Sunday, January 13, 2008

The Westy's Dual Battery Setup

Vanessa bought me a deep cycle battery for the bus for Christmas... See the main blog for details... This week I reactivated the 32 year old relay and wiring for the original deep cycle charging system on our Westy. Other than sorting out and reconnecting the wiring, there was little to do to get things working again. I connected the fridge (all that originally ran from the factory deep cycle), the charging system, the Espar heater, and the "camp" side of my camp/drive switch that controls the stereo, tv, dvd, cb, and green lighting. Now we can run these items without fear of discharging the starting battery.


In the foreground is the original relay that controls the charging of the battery. In the background is the battery.Since Canadian Westies never came with the battery charging and fridge control panel, just this simple control, there is no provision for charging the battery while plugged into 120V. I want this since our Espar and electronics will draw amperage and it would be nice to do so without fear of discharging anything, when plugged into 120V. Thus, I permanently wired my 6 amp charger into the system. My multimeter can't even get a reading on the amps draw on the battery when not plugged in, so it shouldn't discharge the battery any. Now, it will automatically charge and power the deep cycle and accessories when the bus is plugged in!