Alternators

[John Hofstetter <hofs@domain.elided>]

>In Tom's case, with his higher output alternator, the point at which the
>initial self-excitation takes over is obviously higher than his idle speed.
>I've always understood this effect is intensified the higher the alternator
>output capacity.  This makes sense, considering there are undoubtedly more
>windings which take more current to build a sufficient magnetic field to
>insure self-excitation.
>
>Regards,
>
>John

Great post, John! I knew it was happening, in fact it was so bad in the 
100 amp alternator that I had that I got rid of it, but I certainly 
didn't know why. Not that's it relevant to much of anything, the 65 amp 
alternator that I have now is a pretty good compromise for me. It starts 
charging early, sparing me the anxious seconds on whether it was going to 
charge or not, yet is capable of keeping all my accessories running 
except for my winch. The 100 amp would be nice in the once-every-5-years 
that I use my winch. 

I blamed the reluctance (no pun intended) of the 100 amper (no that's how 
I meant for it to be spelled) on the fact that I got it from poor old JC 
Whitney, whom I blame for almost everything. Come to find out, it was 
behaving as it should. 

Have any of you guys been to their retail outlet in Chicago? I know it 
goes by a different name which I can't remember (Warsharsky or something) 
 but, I went there once expecting a really big outfit with everything 
imaginable displayed everywhere. Wow, what a let down. That was shortly 
before they went bankrupt or whatever happened to them, and they may be 
very different now.

Thanks again, John
John H.