No flames intended here Harold. I'm certainly no expert on this topic, though I do have some experience with it. Just wanted to add the following points to this discussion:
" I believe the factory >relay under the front seat that most westies have is designed >by VW to only power the refrigerator 12 volt heating element. >There is a possibility that, if one is using that to also charge a >second battery, that the relay or the wiring could be damaged." Actually, if you look at the wiring diagram on page 97.222 of the Bentley you will see that the relays that came on Vanagons from 1986 were ment to work with an auxillary battery. Weather the stock wiring was adequately designed or not I don't know. I do know that this set up seems to work fine on my 90 Westy Syncro. "It is fuse protected, but still.... >That setup works for a lot of people, but it is good to at least >keep an eye on it. Imho." Not a bad Idea! "On the setup I am using, the deep cycle battery is under the drivers seat, >and I >mounted the isolator in the engine compartment behind the right >rear wheel well." Don't know if this is a good idea or not. Those fins on the isolator are there for a reason: to disperse heat. The engin compartment is a pretty warm place. My guess is that you could mount the isolator anywhere that is not hot if you use large enough wire. I would refer you to the tech support number on the isolator instructions for this one. Thanks for listening, Bill 90 Westy Syncro
. |
Please note - During the past 17 years of operation, several gigabytes of
Vanagon mail messages have been archived. Searching the entire collection
will take up to five minutes to complete. Please be patient!
Return to the archives @ gerry.vanagon.com
The vanagon mailing list archives are copyright (c) 1994-2011, and may not be reproduced without the express written permission of the list administrators. Posting messages to this mailing list grants a license to the mailing list administrators to reproduce the message in a compilation, either printed or electronic. All compilations will be not-for-profit, with any excess proceeds going to the Vanagon mailing list.
Any profits from list compilations go exclusively towards the management and operation of the Vanagon mailing list and vanagon mailing list web site.