Hi Karl,

I also have an '81, and I did some mods to the battery to make the whole

deal fit.  The Starter battery compartment is very small, and only fits

1 type of battery I believe, and I could only find it at Napa.  It's the

58R/42-6 Model there.  I actually bent back the sides of the compartment

to fit the battery and then bend them back in place to screw the cover

back on. The camping battery under the driver's seat is the same size,

so you are stuck with using another car battery.  

I decided that a crummy starter battery will not power my needs while

camping, so I picked up a Deep cycle Gel Marine battery from Costco, and

wired it into the Cabinet under the sink.  I bored a 1" diameter hole

through the battery compartment and ran all new wiring through to the

battery.  I also put that battery in an RV watertight case, so that when

my sink leaks, or my water pump explodes (again) right beside it, the

battery won't be ruined.

The relay between the 2 batteries still sits in the casing under the

driver's seat, but now I have a solid camping battery to power

everything I need!

Hopefully this helps a bit.

James Costello

"Van Halen"

-----Original Message-----

From: Vanagon Mailing List [mailto:vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com] On Behalf

Of Karl Ploessl

Sent: Friday, July 24, 2009 7:23 AM

To: vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM

Subject: size of battery compartment

did the size of the battery compartment change from year '81 to '89? I

am asking because I need a new battery and all the suggestions I found

in the mails were for newer vanagons.

--

Karl

1981 VW Westy "Jenny"

2000 VW Jetta GLS VR6

Wilmington, DE

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