Date:         Wed, 12 Aug 1998 15:40:53 -0700
Reply-To:     John Thomas <jthomas@CRUZIO.COM>
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <Vanagon@vanagon.com>
From:         John Thomas <jthomas@CRUZIO.COM>
Subject:      84 Westy - Refrig drained Aux and Main Battery.
Comments: To: Vanagon Mailing List <Vanagon@vanagon.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii

Hi,
Last week we were out camping and after pulling into the campground I lit the
propane burner for the refrig but I somehow negleted to switch it from Battery
power to propane.

We woke up the next morning and when I went to use the sink pump, I relized that
we had a dead Aux battery and I realized what I had done.
I wasn't to worried until I looked at the clock and saw that it had also stopped
which meant both batteries were dead.  Luckily a campsite neighbor was willing
to give us a jumper cable start and we were on our way.

But it means that I apparently have 2 serious misconceptions about the Aux
Battery.
  1)  I thought that when you switched the refrige to battery power it would
only draw power when the ignition was on.  In fact I thought there was even a
timer circuit so the ignition had to be on for some period of time before the
refrig would switch on.  This is obviously not true in our case because I
checked and the ignition was not on.

  2) I thought that the Aux battery was setup so that it could be run down
without ever drawing any power from the main battery.

Are these misconceptions or is it possible that I have some circuit connected up
wrong?  If it is the latter, how would I go about figuring out where it is
wrong?  I did purchase a digital voltmeter recently but I will have to admit
that I have no idea how to use it.
I am really a dummy when it comes to automobile electronics.  The Bently
diagrams assumes that one knows more than I do.  But I am willing to learn!

--
John Thomas
E-mail: jthomas@cruzio.com
Web:    http://www.cruzio.com/~jthomas