Date: Tue, 23 Jun 2015 20:17:33 -0700
Reply-To: Stuart MacMillan <stuartmacm@GMAIL.COM>
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From: Stuart MacMillan <stuartmacm@GMAIL.COM>
Subject: Re: [WetWesties] Aux battery Woahs -Status
In-Reply-To: <F31616E5-C047-43B5-9C11-FE32DA974377@yahoo.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="utf-8"
You want a smart charger. They can keep the battery charged while the stereo and other low current drains are hooked up, and work with both wet and AGM battery types. I’ve been using three of them for many years now on my old cars, and your plan to hook it up to the fridge 120v outlet is great. Then you can just “plug the van in” when not using it and keep the house battery fully charged.
I’m testing whether or not it will charge both my chassis battery and my AGM deep cycle battery when connected in parallel. So far, it looks good, but time will tell.
The CETEK comes with a plug set up in the charging cord, and includes a hookup you can permanently attach to your house battery and easily switch between charging the two batteries. Get one for each as an accessory and make it even easier. http://smartercharger.com/accessories/
You get what you pay for.
Stuart
From: wetwesties@yahoogroups.com [mailto:wetwesties@yahoogroups.com] On Behalf Of Jeremy Stovin jjstov@yahoo.com [wetwesties]
Sent: Tuesday, June 23, 2015 6:22 PM
To: Joel Salter
Cc: wetwesties@yahoogroups.com; vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM
Subject: Re: [WetWesties] Aux battery Woahs -Status
Thanks everyone. Keep the tips coming.
I did pull the battery and took it in to test. They confirmed its dead.
I decided to take one persons's advice and getting a Les Schwab 41XT. Have not bought it yet, so if there are any bad feedback, let me know now.
I was thinking of getting a charger/maintainer that would plug into the outlet under the sink, so it would charge when the van is plugged into shore power. Question. Can I just leave that set up like that? The alternator charging when running is not going to cause a problem? Is there one brand or type better than others? I see inexpensive ones at Harbor Freight, then others with prices all over the place.
Was also thinking of getting a battery cutoff switch. Good idea or bad?
Once I get the battery in, I can start looking for the draw.
Sent from my iPad
On Jun 22, 2015, at 11:24 AM, Joel Salter joel.salter@gmail.com [wetwesties] <wetwesties-noreply@yahoogroups.com> wrote:
Take battery into the Baxters or O'Reilly's ask them to test the condition of it. I'm sure there are other battery testing facilities as well.
Your voltage drain is another story. Suggest making a list of everything that uses electricity and then going through and checking all wires, disconnecting while watching your digital multi meter for change in reading.
Sent from my iPhone
On Jun 21, 2015, at 10:31 AM, Jeremy Stovin jjstov@yahoo.com [wetwesties] <wetwesties-noreply@yahoogroups.com> wrote:
I am at my wits end with my aux battery. Trying to figure out the cause of the problem. Definitely there isn't a draw somewhere. Or so I thought. But my knowledge base on this is limited.
Wiring is not standard by a long shot.
The problem from last season is the battery seems to run down way too quickly. I have multiple things powered by it, but I thought when the car runs, the alternator would charge it through the main battery. (There is an isolator between for when it's off.)
So, the battery, which I bought last summer, was dead. So my plan was to charge it, then try to figure out which connection has the draw when everything is off (top guesses are radio and truckfridge). Before hand, I disco once everything from the aux battery. I test it and it was like a 5v. I plug the van into an electricity source (home outlet) then plug my charger into the outlet inside the van, and then clips to positive and negative. I leave it overnight.
I go out this morning, disconnect the charger and test. 12.26v with some fluctuations. I leave it. I come back 20 min later, and test it again and it reads 11.14v. This, I think, is telling me the battery is not holding a charge. This was a new battery when I bought it. How could I kill it so badly, if I did? I bought this battery new because I wanted to take the old previous battery out of the equation. But do I have such a draw that I'm killing batteries so quickly?
I'd like to get more info before I buy a new battery. The current one is just a basic from Car Quest. My next one may be the expensive deep cycle.
Can some patient people try to tell me what I'm doing wrong, and maybe walk me through some next steps.
Any other info needed on this, let me know
Jeremy, '87 Westy
Sent from my iPad
__._,_.___
_____
Posted by: Jeremy Stovin <jjstov@yahoo.com>
_____
<https://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/wetwesties/conversations/messages/60073;_ylc=X3oDMTJvZHVxMGhhBF9TAzk3MzU5NzE0BGdycElkAzQ3NzQ4BGdycHNwSWQDMTcwNTA2NDk5OARtc2dJZAM2MDA3MwRzZWMDZnRyBHNsawNycGx5BHN0aW1lAzE0MzUxMDg4OTk-?act=reply&messageNum=60073> Reply via web post
•
<mailto:jjstov@yahoo.com?subject=Re%3A%20%5BWetWesties%5D%20Aux%20battery%20Woahs%20-Status> Reply to sender
•
<mailto:wetwesties@yahoogroups.com?subject=Re%3A%20%5BWetWesties%5D%20Aux%20battery%20Woahs%20-Status> Reply to group
•
<https://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/wetwesties/conversations/newtopic;_ylc=X3oDMTJjNGhzaWI2BF9TAzk3MzU5NzE0BGdycElkAzQ3NzQ4BGdycHNwSWQDMTcwNTA2NDk5OARzZWMDZnRyBHNsawNudHBjBHN0aW1lAzE0MzUxMDg4OTk-> Start a New Topic
•
<https://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/wetwesties/conversations/topics/60065;_ylc=X3oDMTM0cDdpMHNjBF9TAzk3MzU5NzE0BGdycElkAzQ3NzQ4BGdycHNwSWQDMTcwNTA2NDk5OARtc2dJZAM2MDA3MwRzZWMDZnRyBHNsawN2dHBjBHN0aW1lAzE0MzUxMDg4OTkEdHBjSWQDNjAwNjU-> Messages in this topic (9)
PICTURES! http://picasaweb.google.com/wetwesties/
To leave us: wetwesties-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com
Calendar of events: http://www.wetwesties.org/calendar
For technical resources: http://www.wetwesties.org/links.htm
Please conserve bandwidth and clip quoted material in your posts.
Include only the information that is relevant to your response.
<https://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/wetwesties/info;_ylc=X3oDMTJja3BhZ2JkBF9TAzk3MzU5NzE0BGdycElkAzQ3NzQ4BGdycHNwSWQDMTcwNTA2NDk5OARzZWMDdnRsBHNsawN2Z2hwBHN0aW1lAzE0MzUxMDg4OTk-> Visit Your Group
· <https://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/wetwesties/members/all;_ylc=X3oDMTJkaXVvc2NlBF9TAzk3MzU5NzE0BGdycElkAzQ3NzQ4BGdycHNwSWQDMTcwNTA2NDk5OARzZWMDdnRsBHNsawN2bWJycwRzdGltZQMxNDM1MTA4ODk5> New Members 5
<https://groups.yahoo.com/neo;_ylc=X3oDMTJiZGJlNmtuBF9TAzk3NDc2NTkwBGdycElkAzQ3NzQ4BGdycHNwSWQDMTcwNTA2NDk5OARzZWMDZnRyBHNsawNnZnAEc3RpbWUDMTQzNTEwODkwMA--> Yahoo! Groups
• <https://info.yahoo.com/privacy/us/yahoo/groups/details.html> Privacy • <mailto:wetwesties-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com?subject=Unsubscribe> Unsubscribe • <https://info.yahoo.com/legal/us/yahoo/utos/terms/> Terms of Use
.
<http://geo.yahoo.com/serv?s=97359714/grpId=47748/grpspId=1705064998/msgId=60073/stime=1435108899>
<http://y.analytics.yahoo.com/fpc.pl?ywarid=515FB27823A7407E&a=10001310322279&js=no&resp=img>
__,_._,___
