Vehicle & Technical > Discovery

Alternator load

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Tyke:
Been thinking about electrical demands on the alternator and a couple of questions came to mind.

1) How do we size an alternator in terms of output to cope with extras such as additional lights, winches or other external electrical accessories?

2) Who can supply said alternator as a service exchange unit or straight purchase.

3) Are there any other items which will need changing at the same time?


Don't want to burn up the standard alternator by overloading it so looking for an upgraded replacement.

Damonski:
I asked something similar some time ago, there seems to be some rated at about 100amp, I would love one of these or info on how to make mine into a 100amper for my splitcharger needs.

Range Rover Blues:
A local LR specialist will sell me the 140 amp one for £165 outright IIRC.  Your problem is that the later cars had serpentine belts, also called ,multi vee.  A single vee belt will not handle the load of a big alternator at full power, my 80amp one starts to shred belts when it's working hard.  These are to be found on fully loaded RRC or export models BTW.

Tyke:
OK - so mines a '95 TDi, no aircon and the belt looks like what you could describe as 'multi-v' in as much as it has a number of 'longitudinal v's' around it's length.

I looked at the loading from the lighting I have and some more I was intending fitting and simple electrical maths say I have around 550W of lighting load. Divide that out by the voltage at 12V and I recon an alternator load of around 45Amps just on the lighting alone. I assume the standard alternator is 65Amps so I've not got much in reserve for charging and other equipment.

Assuming a winch and split charging may be fitted in the future then the standard alternator is simply not really up to the job so I was looking at fitting an uprated 100Amp jobbie. There are a few advertised here and there from around £95 upwards.

Looks like what you are saying is always carry a couple of spare belts if the high output alternators are fitted. Funny you should mention the belt shredding, I've heard it before from a couple of other places but never given it much thought and put it down to dodgy belts. Obviously when working hard the alternator is putting considerable strain on the belts. A good point mate and worth keeping mind.

Cheers for the advice  :wink:

hobbit:
Or fit sprockets and use a bike chain :lol:

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