Coincidence you ask?

I replaced the aux battery yesterday on my 81 - the battery I swapped
out wasn't deep cycle and the sticker on it had it installed in 1988!

HOWEVER

The one I put in was from my recently retired Ford T-Bird (hit and run
while parked on the street - wrote it off) and it's just a little taller
than the old one such that I put two thicknesses of roofers tar paper
over the entire unit just to ensure there was no short against the steel
lid.

I have no qualms about using a car battery in place of a deep cycle -
did it for years with a trailer.  The only advise I would offer is to
ensure you check the fluid levels regularly if you are actually deep
cycling it (running it right down between charges) as the recharge cycle
may cause evaporation and you may need to top it off.

Eric

-----Original Message-----
From: Vanagon Mailing List [mailto:vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com] On Behalf
Of Geo Hahn
Sent: Thursday, June 19, 2003 10:00 AM
To: vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM
Subject: Re: Auxiliary Battery

Loren A. Busch wrote:

><snip> But do you really need a deep cycle battery?  I just replaced my

>aux battery (yesterday in fact).  I went with what has served me well
>over the years, a standard starting battery.  And I have quite a bit of

>'stuff' that I run off the aux battery, sometimes for up to a week. It
>works fine.
>
I too use a regular battery for the aux... have done about 12K miles
this year camping mostly in 3 week trips with some driving every few
days.  Lasts for many years with this treatment.  Never had it let me
down and have used it to start & run the van in one emergency
(alternator failure that also killed the main battery).  I do have the
aux under the rear bench seat which gives me more choices is size.

Geo Hahn
84 Westy
Mt Lemmon, AZ