Date: Wed, 25 Jan 2012 21:25:12 -0500
Reply-To: "Chris S." <szpejankowski@GMAIL.COM>
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From: "Chris S." <szpejankowski@GMAIL.COM>
Subject: Re: Just hibernating & a battery mystery
In-Reply-To: <4F207081.7020900@gmail.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=utf-8
The electronic Sears DieHard chargers have an automatic desulfation mode when they detect such conditions.
Good to hear about your winter nut stash. Maybe you got lucky in more ways than one.
Chris.
Wysłane z iPhone'a
Dnia Jan 25, 2012 o godz. 16:13 Rocket J Squirrel <camping.elliott@GMAIL.COM> napisał(a):
> In case anyone is wondering where the heck I've been. Admit it, you have
> been.
>
> My Westy is dozing under a Just Kampers vehicle cover (Vanagon content!)
> for the duration of the Bend, Oregon, winter. I have many projects which
> I was unable to get around to completing last year that I hope to get to
> in spring. Camping got in the way. Boo hoo.
>
> Until camping weather returns, Mrs Squirrel and I are snugged away in
> our little house with the nuts and firewood (four cord!) we gathered
> last summer.
>
> My mainly non-Vanagon postings are at <http://socal2bend.blogspot.com/>,
> for those interesting in Keeping Up With The Skuirrels.
>
> In the past 24 hours, Mt. Bachelor ski area has picked up 8'' of snow
> for those who ski (me? no: pot-metal knee). Snow's at something like
> 100'' of depth.
>
> For Westy-related fun I like to spot Vanagons in town. Yesterday I saw
> four, one of which appeared to be a 1984 ivory Westy just like ours.
>
> I may have killed my expensive Trojan deep-cycle 130 A/h battery. The
> van had been parked for a few weeks, slumbering, with a light (200mA)
> load on it (the load is primarily the Xantech battery monitor thingy).
>
> But the smart charger I usually keep connected to the battery had come
> unplugged, unbeknownst to me. So the load drained the battery.
>
> When I climbed into the van last week to take a bunch of boxes of
> seasonal decorations down to our storage facility, I saw that the
> battery was showing less than 7 volts. This should mean that the battery
> is so deeply discharged that it is damaged beyond recovery.
>
> I popped over to Sears and picked up a 10A "not dumb" charger, pulled
> the battery, and put a charge on it. In about 12 hours it showed a
> fully-charged battery. Now, one week after the charger has been removed,
> it still shows 12.48 volts (50 degrees F), and the float-type hydrometer
> says "100%."
>
> Does this make sense? Shouldn't this battery be pretty much a lead and
> sulfur-filled brick?
>
> --
> Jack "Rocket j Squirrel" Elliott
> Bend, Ore.
> 1984 Westfalia. A poor but proud people.
> 1971 "Ladybug"-brand utility trailer ca. 1972 from a defunct company in
> San Clemente, Calif., now repurposed as The Westrailia.
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