At 10:35 PM 10/10/2003, you wrote:
>As a consultant, I do most of my work from home, or in cafes, or in my '86
>Westy, which I drive down to the beach so I smell and hear the ocean while I
>work. Idyllic, for an office.

Jennifer,  a westy makes a nice office doesn't it? (-:
I like to take mine to the redwoods to work...

I added a group24 deep cycle battery under the rear seat in my westy, tied
into the charging system so it charges when I drive. My stereo, interior
lighting, and westy fridge are all tied into this battery instead of the
starting
battery. I also added 2 cigarette lighters in the back to plug accessories in.
I have a couple 12v florescent lights with 25' "extension cords" that I can
plug in and light my campsite.
My sweetie runs her Sony Vaio laptop for hours at a time, and we have
never run out of juice while camping.

My first suggestion for running a computer off 12 volts, is to get one of the
12 volt adapters made for your computer if possible. It is more efficient to
directly step up the 12 volts to 24 volts this way than to use a power inverter
to step up to 120 volts, then back down to 24 volts.

As far as charging goes, I've not had any trouble keeping my aux battery
charged with normal driving. It's quite common for the van to be parked
for many hours at a time with the stereo, some lighting and maybe the
computer running, and then be driven for an hour to get home. The battery
strays charged just fine. I also have a small 4 amp battery charger that I am
going to permanently wire into the charging system and set it up so that
either the main or aux battery (selected by a switch) is trickle charged any
time the westy has AC plugged into it's "shore power" outlet.

I really dislike generators... they are just too noisy and smelly.
They have their uses, but I don't believe that campgrounds and quiet places
are the right place for them.

If it turns out you really need more power at one sitting than the aux battery
can supply, perhaps a solar panel could be used to supplement your supply.
I doubt you'll need it though unless you are out for several days at a time
without driving it.

Cheers,

Steve
EJ22 -> '86 Westy "Escape Pod"