Date:         Sat, 25 Apr 2020 22:54:16 +0000
Reply-To:     David Boan <dboan@OUTLOOK.COM>
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From:         David Boan <dboan@OUTLOOK.COM>
Subject:      Upgrading second battery system
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1"

Hi there Vanagon Types,

I am about to start my latest lockdown project, which is to upgrade from the GoWesty second battery kit in my '85 Westy to a Blue Sea automatic charge relay with start isolation.  I thought I would outline what I plan to do and see if anyone has any tips or sees something I am overlooking.  Hopefully, this exercise will be useful to others considering the same thing.

My current setup is the GoWesty solenoid connected to a house battery under the backseat.  I have a blue sea auxiliary fuse panel under the driver seat along with a dual bank charger and a controller for a solar panel.  The house battery is grounded to the chassis and a ground cable runs to the fuse panel.  The house battery positive runs to the fuse panel.

I disconnected both batteries, then removed the solenoid and fuse. I left the relay but removed the blue wire as the frig now goes to the fuse panel.  Here is where it gets tricky.  The charger runs one bank to the starter battery and the second bank to the auxiliary fuse panel for the house battery.  I plan to run the cable that currently goes from the charger to the starter battery to one side of the ACR and then from there to the starter battery.  The other side of the ACR goes to the same fuse panel connector as the house battery positive.

I am going to deal with the start isolation later after I get the basic setup working.

I will write again after I make a little more progress.  Thanks in advance for any alerts or suggestions.

Dave B
Boise