Upgraded Alternator?

[Fry]

Forgive my ignorance, but what would you use the upgraded alternator for?

 

[rangerdanger]

Things like winches, high output stereos, power linears for Cb radios, offroad lights, inverters etc.

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[MikeXM]

or 4 people having the heated seats on...

 

[Great White North Eh]

Or to replenish the battery after the electronics and can-bus suck the life out of it!

 

[g33k247]

Plowing takes extra juice as does recharging the batteries on your travel trailer for those of us that enjoy boondocking.

 

[Burn'n Oil]

Survival... and six to seven months of prairie winter. In fact, if you're shopping for new, bling-bling, CTD euipped Ram and you live where the real winters occur, I'd go as far as to suggest that ya opt for the dual alternators.

 

[Great White North Eh]

I wished I would have ordered dual alternators. Must be like nuts..... two better than one

 

[jsalbre]

I got duals on my Hemi as I plan to run a heavy gauge line to the back of the truck to connect to a battery charger for the large lithium bank I will be installing in the Airstream. If my math is right I should be able to run the AC unit in the trailer from the power provided by the truck.

 

[Rich734]

I hope you don't mind if I resurrect this thread. I just found this forum and this topic is just what I had a question about. I see Jeremy above was talking about running a heavy duty wire to the back of his truck to help charge his lithium batteries for boondocking. That is exactly what I was thinking about doing as well. I have only a single 220A alternator and was wondering a couple of things - how much current would be safe to draw from this system? Also, is it safe to let the Cummins diesel idle for a few hours as the batteries are being charged? I was hoping this would help me avoid spending extra $$ on a separate generator when the batteries start getting low and the sun is hidden by the clouds. Thanks!

 

[carlrx7]

I looked into doing all this with my dual alts, but in the end, a 2000 watt HF predator (very quiet) generator and a charge controller to 13 amps (115v) max, will charge your batteries (+100 amps) way more efficient than a 6.7 cummins. You can get these generators post prep season for $200-300. A gallon of gas will last about 6 hours and put 600 amps back into your (lithium) batteries. In the end, 40 ft of 00 gauge wire ($6/ft) will cost $240 in cable alone.

I also looked at use a dc-dc charger (40a) and again, there ends up being no cost savings overall.... Sure, i can run out of gasoline but 5 gallons can go a long ways.

 

[John Jensen]

^^^^^ Makes the most sense. It's the way all us SoCal desert dry-campers go.