[Mgs] Two 12 volt batteries

[Barrie Robinson]

Barney,

When I was swaning around in Malaya as a "Mercantile Assistant" in 
the 50's, I had a friend who had an SS100 (genuine). He fitted two 
500W landing lights purloined from a crashed airplane.  When someone 
failed to dip their lights he used a flick on/off switch resulting in 
a beam that almost burnt the paint off the offending car.  He agreed 
it was probably highly dangerous but he said they always dipped their 
beams!!!!   Trouble was it drained his battery ....so Barney, there 
is your excess wattage !!!!



At 02:29 AM 6/18/2007, Barney Gaylord wrote:

>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
>

Regards
Barrie

Barrie Robinson
barrie at look.ca

http://www.britishv8.org/MG/BarrieRobinson.htm