New camping battery? Not right now...

I thought I need to buy new camping battery. The one I have installed in my camping solar system works poorly. It discharges itself very fast... I thought it was couple of years old and it reached it's lifetime. I wanted to buy a new battery.

Since we have to pay some deposit when I purchase new battery (it's refunded when I leave the old battery in the shop), I took the old battery from the camper and wanted to buy a new one. In one of our local shops the new 12 V 45 Ah battery was sold for 150 PLN (less than $60). But one small detail grabbed my attention and saved me the money.

A small plastic envelope is glued to the battery. Inside that envelope is a piece of paper with warranty and user manual. And the warranty has the purchase date written on that paper. When I read that date I was very surprised. I found out that the battery was purchased last year, on august 10th! So the battery is not old, it might only be broken. Or... just needs to be charged fully and will start working.

So instead taking the battery to the shop, I carried it to my apartment along with rectifier.

From Volkswagen Transporter T3

The battery was almost completely discharged. I am afraid the lead plates inside the battery are covered with sulphur and the battery will not work properly. But if it's broken, I'll try to get a refund or new battery from the manufacturer as the warranty is valid for another year.



The photo shows the rectifier does work. I hope it'll charge the battery within a day or two...

New front turn signals

Some time ago I found on one of polish internet auction sites a set of white front turn signals, coupled with position lamps. They were prices as high as PLN 200 ($82, but closer to $70 then) and I thought that someone must be insane to sell them at such price.

Three or four weeks ago I was scrolling through Ebay and I found so called VW Vanagon T3 80-92 clear corner light lenses and bought two sets. One clear, one dimmed (smoked). I wasn't sure which will suit my camper best.

They arrived on thursday. I just came home after installing a set. Would you guess which one I installed?

From Volkswagen Transporter T3

Lenses as taken from the boxes.



The clear lens, mounted on the right side.



The smoked lens, mounted on the left side.



Both lenses while hazard flasher is on.

The white looked very nice, as large part of my camper is white.
The smoked also looked nice, as some parts in front of the camper (grilles, bumper) are black).

And the winner is:

The clear, of course!

I will sell the smoked lenses to someone here. :)