We hired Carter's Care RV, owned by Scott, to upgrade our 5th wheel to a lithium battery system --…read moretwo 300AH LiFePO4 batteries, an MPPT solar charge controller, an inverter/charger, and a battery monitor with a smart shunt from Redodo. What should have been a straightforward upgrade turned into one of the most stressful and expensive mistakes we've ever made.
From the start, I explained that we were new to lithium systems. Scott said he had only worked with Victron systems but claimed he had the additional components needed. He promised to follow up the next day, but I didn't hear from him until I reached out again three days later. His estimate was a single lump sum with no breakdown of labor, parts, or taxes.
He originally said the job would take one day. Instead, it took two and a half days because he repeatedly left for other obligations. I asked multiple times for his hourly rate, and he finally told me he "just knows how long a job will take."
Major Issues After Installation
After the installation, the battery monitor showed the batteries at 16AH and 16%, estimating 62+ hours to fully charge. Scott told me to leave the 5th wheel plugged into the house. The next day, nothing had changed. When I contacted him again, he said the batteries were in a "deep sleep" and needed to be "shocked" with a jumper pack.
The real issue was that Scott never programmed the battery monitor, even though I provided the full installation and programming instructions twice. When he returned, I handed him the instructions again, and he admitted he did not know how to program the Redodo monitor -- something any RV technician should research before agreeing to install.
He also incorrectly advised me to never use lithium batteries below 50% and to keep the RV plugged in at all times. This is simply not accurate for LiFePO4 systems.
Safety Hazards Found by Another Shop
A few days later, we took the 5th wheel in for unrelated warranty work. The technicians found multiple serious safety hazards caused by Scott's installation, including:
No heat shrink on any cable ends, leaving wires exposed
Incorrect color identification -- no red/black heat shrink to mark positive and negative
A negative cable with exposed wires touching the metal frame
Batteries not wired correctly in parallel
The negative cable to the inverter/charger only halfway attached
Improper 110V AC wiring -- connections not in junction boxes, bare wires left exposed
A 30‑amp wire spliced into a 50‑amp line, wrapped in electrical tape, and left on the floor
The 30‑amp wire from the inverter not tied into the breaker box correctly
Multiple exposed wires and wires touching the frame, creating fire and shock hazards
The inverter/charger was installed upside down. When I pointed this out to Scott, he insisted it was not upside down -- even though the printed labels and words were literally upside down. He left it installed that way.
Damage to Our RV
Without asking, Scott rummaged through my husband's workbench for screws to secure wiring. The screws he chose were too long and went straight through the subfloor into our bedroom and bathroom, leaving five holes in our linoleum floor that cannot be repaired.
Additional Costs We Incurred
Because of Scott's unsafe and incomplete work, we had to pay another RV repair shop to:
Remove and re‑terminate all battery cabling with proper heat shrink
Correctly rewire components into the breaker box
Properly label the breaker box
Install a DC‑to‑DC charger (which Scott never told us was required to protect the truck alternator when using lithium batteries)
Final Recommendation
Under no circumstances would I recommend Scott or Carter's Care RV Service & Repair. The convenience of mobile service is not worth the risk. We learned this the hard way. The repair cost us our vacation money we had saved up.
