With this setup is there any way to isolate the MAIN battery so the aux
could be used for starting? If the main battery is somehow drained and then
put in parallel with the aux the main would draw current from the aux making
starting that much harder.
     Are there any "idiot lights" that tell you what is going on?

     I have been wanting to install a second battery for a while but I have
an almost pathalogical distrust of "automatic" devices that dont tell me
what they are doing. I had pretty much decided that the best setup for me
would be a manual switch that would allow a selection of "Main, Aux, Both,
Off" but not being able to find one it looks like I am stuck with the
automatics.

-----Original Message-----
From: Vanagon Mailing List [mailto:vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com]On Behalf
Of Sean Birkner
Sent: Wednesday, November 03, 1999 5:26 PM
To: vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM
Subject: Re: Aux battery kit from Bus Depot (fwd)

I believe I may be the owner of the new Hella aux bat wiring kit. Let me see
if I can answer your question.

First and foremost, when you put in the aux battery, you will need to
manually wire accessories to the new battery. With the ignition off, the aux
battery is isolated from the rest of the "original" electrical system. Ex.;
You wire a TV&VCR to the aux battery and go camping. You then watch videos
for the entire time you are camping (not practical because you went camping
to get away from things in the first place, but it works for our example.),
thus draining the aux battery. When you turn the ignition on (and hopefully
start the engine soon after), the 2 batteries are connected in parallel (+
to
+, - to -), and the alternator charges both batteries.

As soon as the ignition is turned off, the aux battery is isolated again.

Hope this helps a little,
Sean B.
'90 V'gon, "Happy Bus"