Coincidence you ask? I replaced the aux battery yesterday on my 81 - the battery I swapped out wasn't deep cycle and the sticker on it had it installed in 1988! HOWEVER The one I put in was from my recently retired Ford T-Bird (hit and run while parked on the street - wrote it off) and it's just a little taller than the old one such that I put two thicknesses of roofers tar paper over the entire unit just to ensure there was no short against the steel lid. I have no qualms about using a car battery in place of a deep cycle - did it for years with a trailer. The only advise I would offer is to ensure you check the fluid levels regularly if you are actually deep cycling it (running it right down between charges) as the recharge cycle may cause evaporation and you may need to top it off. Eric -----Original Message----- From: Vanagon Mailing List [mailto:vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com] On Behalf Of Geo Hahn Sent: Thursday, June 19, 2003 10:00 AM To: vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM Subject: Re: Auxiliary Battery
Loren A. Busch wrote: ><snip> But do you really need a deep cycle battery? I just replaced my >aux battery (yesterday in fact). I went with what has served me well >over the years, a standard starting battery. And I have quite a bit of >'stuff' that I run off the aux battery, sometimes for up to a week. It >works fine. > I too use a regular battery for the aux... have done about 12K miles this year camping mostly in 3 week trips with some driving every few days. Lasts for many years with this treatment. Never had it let me down and have used it to start & run the van in one emergency (alternator failure that also killed the main battery). I do have the aux under the rear bench seat which gives me more choices is size. Geo Hahn 84 Westy Mt Lemmon, AZ |
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