[Mgs] Two 12 volt batteries

[Barney Gaylord]

At 09:40 AM 6/17/2007, toms_mg at tombuchanan.net wrote:
> >    I travel around alot with a laptop with a cellphone hooked so 
> I can stay connected to the internet. ....

At 06:33 PM 6/17/2007 -0400, Barrie Robinson wrote:
>Without seeming to be a smart sod, why would anyone want to be 
>plugged into the 'net continually?  Why don't you get smart and 
>organise your life......  and work !!

Don't rag on him too hard.  I took a laptop along on my two month MG 
trip to Alaska ten years ago, specifically to keep in touch with 
friends on the mgs e-mail list.  No cell phone, but we did manage to 
plug into a land line periodically.  Technology being what it was in 
those days (cell phone wouldn't work in Alaska anyway), we had the 
laptop computer with internal battery and AC to DC power pack, an 
external dial-up modem, a digital to accustical converter (to operate 
from a pay phone if needed), a 4-amp-hour 12-volt battery pack, and a 
DC-to-AC inverter to run the AC toys from either the car or the 
battery pack.  The battery pack could recharge from either AC or from 
12-volts on the car.  Most of the time all power for the toys came 
from the stock 20-amp generator in the MGA.

>I was at a car show today and had to give a chap a telephone number 
>.... I wrote the number on the scrap of paper and gave it to the chap. ....

For what it's worth, I still don't carry a cell phone or an auto club 
card.  It just wouldn't be the sporting way to travel in an MG.  But 
I do carry pen and paper in the car (along with some other tools).

I recently went slightly nuts and installed and alternator in my 
MGA.  It has 70-amp output, because it was just lying around the 
shelf, and I was too cheap to buy a smaller one.  Now I'm spending 
too much time trying to find any good use for the excess 600 watts of 
available electrical power.  I'm thinking a second 12-volt battery 
might be good to power some camping equipment, lights, radio, 
electric stove or heater maybe?  How much space does a 500-watt 
stereo radio and speaker set-up take?  That might scare the hell out 
of some jack rabbits next time I'm in Baja, MX.

Barney Gaylord
1958 MGA with an attitude
http://MGAguru.com