Hi,
My '69 Ghia sits a lot because it's mainly a hobby car. As a result, it eats a lot of batteries, because they never get fully charged. (Generator and voltage regulator are O.K., the issue is infrequent use of the car) For a variety of reasons, using a trickle charger isn't practical at the place I'm living. I tried a solar charger, but it didn't seem to work that well.
Has anybody tried a gel battery in an air-cooled VW? I think there is a gel battery sold under the "Optima" brand, or something similar, but when I looked at their website some time back, it indicated that no battery was available for a '69 Ghia or Beetle. Has anybody found a gel battery that fits? Will a gel battery be more durable than a regular lead-acid one for infrequent use purposes?
I was also wondering whether a deep cycle battery, often used for marine applications, would work better for me, because they are designed to be deeply discharged on a regular basis without being damaged.
Any thoughts would be appreciated.
Thanks. Richard Addinall