Date:         Tue, 15 Mar 2011 13:09:46 -0700
Reply-To:     Phil Zimmerman <philzimm1@SHAW.CA>
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From:         Phil Zimmerman <philzimm1@SHAW.CA>
Subject:      Re: Auxilliary batteries
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=windows-1252

Date:         Tue, 15 Mar 2011 07:39:26 -0700
Reply-To:     mark drillock <mdrillock@COX.NET>

I have a simple setup with a 1314 and the 125ah led acid deep cycle. The
aux battery sees about 14.5 volts while I am driving. My battery did not
experience any loss of water but it did lose at least half of it's rated
capacity in less than a year. Whether this problem is due to charging
method or simply a poor battery is a question I would like to answer but
can't.

My current plan is to put in a switched voltage drop to let me reduce
the charging voltage on long drives, after some initial period of full
voltage to allow fast charging. I plan to use a big diode for the
voltage drop.
-----------

Hi Mark,

Is this the battery mounted in the engine compartment next to the Z-tek engine?

If yes, a possible contributing issue to the degraded battery capacity are the 
higher ambient temps the battery endured? I cannot quote a number but, for temps
above ~72F the charge voltage needs to be reduced x-number of volts….

Strange though, I would expect some loss of electrolyte under these elevated 
ambient temps? Batteries are weird sometimes…. Battery Voodoo!

Cool idea for voltage reduction…. diode…. :>)

regards

Phil Z.
'87 Westy 
Campbell River, BC