Date:         Fri, 4 Aug 2000 17:18:26 -0400
Reply-To:     "Carrington, Tom" <TCarrington@ReliTech.com>
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From:         "Carrington, Tom" <TCarrington@ReliTech.com>
Subject:      FW: [Syncro] Wiring And Amperage Tips For 2nd Battery & Winching
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1"

Please reply to Dan, not me!

-----Original Message-----
From: Dan Fleming [mailto:ddffpc@home.com]
Sent: Friday, August 04, 2000 12:41 AM
To: Derek Drew
Cc: Syncro@egroups.com; vANAGON@GERRY.VANAGON.COM
Subject: Re: [Syncro] Wiring And Amperage Tips For 2nd Battery &
Winching

I did a similar type of installation on my passenger van when outfitting
it for camping. I wanted to have an isolated battery to use for lights
and such, so I installed a deep cycle under the rear seat. I attached a
ground cable permanently, then attached a positive cable to the battery
and drilled a hole in the vertical base of the seat and created a new
post by sticking  a bolt through the seat base, with the positive cable
attached inside the seat.

I hooked up a cigar lighter outlet to the battery and mounted it in a
smilar manner to the seat base.

To charge the battery, I attach a jumper cable from the driving battery
to the positive post on the seat base. Take the jumper off, and we are
back to a separate battery. I run a 150 watt inverter off of the cigar
lighter outlet and run compact flourescent lights at night. I can go
several nights before neeeding to recharge the extra battery.

This works pretty well, with the one caveat being that it takes a few
more hours of running to recharge the deep cycle than a regular driving
battery. To charge it fastest when driving, pull the positive cable
completely off of the driving battery after the van is running.

Dan Fleming
National City