Offroad-Express

Hey guys on my vitara im running a 9500lbs runva winch with a large 700cca battery with a stock vitara alternator. Has been running fine, been doing some pretty hard winch pulls with no troubles, until yesterday at rallywoods and the end of the day noticed on my last winch attempt all the dash lights started to dim and the winch slowed down (alternator stuffed)

Now i carry a spear alternator in my truck (brand new stock one) but just wondering if its a good idea to do a upgrade? Was thinking a EF falcon 110amp? Worth doing? Or stick the new stock vitara one on?

Any ideas would be great
Cheers
Tim

Just put a second battery in parallel, and a good voltmeter wired direct to batterys. Gives you more capacity. Do a search, others have recently done this
http://www.offroadexpress.co.nz/Forums/ ... =4&t=28702

Bigger wire from alt to batt is a good change ( I have fried original one b4 )

Dont fit a falcon alternator. I have a mate that is a ford wrecker and the falcon alternators fly out the door as fast as they get out of the cars because they crack regulators and fry themselves and the batteries in the system. Anything au and after are better but ea eb etc are crap.

tow99 wrote:Dont fit a falcon alternator. I have a mate that is a ford wrecker and the falcon alternators fly out the door as fast as they get out of the cars because they crack regulators and fry themselves and the batteries in the system. Anything au and after are better but ea eb etc are crap.

Cheers for that ive just fitted a brand new zuk alternator so ill try that out for now.

Cheers
Tim

The problem is that your winch will pull in the order of 600 amps or more. Adding batteries helps for very short pulls, but even with two decent batteries you're talking a matter of tens of seconds 'til your alternator is the main limiting factor.

I had a good run with my 110A falcon alternator -- and I suspect a lot of the reason they 'fly out the door' is because they are such a common upgrade for any vehicle that has high electricity requirements......

It's done a fair few big pulls, and I've only ever had to replace bearings, which is unavoidable when you're regularly submerging them.

Definitely more reliable than the crap warn winch I've been using 'til now -- those yanks really have no idea.....

HedgeBoar wrote:The problem is that your winch will pull in the order of 600 amps or more. Adding batteries helps for very short pulls, but even with two decent batteries you're talking a matter of tens of seconds 'til your alternator is the main limiting factor.

At the risk of starting another shit fight, In my opinion, you couldn't be more wrong with that statement. Just look at what you have written

If you stand by what you have just stated, then according to your statement above, you would need to fit a 600amp alternator to winch for longer than 10 seconds.

The alternator has absolutely nothing to do with winch performance during a pull and everything to do with battery recovery time between winches.

The higher the output of the alterternator, the quicker the batteries will recover, or in other terms, the quicker they wil be recharged.

Running two batteries allows you to winch for longer, or allows you to do more winches in quick succession with out having to allow time for the batteries to recharge. The catch is, you have to wait longer for the batteries to recharge as there is now two to recharge.

A standard 40 amp alternator is fine in your bush truck that does the occasional winch or 4 on a days outing, just leave it running for a while after you have winched to allow the system to charge.

Watch your voltage as the others have said.

I'm going agree with d.b here

I run a falcon 110amp Alt on my Samurai and a Runva 9500Q and have had no probs on "club trips" with it re-charging. I run a single batt and like said just let the alt charge the batt after each winch .Some guy's have had prob's with the Falcon alt but after running them on now two trucks have had no prob's. I will however be putting in a second batt for "peace of mind" winching in the future.
Al

DieselBoy wrote:
If you stand by what you have just stated, then according to your statement above, you would need to fit a 600amp alternator to winch for longer than 10 seconds.

The alternator has absolutely nothing to do with winch performance during a pull and everything to do with battery recovery time between winches.

No -- what I meant is that to winch AT 600 AMPS, continuously, for longer than a matter of seconds, you'd need either a 600amp alternator or a really huge battery.

The longer you winch, the further your current and voltage, and hence the output of your electric motor, drop. Until, after not as long as you may think (~a few minutes with two large batteries, if you're lucky) you're down to basically using whatever your alternator can supply. Do the maths.

Remember -- battery voltage starts dropping as soon as it starts getting discharged -- especially lead acid batteries -- so you can't think of it as an ideal energy store that can just be depleted then charged later.

HedgeBoar wrote:No -- what I meant is that to winch AT 600 AMPS, continuously, for longer than a matter of seconds, you'd need either a 600amp alternator or a really huge battery.

yep thats right but in a perfect world you'll draw 600A continuously, out in the scrub the winch will draw whatever is available from the battery untill theres nothing left ie: the battery goes flat then it stops winching