Alan,
If you would like a effective aux. battery charging system
that actually recharges your auxiliary battery fairly quickly,
check out 'battery installation' on my website (lots of photos)
http://www.geocities.com/harald_nancy/
There are two options:
1) to use a second relay connected to
the refrigerator relay under driver's seat (or)
2) (even more efficient) to use a battery isolator.
I'm personally using the isolator on my '90 westy.
The charging is so efficient that I never even bother with
plug-in 110 volt trickle chargers or solar cells, even though
I am usually using a vented propane heater and lots of lights.
My vanagon westy is completely self-contained.
I never carry an extension cord.
About the Optima battery installation, I installed my
Optima battery upright under the driver's seat.
That way you can use a factory hold-down bar to
bolt the battery in place, just like the starting battery.
Very important on bumpy roads and in case of an accident
(you don't want the battery to rattle around).
Harald
'90 westy

Alan wrote:
> Also, I am interested in installing a second battery and solar cells
> to power my laptop while on the road (well, not literally on the
> road, people talking on cellphones are bad enough).  I tried
> searching the lists, but everytime I do, it times out.  The link to
> the Solar Vanagon on vanagon.com is dead so I was wondering if anyone
> has any info on this procedure.  I've checked out MrSolar.com ,
> realgoods and other sites but none give much info on specifics...so
> any help would be appreciated!
>
> Thanks,
> Alan Watts
>
>