Altenator. How much can it handle?
snifter - June 19th, 2005 at 05:38 PM
I have a 75 kombi with a 55amp alt. 55 amp I think.
I have recently put in two, new, deep cycle aux batterys, in parallel. These are connected to the main battery + (new) by a smart relay. It allows the
main batt to be charged up fully before allowing the aux batterys to be charged. It is all fused and works well. Relay and Wire supplied by the
proffesionals.
My friend, like myself is a sparky and had concerns that the altenator might no handle the load. We are not auto wise. Should I worry? Should I remove
one of the aux batts from the system?
I am running a small fridge, small sound system and two 100watt extra head lights (which I rarely use) What do you think
Regards
Philip
mnsKmobi - June 20th, 2005 at 02:10 PM
| Quote: |
Originally
posted by snifter
I have a 75 kombi with a 55amp alt. 55 amp I think.
|
That's the standard size.
| Quote: |
I have recently put in two, new, deep cycle aux batterys, in parallel. These are connected to the main battery + (new) by a smart relay. It allows the
main batt to be charged up fully before allowing the aux batterys to be charged. It is all fused and works well. Relay and Wire supplied by the
proffesionals.
My friend, like myself is a sparky and had concerns that the altenator might no handle the load. We are not auto wise. Should I worry? Should I remove
one of the aux batts from the system?
|
From what you've described you shouldn't have a problem charging those batteries. The rate at which they charge is actually dependent on the wire
size. A thinner wire will result in them charging at a lower rate and vice-versa.
| Quote: |
I am running a small fridge, small sound system and two 100watt extra head lights (which I rarely use) What do you think
Regards
Philip
|
I think if you had all those things running at once (and the aux batteries were recharging) you would be exceeding the alternator output (about 600w).
Check the headlight globes. The stock were something like 45w on high beam so previous owners may have beefed them up. One of mine was 100w/90w! I now
have 65/55 headlights and 2 x 50w driving lights and they seem to do the job.
Another thing to do is clean off the last 30yrs of corrosion on the various terminals. The most significant is the one on the solenoid that joins the
alternator output to the battery and is the take off point for heaps of other things. By just cleaning this terminal I increased the voltage up the
front by 0.5v.
h - June 20th, 2005 at 02:51 PM
that sounds way less than i used to run in my last camper..
she'll be right