Date:         Tue, 7 Aug 2007 11:16:32 -0400
Reply-To:     Warren Chapman <vwsyncroguy@YAHOO.COM>
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From:         Warren Chapman <vwsyncroguy@YAHOO.COM>
Subject:      Re: T3 Westy's; batteries; how to have your cake and eat it

On Sun, 5 Aug 2007 21:12:01 -0700, Reinhard Vehring <rvehring@YAHOO.COM>
wrote:

>I am not sure though that I would be comfortable
>emptying half of my starter battery.

I like this discussion very much ...also being very protective of every
square inch of storage spacy in my Westy.....I like the theory

.....but will a battery at 12V even start the vehicle?? I've recently read
that a normal cranking battery is 50% gone at 12.3V and dead at 12V....so
does a deep cycle still have cranking power at only 12V.

Another point,...if the batteries were of the type that could be safely
discharged to 80%.... then could 30% more of the house battery capactiy be
used after the cutout ....giving even more useful AHs.

I also want to investigate cutting the floor out of the battery box and
extending it downward to get a bigger/deeper (100AH) battery under the seat
(s).  Not sure yet if it can be done.

Warren C