>There are many other ways of putting a second battery
> in your van, with their own pros and cons.  And yes, you could buy the
parts
> at Radio Shack etc. to assemble your own relay kit, search the archives
for
> info on how to wire it, and probably save (literally) a few bucks.

If you have a Westy there is  need to buy ANYTHING from Radio Shack... or
the Hella Kit.... You already have everything you need... No need to sepend
the $19 plus $5 or so shipping... many have used the simple directions at
http://www.vanagon.com/info/faq/#electrical
to wire their 2nd battery...

But we're
> only talking $19 here for the complete kit, and I suspect that many people
> simply decided that the effort of "growing your own" was not worth the
> savings.

Don't have to "grow your own".... everything you need (except maybe a
connector or two) in in your Westy already... If you buy the kit you will
likely be going to http://www.vanagon.com/info/faq/#electrical to learn how
to install it anyway... It's basically the same thing as the Hella Kit..
less the fuse... you could add one, but the existing wiring isn't fused
anyway...

> The list member whose comments resulted in the huge surge in popularity of
> this kit happens to be a battery engineer at Exide.  His comments are
useful
> because they provide a good explanation on how and why such a relay works.
> (I also appreciated them because even though they were of general
> informational content and not intended as a product endorsement per se,

Becketts comments were not an endorcement... he only said that the small
wire size of the Hella Kit was safe... and he also said that the small wire
sizes of the Hell Kit will result in a longer time to charge the 2nd
battery...

Bill