Date:         Sun, 19 Sep 2004 18:44:42 -0400
Reply-To:     Matt Bennett <matsuwesty@EARTHLINK.NET>
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From:         Matt Bennett <matsuwesty@EARTHLINK.NET>
Subject:      I-Pods and isolators
Content-type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII

I read on the list about people spending tons of money for I-Pods.   They
are very nice units and are quite versatile, but I only spent $139 for my
Clarion AM/FM/CD/MP3/WMA player that I bought on E-Bay.   It was a factory
refurbished one, but I've not had a bit of problem with it for the 2 1/2
years I've used it.   I can store over 10 hours of music on one CD when you
use the MP3 function, and when I get tired of one type of music (on my 10
hour CD) I can change it to something else.   Granted, if I want to take my
music with me to go kayaking or something I will have to take out a CD and
put it in my portable CD/MP3 player, but usually when I kayak I like to
listen to my surroundings or to my wife (we have a tandem kayak).
In regard to battery isolators for dual battery setups, I tried an isolator
on my van and wasn't happy with it.   It drew 1.1 volts and it got really
hot when it was in use.   I switched to a heavy duty relay that I purchased
for $20 and I have a 0.3 volt drop and it hardly gets warm.   I've not had
a problem with the relay for 2 1/2 years of use and it has allowed me to
jump my starting battery off of my auxiliary battery a couple of times when
I had a weird voltage draw from some funky wiring the previous owner had
done (now it's fixed).
That's just my 2 cents, but when I hear about people spending $174 for
battery isolators I wonder.....why?
If you have any questions about my setup just go to my Matsuwesty
Adventures site and look under "Upgrades".
Hope this helps,
Matt


Matsuwesty Adventures website:  http://home.earthlink.net/~matsuwesty
FAVOR website:  http://home.earthlink.net/~clubvanagon
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"Life is a journey, explore each day and treasure every minute given to you"