[electro wrks]

So I'm beginning to get my traction batteries balanced and ready to wire but I have a question. My batteries are these:

http://www.techdirectclub.com/lot-o...cart-bosch-battery-5-cell-18-5vdc-1-1kwh-10c/

And I have 18 of them that I will wire to make a 30S3P pack (120V 180AHr). The wire in the car now is 2/0 between the battery leads and controller (car is currently on lead acid pack of 96V).

A. Should I run the new batteries in a 5S3P first and then series those together? Or run a 30S and then parallel the strings only at the top?

B. If the jumper length is short, less than 4" long, I should be okay to run a 4 awg wire, yes? My battery studs are M6 and there isn't room to run 2/0. If I split the load evenly across the packs, there won't be more than say 200A peak through each string.

Thanks!

4 awg is probably too small for your app. Set up a few cells with the peak load and check it out. You'll probably need to fab and set up buss bars. The more pressing task, as I see it if the voltages are as written on the box flaps, is to quickly parallel cells and slowly bring them up to near the max V. With the wide V spread, there may be some bad cells. If there's any way to run them through some charge/discharge cycles- even better. At least you'll find out before they're put in a pack.