11-29-2019, 06:55 PM
A single V belt is certainly limited in max amperage, especially with cold damp pulleys and belts. Some belt dressing and proper tension can do wonders to attenuate squealing, or increase the output before squealing begins.
More limiting in this situation is not being able to control the field current into the rotor, by having employed an alternator with an internal voltage regulator instead. A simple switch unparallelling depleted house battery is good, but then no charging of it occurs, and then flipping it back on can still cause the hungry battery to try and stop the alternator pulley from spinning
I have a single V belt, and when it squeals I turn my voltage pot down a few rotations CCW to about 13.6v and it stops. Or if my blower motor or lights are on, turn them off.
Then as it dries out and warms up I can crank up voltage to 14.7ish, get a constant unsquealing 95 amps from a single V belt, but it can start slipping and squealing again when slowing down to a stop.
This a 50/120 chrysler alternator, 50 at idle, max 120.
But as pointed out one should not focus on the Ampere Rating, as if the belt slips or a voltage regulator is not seeking high voltage, or a muititude of other reasons, the rating will never be approached, and the battery is not being charged as fast as safely possible when driving from A to B.
Generally if ones battery is well depleted, fast as possible charging when driving, is highly desirable, and not being able to influence the voltage regulation, one's alternator can be nearly neutered, and driving 3x as long might be required to reach the same state of charge as an optimized for fast recharging system.
Some might point out fast charging is hard on the lead acid battery.
I will point out so is overdischarging it and/or letting the next deep cycle begin at a lower state of charge and perhaps much more so.
Regarding alternator fans, I am not sure where the air enters/exits on those with interior fans. My 50/120 sucks in air from the back and out the front near the pulley and external fan. I am considering peppering the rectifier plate with the raspberri PI or to220 size heatsinks on mine, keep the diodes cooler, and perhaps more efficien.
I've also thought abut making a duct cover which clamps over the tailcap of the alternator for a dedicated, perhaps forced air cold air alternator intake, but I just have never bothered doing so. Twisting the dial down if it gets towards being too hot, is just so much simpler. Perhaps if I was carrying around more heavy hungry battery capacity, I would put more effort into it.
There are kits for external recification of alternators, moving the heat source out of the alternator and it having its own dedicated fan.
https://alternatorparts.com/quicktifier-external-bridge-rectifier.html
I've read some reports of disappointed owners of such installations, but I believe they were expecting significantly more output, as opposed to cooler safer alternator running temperatures for more reliability.
More limiting in this situation is not being able to control the field current into the rotor, by having employed an alternator with an internal voltage regulator instead. A simple switch unparallelling depleted house battery is good, but then no charging of it occurs, and then flipping it back on can still cause the hungry battery to try and stop the alternator pulley from spinning
I have a single V belt, and when it squeals I turn my voltage pot down a few rotations CCW to about 13.6v and it stops. Or if my blower motor or lights are on, turn them off.
Then as it dries out and warms up I can crank up voltage to 14.7ish, get a constant unsquealing 95 amps from a single V belt, but it can start slipping and squealing again when slowing down to a stop.
This a 50/120 chrysler alternator, 50 at idle, max 120.
But as pointed out one should not focus on the Ampere Rating, as if the belt slips or a voltage regulator is not seeking high voltage, or a muititude of other reasons, the rating will never be approached, and the battery is not being charged as fast as safely possible when driving from A to B.
Generally if ones battery is well depleted, fast as possible charging when driving, is highly desirable, and not being able to influence the voltage regulation, one's alternator can be nearly neutered, and driving 3x as long might be required to reach the same state of charge as an optimized for fast recharging system.
Some might point out fast charging is hard on the lead acid battery.
I will point out so is overdischarging it and/or letting the next deep cycle begin at a lower state of charge and perhaps much more so.
Regarding alternator fans, I am not sure where the air enters/exits on those with interior fans. My 50/120 sucks in air from the back and out the front near the pulley and external fan. I am considering peppering the rectifier plate with the raspberri PI or to220 size heatsinks on mine, keep the diodes cooler, and perhaps more efficien.
I've also thought abut making a duct cover which clamps over the tailcap of the alternator for a dedicated, perhaps forced air cold air alternator intake, but I just have never bothered doing so. Twisting the dial down if it gets towards being too hot, is just so much simpler. Perhaps if I was carrying around more heavy hungry battery capacity, I would put more effort into it.
There are kits for external recification of alternators, moving the heat source out of the alternator and it having its own dedicated fan.
https://alternatorparts.com/quicktifier-external-bridge-rectifier.html
I've read some reports of disappointed owners of such installations, but I believe they were expecting significantly more output, as opposed to cooler safer alternator running temperatures for more reliability.
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