Date: Fri, 23 May 2008 14:34:14 -0700
Reply-To: Keith Ovregaard <kovregaard@GMAIL.COM>
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From: Keith Ovregaard <kovregaard@GMAIL.COM>
Subject: Re: Battery Woes/Choice
In-Reply-To: <000601c8bd06$46b21af0$0201a8c0@troykv7nw3q4te>
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The aux battery in my van is a deep cycle in a size that is hard to
get in the USA, but common in the EU. Comes from Acr Battery in
Sausalito where they do a lot of exotic Euro cars and lots of boats.
Fits in the under seat box and same size as group 41, give or take.
The owner, Al, has told me several times to not waste my $$ on the
Odyssey battery or anything but a lead/acid flooded battery. Better
bang for the buck.
Given your example, my setup should be OK. I never run the furnace at
night and the rest of the load is fairly low right now (stereo, amp,
camera charger, ipod, lighting). Never have run the battery into the
"red" zone. Not sure what voltage the red LED indicates, so I want to
put in a real digital volt meter to know for sure. Maybe a switch that
is wired to both batteries while I am at it.
On Fri, May 23, 2008 at 11:53 AM, Troy <colorworks@gci.net> wrote:
> Makes me think my 78AH battery would not be happy if I installed a new
> fridge. For more amp hours, I'd have to reconfigure the whole system by
> adding another battery under the bench seat. My Propex heater is in there,
> so I'd need to move it to make room and then run large wire to the other
> aux. battery under the driver seat. Probably need to get a DC to DC charger,
> too. Maybe another 75 watt PV panel? This is looking like a very expensive
> upgrade!
>
> For what it's worth, after running my furnace (1.8 amp) overnight, (actually
> 12+ hrs) in addition to the refrigerator (2.8 amps) and then a fluorescent
> light for a few hours (.9 amps). The resting voltage of my 44AH honesty
> battery was 11.9 (almost dead). The resting voltage of the starting battery
> was 12.3 (still pretty decent). I tied the two of them together via a switch
> I installed. With 78AH you may actually be okay, and can always draw little
> bit of power from the main if necessary. I think one of the biggest problems
> in my equation is the Odyssey battery is severely overrated. As one person
> said, the best the thing about Odyssey batteries is their advertisements,
> and I believe it. For a $200 battery, it's a giant rip off, with a poor
> warranty besides. Which 78AH battery do you have? Is it an AGM?
>
> Troy
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