:frustration: I have been having an electrical dilemma for a while now. When I bought my 99 suzuki, I installed a 4000# winch. I knew it would kill the battery, so when it did i replaced it with a odyssey 925. I know this is a big battery, so I began looking for what the amperage rating is on the alternator and found out it is 45 amps. Not enough for that big of a battery. I converted the alternator over to a gm alternator that i had around the garage. I wasnt sure of its amperage rating and gave it a try. Battery went dead about a week later. Alternator only put out around 12 volts without any electricals running. So I figured it was a 63 amp. I thought i would fix that and purchased a 100 amp powermaster alernator, installed it and was getting 12.34 volts at idle no electricals on. i thought maybe there is a regulator stock that i dont know about. Then I tried a 8 gauge wire from the charging post on the alternator directly to the battery and still only got 12.4 volts. I would really like to keep this battery but nothing is working for me. The only thing I havent tried was to install a thicker ground wire also. When I mention this to a buddy he says thats impossible, considering that is the size battery they use to replace stock battery in a rhino and i know they arent putting out 100 amps. I need the winch and considered auxiliary lighting. PLEASE HELP!!!!
So I take it that your problem is that whenever you use your winch, it discharges your battery completely. Do I understand this correctly? For how long of a period are you using your winch? The duty cycle on those things aren't very high. -Greg
Just a note. I also have a 4K# winch. Its a Warn rt40. I haven't had a problem with the stock battery and stock alternator.
I do leave the engine running while using the winch, but it never got that far. The problem began from just driving the truck. I found the problem though. I must not have been getting a good ground to the motor. I tried to start it today and it just clicked like i had a bad battery terminal connection. I finally traced the broblem to improper grounding of the engine. I took jumper cables and connected One end to the negative terminal and the other to the block of the engine. Then it turned over and started the engine now runs smoother with proper grounding and alternator puts out over 14 volts. Problem solved. Thanks for the replies. I must not have explained my problem very well.
What kind of truck did you put that alternator on? Did you build your own brackets? Just curious, I was wanting to do the same thing.
Glad you got it figured out. dwink, that was my next question. I think some photos of the alternator are due now. Actually, now that I think about it, I saw some a long time ago on this site. I'll see if I can find them again. -Greg
Gbrad had some pics of a optima yellow top battery, but none of an added alternator. I've seen some kawasaki mule sites advertise larger alternators for extra lights, I wonder if those would work on a mini?
