Date:         Tue, 10 Jan 2012 14:44:34 -0800
Reply-To:     Aaron <a.robinson.lists@GMAIL.COM>
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From:         Aaron <a.robinson.lists@GMAIL.COM>
Subject:      Small UPS SLA batteries...deep cycle substitute?
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The recent JC whitney Inverter purchase (well not quite, they canceled my order) got me thinking again about a separate house battery for the Westy. A friend of mine has approximately 30 batteries from an old UPS which I was thinking might be worth using. The batteries were fairly new and tested good. It made me think - Would these batteries work well as a house battery for our westy? They are "Sealed Lead Acid" and are 12v 5Ah. It sounds like they can be installed in any orientation. It made me start thinking of how I might use these in series to get power that would fit in a small hidden space and, when wired in parallel, would provide power for my fairly minimal needs. I'm thinking ~50Ah would be fine for me and would be easy to adjust by adjusting the number of batteries.

Here's a similar battery:
http://www.batterywholesale.com/battery-store/proddetail.html?prodID=374


Regarding SLA batteries, 
Do they handle deep cyclingl?
They say sealed, but would/could they leak? 
What spaces could they squeeze into?

In a previous van, I had ~100Ah deep cycle and inverter taking up a large amount of space under the rear seat. I didn't like it.  Under the Driver's seat is a possibility,My thought was to secure a battery "bank", a sure-power 131X to keep them charged, and put some into some of the places that rarely get used? For example  a 3.75" layer of them under the back seat, with hold-down over them - or in some kind of box or small space Or perhaps they would fit near the rear table leg. Elsewhere?

Now If only JC whitney would send the inverter...

Thoughts?

Aaron
'87 Westy