Over discharging  battery one time does not necessarily kill it. Especially
a deep cycle constructed as well as the Trojan. The biggest danger to a
discharged battery is the possibility of freezing but if that did not happen
you are likely OK. While holding voltage is a good sign the real proof is a
load-capacity test.

Dennis

-----Original Message-----
From: Vanagon Mailing List [mailto:vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com] On Behalf Of
Rocket J Squirrel
Sent: Wednesday, January 25, 2012 4:14 PM
To: vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM
Subject: Just hibernating & a battery mystery

In case anyone is wondering where the heck I've been. Admit it, you have
been.

My Westy is dozing under a Just Kampers vehicle cover (Vanagon content!) for
the duration of the Bend, Oregon, winter. I have many projects which I was
unable to get around to completing last year that I hope to get to in
spring. Camping got in the way. Boo hoo.

Until camping weather returns, Mrs Squirrel and I are snugged away in our
little house with the nuts and firewood (four cord!) we gathered last
summer.

My mainly non-Vanagon postings are at <http://socal2bend.blogspot.com/>,
for those interesting in Keeping Up With The Skuirrels.

In the past 24 hours, Mt. Bachelor ski area has picked up 8'' of snow for
those who ski (me? no: pot-metal knee). Snow's at something like 100'' of
depth.

For Westy-related fun I like to spot Vanagons in town. Yesterday I saw four,
one of which appeared to be a 1984 ivory Westy just like ours.

I may have killed my expensive Trojan deep-cycle 130 A/h battery. The van
had been parked for a few weeks, slumbering, with a light (200mA) load on it
(the load is primarily the Xantech battery monitor thingy).

But the smart charger I usually keep connected to the battery had come
unplugged, unbeknownst to me. So the load drained the battery.

When I climbed into the van last week to take a bunch of boxes of seasonal
decorations down to our storage facility, I saw that the battery was showing
less than 7 volts. This should mean that the battery is so deeply discharged
that it is damaged beyond recovery.

I popped over to Sears and picked up a 10A "not dumb" charger, pulled the
battery, and put a charge on it. In about 12 hours it showed a fully-charged
battery. Now, one week after the charger has been removed, it still shows
12.48 volts (50 degrees F), and the float-type hydrometer says "100%."

Does this make sense? Shouldn't this battery be pretty much a lead and
sulfur-filled brick?

--
Jack "Rocket j Squirrel" Elliott
Bend, Ore.
1984 Westfalia. A poor but proud people.
1971 "Ladybug"-brand utility trailer ca. 1972 from a defunct company in San
Clemente, Calif., now repurposed as The Westrailia.