[Caevlist] RYOBI Electric Riding Lawn Mower RM48e battery replacement/upgrade

[pmccabe at alyrica.net]

RYOBI Electric Riding Lawn Mower RM48e battery replacement/upgrade

Has anyone replaced their  RYOBI 75Ah (LPC12-75) or 100Ah (LPC12-100) 
batteries with LiFePO4 equivalents?  Hoping someone could recommend a 
specific make/retailer etc.

I’m currently away from the tractor so I’m gaming my options.  One 
reasonable situation with my batteries (75Ah with 80 hard hours) is one 
or more of the four is bad and needs replacement.  In this situation I 
was considering the advisability of a mixed pack!  I know default answer 
is bad idea.  But cheapness is the mother of potentially functional 
solutions.  If only one of the SLA batteries is bad I replace it with a 
LiFePO4 which will have an internal BMS and is charged at 14.2 to 14.6V 
(assuming the Ryobi charger is near that range, again I’m 3000 mile from 
it).  I figure a potential worst case is any pack imbalance is bad for 
the SLA batteries and less so for the LiFePO4 (maybe? Advise!)…you can 
see I’m bargaining against buying 4 LiFePO4s!  A downside of this is one 
would probably want to frequently check the capacity of the remaining 
SLA batteries…which is kind of a nuisance with this mower.  I may be 
making a good argument for bitting the bullet and replacing all of the 
damn SLAs. Four new LiFePO4 batteries would make for a great pack if an 
expensive one.

So any recommendations on good LiFePO4?  Thanks.

Patrick McCabe