

| Subject: | Re: Switiching accessorys from main battery to auxilary battery? |
| From: | MC |
| Date: | Fri, 16 Jul 2004 21:23:42 -0700 |
You may want to consider only switching only the high current consumers and those operate constantly over to the aux side to minimize the amount of work. I switched only the appliances that are used frequently during camping. This including the fridge fan, audio head unit, CD changer and the audio amp, the Carver P4 furnace and all the other portable appliances like cell phone charger, DC/AC inverter, notebook computer etc. I also fashioned a power distribution panel where I have 4 12V dc outlets for all the portable accessories. On this panel 2 ports draws from each battery so I can choose which to use base on their charge. I recommend leaving the interior lights on the primary side as it entails a lot of work to move them. They consume relatively little current and you don't always have them on. I took out 2 of the 3 bulbs in the factory galley light which I rarely use. Instead I installed 3 5W halogen marine light from Germany which I found at West Marine. 5W hardly put a dent on the battery even with extended use. Unfortunately I didn't keep a record of how I made the switch. I just did it on the fly with reference to the electrical diagram of the Bentley manual. What ever you do make sure you always have a fuse as close to the battery as possible. - Vince -----Original Message----- From: Vanagon Mailing List [mailto:vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com] On Behalf Of Harmon Seaver Sent: Friday, July 16, 2004 5:33 PM To: vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM Subject: Switiching accessorys from main battery to auxilary battery? I'm sure this has been done many times. I put an couple of auxilary batterys (deep cycle) in my westy, fed by a relay which isolates them from the starting battery, and now I want to switch the light over the sink, pump, stereo, etc. over to the auxilary batterys. Is there a simple way to do this? Any websites with good diagrams or pictures, like there are for hooking up the relay and aux batt itself? -- Harmon Seaver CyberShamanix http://www.cybershamanix.com Hoka hey!
Have something to add on this topic today? Revive this thread in the forum »