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Wed May 14, 2014 11:01 am

So I started up some projects on my van over the last few weeks. I thought I would list what I've done so far and keep this going as I complete new ones. So if the first project doesn't interest you, look through and maybe you'll find something that does. All this is new to me (just bought my first Vanagon last December) and I'm sure there will be more than a few bumps in the road. So I would love to hear what you think I'm doing wrong/right.

First is the Alt. battery. This one I spent the most time researching and banging my head over, but I'm happy with the finished product and I'd love to hear everyone's thoughts. I found a lot of useful information on countless sections on this website regarding these builds (sorry to add another), but I did mine a little different than what I've seen here, so I'll add what I've done.

List of (most) parts:
Diehard Platinum P-2
Yandina Combiner 100
Xantrex Prowatt SW 600 Pure Sine Power Inverter
ProMariner ProSport 20plus
Blue Seas Fuse Block w/ground
80A inline fuses
4 gauge marine cable
all connectors/lugs/terminals/ are Ancor marine parts

First off let me just say why I chose the Diehard Platinum p2. After doing a lot of research it seemed like most people agreed that the Odyssey batteries are some of the best. A few years ago, the Diehard Platinum line started using the same innards that the Odyssey's use (Diehard's p-2 is equivalent to Odyssey's pc1750). So it's the same exact battery, just with a different case. The best thing is though, is the Diehard's are about 2/3's the price of Odyssey's. And Sears always has deals going on every other week. Generally, the Odysseys are around $300, I got my Diehard from Sears at about $180 while a sale was happening.

ok, so for the install...

I started off by finding a place to put the combiner somewhere between the two batteries. I no longer use the front table, so I found where one of the screws went to secure it and used the same hole to attach the Yandina (I believe what this hole is from, I've never actually put in the front table since I bought the van).

Then I removed the left side of the battery box where the starter battery is. This was simple enough, just had to remove four rivets. I used a dremel to grind down the head then pushed it out with a screwdriver and hammer. I found that there was a hole behind this already there. So I put in a vinyl grommet to protect the wire and ran one of the positive cables from the Yandina through it. I then connect this to an 80A inline fuse and ran 4 gauge wire from the fuse to go to the positive battery terminal. Remember, you want to put the fuses as close as possible to the terminal, so if something goes wrong, there's the least amount of live wire that can do damage.

Then I drilled a hole into the battery box panel I took out, put another vinyl grommet in and ran the wire through. Put back the battery box side and screwed it in with just some screws (so if the fuse ever blows it'll be a lot easier to access). I then put a lug on the wire using a hammer crimping tool:

This was really easy to use, I found a lot of negative reviews with these things, but i really had no issue. It worked well for me and every crimp was very secure. I then put on adhesive heat shrink tubing to complete it (I did with with every lug, from battery connections to grounds to inverter hook ups). If you don't have a heat gun for the tubing, like me, just use a lighter and hold in a inch or so away. This was then connected to the starter battery positive terminal.

Next from the Yandina, I ran the other red wire, the blue wire and the black wire under the carpet, through the hole (again, grommeted) that the wire from the seat belt goes through, into the auxiliary battery compartment. I taped off the green wire (used if you're putting in a remote control) and tucked it in the carpet fold.

As you can see in the picture, I took the two wires coming from the fuses by the driver's door out of the relay, I will cover this later. Just reattach the relay, minus these two wire and tuck it under the seat rails. Treat the red wire just the same as the other red wire by putting a fuse on it and putting it to the positive terminal. Put a lug on the black wire and attach it to a bolt screwed into the front of the battery compartment (you'll see a place to put a screw in, file down the paint around the hole to make a secure connection).
Take the blue wire and use a butt connector or extend it (I used 10 gauge wire here) then put a lug on it. This will go to the positive terminal, this will limit the voltage to 14.2V. I have seen many people who choose to or not to do this. I decided to because I did not want to apply too much voltage to the battery.

Now I went back and fixed up the area between the two battery compartments. I cut the padding underneath the carpet to provide a channel for the wire going to the starter battery. This will protect the wire from foot traffic and also not cause any raise once the carpet is laid down.

Then use some carpet glue and secure where you lifted the carpet to get the wires into the holes. Secure the center carpet into the rail and glue down, over the well you just cut into the padding.

Next, I installed the battery charger. This will charge both batteries when your van is plugged into sure power. I purchased last years model of the ProMariner ProSport 20plus, I got it at a good discount but I'm not sure it was the best purchase. First off, I got a 20 Amp model because after doing a lot of research I found that the Diehard Platinum's want to be charges at a specific amperage. Like I said before, the innards of the Diehard Platinum are the same as the Odyssey batteries. So I found that the Odyssey's want to be charged at 30-40% of their total amp hours. The 30 Amp chargers are much more expensive, so I figured I got close enough and left it at that. The main thing is, when I purchased this I was told that even though it was made for charging three batteries, that the wires for each bank could be removed. That way it could be made to charge either, one, two or three batteries. This was not the case, each bank had to be hooked up to a battery. I called the company, and they told me to connect all three banks to my one battery. So now I have three cables running to each terminal to charge this thing, it really messed up my plans as this is a lot more cables being run in a very tight space. I wish I could have returned it, but since it was clearance, it was a no go.
I placed it in the cabinet to the right of the fridge and plugged it into the outlet in that cabinet. Then ran the cables from each bank to both positive and negative terminal.

Next the inverter was placed in between the cabinet and the drivers seat. I chose a pure wave inverter, since I will be running delicate electronics. There are plenty of forums that discuss the difference between pure and modified sine wave inverters. I put an 80A inline fuse in the positive wire connecting the inverter to the battery. I have read that you can just connect a wire from the ground to the negative terminal on the inverter, but I chose to be safe and connect the ground to the same place you grounded the combiner. I also put rubber covers on both connections to the inverter. The fuse block is handled the same way using an 80A fuse on the positive, and the negative going to the negative terminal on the aux. battery.

Next, you'll attach lugs to the two cables that were connected to the fuses by the drivers side doors. These control the fridge, sink pump and display panel on the stove front. These lugs will connect to the fuse block. The larger cable, with a 15A fuse and the smaller cable, a 7.5A fuse. This will bypass the relay, allowing you to run the fridge when the car is not running. This means you will have to manually shut off the fridge when you shut off the car, or else the battery will get drained by the fridge while it runs. I did this because I make frequent stops while driving and I don't want the fridge to stop running if I'm just stopping for a short time, I've read that it takes the fridge 20 minutes to start working after it's been shut off.
Also, now on the display panel near the stove, the lights that show the charge of the battery will now show how charged the auxiliary battery is and not the charge of the starter battery.

Next, I wired the radio, indoor lights and 12V outlet in the front to the auxiliary battery. First what you want to do it get a wire from the fuse block
(15A fuse) to under the dash. I ran 10 gauge wire from the fuse block, under the seat track (not being used in Vanagons with swivel seats).

This was led to run along the padding in the front well, and up into the fuse box.

Now this only applies to Vanagons from 86-91, if you have an earlier year, look up how to connect your wiring (or just call gowesty for instructions like I did). Disconnect the B block of wiring from the back of the fuse box and find the wires 11 and 12 (either one or two wires).

Cut these wires, tape them off from the block, then strip and connect the wires to the wire you just ran from the fuse block using some sort of connector. I used:

The connections you just made hook up the radio, interior light and 12V cigarette lighter to the auxiliary battery.

Now you're finally putting in the battery... phew. It's a tight fit, but it should be fine. Connect all the wires we talked about and now, you just have to make a wire to connect the negative terminal to the ground where the black wire from the Yandina and the ground from the inverter are connected.

You will now notice that the battery cover does not fit. So you will have to cut the battery cover (there is also a thread on here where the person talks about putting the battery on it's side and cutting the frame to make it fit, but that seems a lot more intrusive and complicated, http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=5...;start=0). Once the cover is cut, I put electrical tape around the edges then liquid electrical tape to cover and seal everything up.

Next I had to make my own positive terminal cover. Since I had to attach the three connections for the charger, my case no longer fit. So I took some sections of terminal covers and glued them together and used liquid electrical tape and it worked out pretty nice.

and the finished result.

Now you just need to do a little cutting of the fabric, and it will fit nice and neat. Turn the swivel seat around and it should look like this:

It is pretty much covered except for one end. In the near future, I will find a carpet that is similar and cover up the whole thing, until then, I am left with this... which isn't that bad at all...

phew... that was much longer than I intended.

Wed May 14, 2014 12:09 pm

I love Ancor's wire and their heat shrink. nice choice!

Thu May 15, 2014 5:22 pm

So the stove plate was getting pretty rusty, I decided to take it out and sand/paint it. When I did, I found some dead space to the left of the stove and decided maybe a drawer could fit in there. I looked up to see if anyone else has done this, and found a pretty helpful post here:

http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=507102&highlight=dometic+fridge

I did an few different things so I'll post my information here.
First off removing the plate it very easy, just a a screw on each side and three underneath, then remove the nobs and take of the nut, finally just unscrew the small plate with the lights on it. Done and done.

Say goodbye to old rusty plate

Here's the space I intend to use:

You'll notice on the left there is a screw sticking out and little metal bits in the bottom corner. Because of these you can't put the drawer too far to the left, I think I put mine in 3/4 an inch. So I marked where I wanted to cut and on the bottom I left a small lip. This was done so I will have something to stop the drawer from sliding out while driving (I'll show this later). I just used my dremel and although a little slow it made nice neat cuts that required very little smoothing.

Next I sanded down the whole thing to get rid of any rust and loose paint. Then I primed and painted the whole thing. I made my drawer with some wood I had around the house. I put it all together except for the front piece. I also glued on some corner brackets, two right near the front and two towards the back, but not as close to the end.

Adding these brackets made the drawer too large (height wise) to fit through the opening I had cut in the plate. So I filed down above the front brackets until there was enough clearance for them to fit through.

I left the back brackets as is. This way the front bracket will catch on that lower lip I talked about earlier and hold the drawer in place. When you want to open it you just have to lift up on the drawer for the bracket to clear that lower lip. Then you slide out the drawer and it will stop when you reach the back bracket as that section is to big (height wise) for the drawer to fit through.
So now even if the drawer does manage to come out while your driving, maybe by hitting a bump while turning, the drawer won't fall out completely and not dump whatever you store in it.
Now because the drawer can't just slide in once you have everything installed (because of the back brackets), you have to slide in the drawer and glue the front of it on before installing back in the van. Oh and on that lower lip in the cut out section, I put a strip of electrical tape, so sliding that bracket over it won't scrape the paint off.

Once it's dried install it into the van, make sure everything works (I had to sand the top of the front of the drawer a little to make it fit) and screw it in. Here's my finished result.

It works wonderfully and holds in place while driving. The westfalia and lights stickers can be bought through gowesty.
Now the van has a little bling on it 8)

Mon May 19, 2014 6:43 pm

I'm putting in a new canvas, slowly, between the rain. I reconditioned the pop top. Here's one coat (I put on two) and you can see the difference between the treated and untreated pretty well I think.