Trickle charger and ac/dc wiring

[The Jet]

Has anyone added an automatic trickle charger to their westie? I have an 85 with the regular battery and a deep cycle battery. I was thinking of adding a trickle charger to the deep cycle so that whenever I plugged the westie in for the fridge it would also trickle charge the battery at the same time. alternately set a switch so the interior lights would work off the plug when it was plugged in and off the battery when it was not. I haven't looked into the second option at all I am just brainstorming prior to starting anything. My wife always jokes that what takes mechanic X number of hours I do in X number of days. so before I start I am hoping to get a little guidance if possible. Thanks The Jet (Jet is on my licence by complete random chance, I still have the wasserbox under the hood so the licence is a little irony

[Ericthenorse]

For the trickle charger, you can hook it up strait to the wiring for the city power.. You can probably hide it under a cabinet somewhere. Just find a good place for it to fit, and extend the outputs to reach the batery. since you will be passing low amps, the wire should not warm up or anything. as far as the light thing, the trickle charger should put in to the batery just about as much as the lights take out. if you have a good gharger, the drain on the batery should be negligable. If you must have them wired up to city power, see if you can get a big 12v power supply from an old lap top or something, and wire it in at the same time as the trickle. Then you need to run a wire from the lights (take it from just before the fuse box where they get power) to a 2 position switch. they should have three connections on the switch. the negative wire from the power supply gets grounded, and the positive goes to the switch on one side. the 12v power from the battery goes to the other side, with the output to the light in the middle. Switch one way...batery power, switch other way....power supply.
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'69 bug--rusty as hell
'91 vanagon carrat-slammed,5 speed,4 wheel disks,17x8.5's

[DanJReed]

Nope,

Never did it.

Oh, wait...

Yes I did.

http://faculty.ccp.edu/faculty/dreed/Campingart/vanagon/hacks.htm

$19, and 20 min. I even added a spare cigar socket behind the seat..
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-Dan
(87 Westy Vanagon, 98 Jetta GLS 2.0, 95 Golf Sport)

[Ericthenorse]

You da man.....
_________________
'69 bug--rusty as hell
'91 vanagon carrat-slammed,5 speed,4 wheel disks,17x8.5's