Alternator Overload.

[Goon]

Hey all


I’ve got a curios question that I would like to ask and it has to do with the alternator and how much it can take before overload.

Picture a commodore 6cyl standard with all the usually stuff but this time adding extra such as neon’s, spot lights, CB , thermos etc.. So how many 12v items could you run at the same time before things become risky?

I currently have a borsch 40 alternator on my vehicle.

[craigvk]

Neons and cb's don't draw anything.

To give you an idea. My cousin is a farmer and has an XY 302 with a V8 battery and he has 8 100W driving lights and when they are all on, it sucks the battery almost flat when running.
What do you want to put on your car? You might want to get a heavier duty alternator but what's going in your car?

[1vngal]

Living in a town where most think it's the country, when we're only 25k's from the city, there are a lot of rurals that get around here. They all have utes (mostly HQ's!) and they usually have the little lights along the sideskirts and rear of tailgate, 3 BIG driving lights bolted to the roof, 2 attached to the bull bar, CB radios and airhorns. And christ knows what else.

They don't seem to have problems with power, and surely they aren't all smart enough to put a larger alternator and battery in. So I guess you can run a fair bit of stuff, before things start to go dead.

[Goon]

The setup is similar to this old topic i posted awhile ago, though something have changed such as 2 extras neons and both thermos will be controled by thermstat but the backup will have an optional switch to turn on/off.

VC Add Electrix Setup.