twokniveskatie
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; "><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; ">this is a cross post from vandwellers with my apologies, i'm a bit desparate.....</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; "><br></span></div>i got the house battery put into the rondyvan on thursday. my mechanic, who is an electrical engineer, did it as one of the last automotive things he's doing before hitting the road on his new job. following Bob Well's "how to have electricity 101", i kept my new starter battery under the hood, and had a deep cycle walmart marine type 125 amp/hr. installed under the bed.</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; "><br></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; "><br></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; ">he installed a continuous duty solenoid, and wired the 4 factory cigarette lighters, the stereo, and the 6 map lights to the house battery, and the starter battery separately.</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; "><br></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; "><br></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; ">friday morning the van started up just fine. friday afternoon, the van wouldn't start. fortunately i was at the garage, and they jumped the battery. (now mind you, i have no way to test the starter battery cause the little tester Bob gave me last year works in cigarette lighters, which are now all wired to the house battery.)</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; "><br></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; "><br></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; ">there was nothing left on in the van that would have drained the battery. one of the guys mumbled about the solenoid not having enough power, and then left, since it was way past closing time and no one's getting overtime. i drove Mutt on a long ride around the lake to make sure the starter was charged, if it HAD been drained, then went home.</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; "><br></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; "><br></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; ">to be safe, when i parked the van, i threw the toggle/kill switch to the starter battery, to guarantee there was no drain on it.</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; "><br></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; "><br></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; ">this morning, dead starter battery. house battery working fine </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; "><br></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; "><br></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; ">i forgot to tell him i wanted to be able to start of fmy house battery. :-(</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; "><br></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; "><br></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; ">any ideas?</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; "><br></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; "><br></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; ">i'm gonna have to find someone to fix this, and will need the simplest fix.</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; "><br></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; "><br></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; ">just have them completely disconnect the starter from everything? do a Laren with the house battery?</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; "><br></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; "><br></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; ">i have complete diagrams (computer printouts and hand drawn diagrams) of the work done.</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; "><br></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; "><br></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; ">give me hope, people.....</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; "><br></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; "><br></span>