Howdy Volks,

I am about to embark on the task of hooking up a secondary battery to my
'90 Westy. I have purchased an Optima deep cycle battery and it's en
route. I have a couple questions that if addressed, I'd be most
appreciative.

(1) I will be following the instructions listed at
http://www.vanagon.com/info/faq/. These instructions state "With this
configuration, the aux battery supplies cabin power  whenever your
engine is not running." Does this include the 120V power sockets? For
example, will I be able to plug in a heater or a laptop computer into
the power socket and get juice as if I was hooked up to a external power
source.

(2) Referring to
http://www.vanagon.com/info/vehicles/beethoven/electrical.html I'm a bit
confused as to the purpose of "Getting a charge" procedure. Does the
trickle charger simply monitor the secondary battery's charge? Can
someone explain in greater detail this statement from the above
procedure, "Another thing I wanted was to be able to plug my van into
the power grid and have my heater run right off the grid." What is meant
by "grid"?

Please excuse my ignorance when it comes to wiring a vehicle or anything
for that matter. I can tear a car's motor down and rebuild it, but when
it comes to fooling with the electrical system I tend to want to be
precise. I have had one too many car fires ('71 Bug, R.I.P.).

If anyone in the Bay Area can give me a call or email me privately
(Ron?) I'd be obliged.

TIA

Chris