Hailong-Battery.html

Same voltage - but it has 3.5 more AH. 3.5/14 = 25% increase in capcity, which is that bad.

I just wonder if it is too big to fit in the frame ?
 
i could work with that battery, but shipping it to canadistan would be cost prohibitive from europe.
it would be cheaper to get a second battery and hook that one up in parralel.
or find someone in canada to make a modified pack for you would be the cheapest option.
 
If you place the wires correctly and with the proper slack near the hinges it should be no issue to fold the bike with both batteries connected.
 
flippy said:
If you place the wires correctly and with the proper slack near the hinges it should be no issue to fold the bike with both batteries connected.


Hmm Ill watch some videos on youtube. Maybe one day Ill have enough battery power to leave this socialist wasteland. All hail Justin Trudeau. Thanks for all the advice
 
999zip999 said:
Maybe a second battery not parallel . On the rear rack. How often do you fold the bike ? May be a shark style under the top tube.

I havent folded it once. Just trying to get a second battery on the back rack if possiable. Having 60Kms of range would be a lot more ideal than 40, thats for sure.
 
flippy said:
i could work with that battery, but shipping it to canadistan would be cost prohibitive from europe.
it would be cheaper to get a second battery and hook that one up in parralel.
or find someone in canada to make a modified pack for you would be the cheapest option.

Hmm ill see if I can find someone locally. I
 
Say if I wanted to use to same casing that comes with the Radrover 2018 battery, but replace the current cells with ones that have a higher capacity and are of greater quality, could you recommend some ? If so, how many more do you think I can fit into the casing over and above what the manufacturer has done already ?
 
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