Date: Sat, 23 Jan 1999 15:57:26 -0800
Reply-To: Davidson <wdavidson@THEGRID.NET>
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From: Davidson <wdavidson@THEGRID.NET>
Subject: Re: Isolator, where to put it?
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1"
Harold,
Not disputing any of what you said... all good info. I really don't have an
opinion of what is right or wrong or the best way on this. But since some
people tend to take posts as gospel, just wanted to point out that the
Bentley does show auxiliary battery hooked up to the relay on at least some
Vanagons. You had said, "There is a possibility that, if one is using that
[relay] to also charge a second battery, that the relay or the wiring could
be damaged." It is possible that you are right and the German engineers are
wrong. I don't know.
I liked the isolator. It looks cool with the little blue fins and all. The
only reason I don't have one in my Vanagon is that it didn't work properly
for me. Perhaps the mechanic that installed it did it wrong. He sure screwed
up some other things in the process. And then the mechanic that I do have
confidence in (he drives a syncro and is on the recommended list at
vanagon.com) said that the relay was a better way to go. Perhaps he is wrong
too. I don't know.
Bill
90 Westy Syncro
-----Original Message-----
From: harald_nancy <harald_nancy@EARTHLINK.NET>
To: vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM <vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM>
Date: Saturday, January 23, 1999 1:48 PM
Subject: Re: Isolator, where to put it?
>Bill,
>Just a quick comment on the relay.
>Of course, everyone can make up their own mind,
>and I respect everyone's opinion.
>But, the way I see it, with respect to the relay:
>In my Bentley (1980 to 1991 vanagon):
>on page 97.33b, camper from '86,
>They call the relay a "refrigerator 12 volt heater relay".
>The main wire to the relay from the dash is a 2.5 mm
>cross-section wire.
>
>On the page that you mentioned, pg. 97.222,
>(I think this page is for a weekender with a dual battery setup?)
>the relay is called "battery cut-out relay".
>The wire going from the main battery to the aux. battery
>is a 6.0 mm cross-section wire.
>
>I might be wrong, but my assumption is that those 2 relays
>are different in size. Also there is a big difference between
>a 2.5 mm wire and 6.0 mm wire.
>
>So, you can see in our westy full campers, the
>refrigerator 12 volt heater relay setup is not as strong as the
>relay setup on pg.97.222.
>
>Harald
>'90 westy
>
> Bill wrote:
>> 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.
>
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