Do you really need to carry 260 pounds of battery? What are you running? You
should connect them to a real charger periodically to get them off gases and
desulphated or you will loose the capacity anyway. Regardless of current
available, battery charging is a time dependant process. You have as much
house battery capacity as my 39' motor home.

Dennis

>From: James Cook <jamesscook@COMCAST.NET>
>Reply-To: James Cook <jamesscook@COMCAST.NET>
>To: vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM
>Subject: Re: Auxiliary battery for 89 Westy
>Date: Tue, 27 Mar 2007 19:41:17 -0700
>
>I happen to have four side by side large Trojan golf cart batteries
>under my rear seat. They are very rapidly recharged by a tightly wound
>customized
>alternator which I had an alternator shop build for me. I connected them
>with some very big, short and direct welding cable to assure the highest
>flow rate of amps from my alternator to the Trojan deep cycle batteries.
>My goal was to maximize the ability of the alternator to meaningfully
>recharge the Trojans if the van is sitting a lot and going for short
>trips, such as operating from a campsite for a week somewhere with trips
>to special places. I also extended some terminals from those Trojans
>under the rear seat, which stick out an inch from the "wall board" of
>that rear seat. This makes it extremely easy for me to inter-connect
>those rear battery to the starter battery for a jump, or for other 12
>volt purposes.
>
>I have such a large reserve of power in those long lasting Golf Cart
>batteries that I run all my appliances and stuff from that, the roof
>fan...everything.
>This minimizes the risk of accidentally running down the starter battery
>"too low".
>
>
>
>
>I'll be happy to answer any questions.
>
>James/California
>1985 Westy.
>
>Dennis wrote:
>>What do you plan to use it for and for how long? After that, what space
>>are you willing to give up, how much weight do you want to carry and how
>>much do you wish to spend. Next, how, and how often will you charge it.
>>Answer those and a system can be designed.
>>
>>Dennis
>>
>>
>>-----Original Message-----
>>From: Vanagon Mailing List [mailto:vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com] On Behalf Of
>>Larry Hinshaw
>>Sent: Tuesday, March 27, 2007 5:18 PM
>>To: vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM
>>Subject: Auxiliary battery for 89 Westy
>>
>>What size deep cycle battery do you recommend for the Auxiliary Battery?
>>Does anyone have have a "how to"
>>instructions for connecting it up inline with the starter battery?
>>
>>
>>Larry - Charlotte, NC
>>89 Westy - Gypsy Rose
>>
>>
>>