Date: Fri, 3 Aug 2001 07:15:54 -0400
Reply-To: Alain Pierre Hovasse <aphovasse@HOME.COM>
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From: Alain Pierre Hovasse <aphovasse@HOME.COM>
Subject: Toronto Vans
In-Reply-To: <v01550109b78f72128d7c@[202.27.183.67]>
Content-type: text/plain; charset="US-ASCII"
Hey Everyone
A note about what's been happening up here in Toronto (Canada) and the
Toronto Vanagon Club. We started all this about a year ago, things are going
well, so well in fact that I thought I would let you all know.
First of all, we now have our own website at www.torontovanagon.com so
please come visit. The site is still growing and changing, so make sure you
come back often.
Also, we have about a dozen steady members and this seems to grow every time
we meet, which is once a month (except for the really cold winter months).
Most of us actively recruit whenever we see other unknown vanagons and we
even have a small leaflet (1/2 page) which we stick on van windshield wipers
in parking lots.
Our first meetings were social gatherings, where we swapped stories and
vanagon assistance over coffees. But we decided to move things up a notch
and our last meeting involved doing a mass install of auxiliary batteries in
about 5 of our members vans. A couple of people with experience (John and
Bernie) led the way while everyone else helped out on their own and others,
using a parts list which we had e-mailed beforehand. We also took advice
from the vanagon.com site, which has a fairly good set of instructions which
we printed, used and modified as we went. All this took a few hours on a
weekday evening and was extremely successful. In fact, for those of you who
are interested, one of our members, Ron Mighton, carefully wrote up the
whole procedure which I've pasted at the bottom of this letter. If you're
outside of Canada, you'll simply have to change the store names to reflect
your own car parts dealers, but they're all quite straight forward. This
will also be posted on the website. I was supposed to be taking photos of
the whole procedure, but had my hands full with the installation itself. The
evening was hosted by one of our recent members (Hi George!) and was very
successful and great fun.
I wonder if any other clubs out there are doing this type of activity and if
so, what sort of other ideas they might have which we could use. Sometime in
the near future, we're also planning to install a relay on the headlights,
which I'm told will increase the power to the lights and give us more
visibility at night. This is the kind of procedure we're looking for:
relatively easy, inexpensive and which can be done in a few hours. I don't
think we can have an inexhaustible supply of such projects (hmm let's see,
how about a mass head gasket change?). But in any case, I'm sure we can come
up with enough ideas to make a difference for some time to come.
Pretty soon we'll do the T-shirt and the sticker thing too. All this is nice
way to get people involved, to make the club a beneficial experience for
vanagon owners and lovers. As I mentioned above, we generally meet on the
last Wednesday of the month (we're planning weekends in the fall) and if
anyone outside of Toronto reading this plans on passing through here
anytime, let us know; it would be our great pleasure to entertain vanagon
visitors at one of our meetings.
Right, I've gone on long enough.
Alain Pierre Hovasse
86 Westy (The Pig)
Toronto
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
INSTALLING AN AUXILIARY BATTERY IN A VANAGON WESTFALIA
Take a look in the battery compartment under your driver's seat. Many Westys
came from the factory wired to accept an auxiliary battery. Look for a relay
(silver or black cube about 1" by 1" by 1" with several electrical
terminals). If you have one of these, then the following instructions are
for you.
You should have a few basic electrical skills, if not, get some help from
someone who does.
Note These instructions are modifications of the works of others who have
provided auxiliary battery instructions for the vanagon list.
Objective: To install a spare battery to run utilities, interior lights,
radio, fridge etc rather than use the main battery during camping trips.
What you need for the installation:
TOOLS
A simple set of tools, which should include
Electrical crimping tool
Multi purpose screwdriver with Phillips bits
Small crescent wrench
Metric wrench set, which includes 13mm wrench
Needle nose pliers
Small piece of coarse sandpaper
THE PARTS LIST (Parts and Prices are Canadian)
Cost of installing is as follows
Battery $58.99 COSTCO 207280 41-650 650 CCA
Negative bat.cable $4.29 CanadianTire Corp. 11-0931-8 (9 Inch
cable)
Pos. Bat. terminal $1.99 Canadian Tire Corp. 11-3510-2 Universal
top post with two inch connectors
Metric 8mm-bolt .32 Canadian Tire 61-2421-0 _ inch bolt for
ground
It is suggested that you use 12 gauge or preferably the larger 10-gauge wire
so you will also need the following.
10 Gauge wire 10ft $5.99 Canadian Tire 20-7511-4 (12 ft
required )
You need 12 feet of wire so buy two of above or buy a 12 foot length.
4 ring terminals $2.39 Canadian Tire 20-6908-8 (10/12 gauge fit
_ post
1 butt connector $2.39 Canadian Tire 20-6918-4 (10/12 gauge
pat 4 )
1 female connector $2.39 Canadian Tire 20-6923-0 (10/12 gauge
pat 4)
1 self strip connector $2.39 Canadian Tire 20-6932-8 (110/12
Gauge pat 4 )
1 20 amp in line fuse $3.49 Canadian Tire 20-0025-4
Note that the factory setup for the auxiliary battery will only supply power
to your fridge and possibly your cabin light. You will have to run an
additional power line to your dash
to power your radio and lighter socket if you want them on auxiliary power.
The fridge running on 12 volts will deplete the battery in two or three
hours.
1.Rotate passenger seat to rear and disconnect your primary battery at the
ground strap.
2.Slide drivers seat all the way forward then lift the small discrete latch
that allows further forward travel and remove driver's seat. Rotate driver's
seat swivel base to rear to give full clearance to the battery box.
Disconnect the 2 red wires leading from the fuse box behind the drivers seat
from the relay terminals. These wires lead to your fridge and cabin light.
3.Cut off the two connectors (on the red wires in step one) and connect
these two wires (using the crimping tool) to a ring connector which you can
then bolt to the positive + terminal of the aux battery.
4. Run a 10 gaige wire from the + terminal on the aux battery to terminal
#30 on the relay.
(Crimp on a ring connector to one end of the wire for the positive terminal
connection and crimp on the female connector for the relay connection.)
This wire supplies current to charge the auxiliary battery when the van is
running.
5. Put the battery in the battery box and connect the ground strap to one of
the two 8mm threaded holes already provided by VW .
6. We suggest you add one more wire so that the radio, lighter socket and
some interior lights will run off the auxiliary battery. The objective is
to run a wire from the auxiliary battery positive to the 12 gauge red wire
that connects to the back of the lighter socket. You should be able to find
a wire bundle up under the dash and just to the right of the steering column
that contains two red wires. One of these wires will be a larger size
12-gauge wire. You can confirm you have the right wire by removing the
ashtray and glove compartment. Reach in from the glove compartment to access
the back of the lighter terminal while someone else looks down through the
glove box hole to confirm you have the right wire and correct wire bundle.
Follow this bundle over near the steering column where you can get enough
access to make a connection to the 12 gauge red wire using the self strip
connector to make a tee connection. Now run the new wire over the steering
column and behind the dash. Be careful to keep the new wire up behind the
dash and well out of the way of the steering mechanism. Insert the inline
fuse somewhere you can access it when required and run the wire under the
floor mat and back to the positive auxiliary battery connector. REMOVE FUSE
3 thus ensuring that the radio, lighter socket and some interior lights will
run ONLY from the auxiliary battery.
7.Connect the positive and negative terminals to the auxiliary battery.
8.Reconnect the ground strap on the primary battery.
That's it. With this configuration, the aux battery supplies cabin power
whenever your engine is not running. When your engine is running, the
alternator charges both batteries and supplies cabin power. (Note: To start
your engine with the aux battery, you'll have to jump it to the main
battery.)
Note that there aren't any deep cycle batteries that fit well into this
space (11"l x 7"w x 6"h). A wheelchair battery fits, and gives you about 33
amp-hours. If anyone knows of any perfect-fit deep-cycle batteries, please
advise the list.
Thanks to the original authors who placed instructions on
www.vanagon.com/info/faq
