Affordable alts?

[Braindead]

Has anybody used a good alt that costs less than $150? Apparently mines fried along with my battery, even though my system has maybe 20 min of play time on it. Any suggestions? I'm looking at this one: Buy ToughOne Alternator - Remanufactured - 136 Amps 12394 at Advance Auto Parts But i'm not sure if it'll hold up with my system

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[Silverado SS 10+ year member]

Use the search button this has been beat to death. There's a very select few people who are happy with there cheap alts. Save money and get a good reputable brand like Singer, DC, Mechman. Do you really want to cheap out on one of the most important parts of your engine?

 

[bgowdy 5,000+ posts]

Has anybody used a good alt that costs less than $150? Apparently mines fried along with my battery, even though my system has maybe 20 min of play time on it. Any suggestions? I'm looking at this one: Buy ToughOne Alternator - Remanufactured - 136 Amps 12394 at Advance Auto Parts But i'm not sure if it'll hold up with my system

who told you it was fried?

 

[av83 10+ year member]

Go big or go home on alts. If you can afford to spend well over $1000 on a system that is to much for a stock alt, you can afford to spend the dough on its power supply. And this is coming from one of the cheapest mf'ers you'll ever see on the forum regularly lol.

 

[Braindead]

who told you it was fried?

Guy at autozone, said when he tested it it only put out a few amps at about 13 volts.

 

[Braindead]

Go big or go home on alts. If you can afford to spend well over $1000 on a system that is to much for a stock alt, you can afford to spend the dough on its power supply. And this is coming from one of the cheapest mf'ers you'll ever see on the forum regularly lol.

I'm not sure what fried it. its been broken ever since i installed the system yesterday, and my battery won't hold a charge. I don't think i'll need that big of an alt to power 1300w. Any idea what a good 150a alt would run me?

 

[av83 10+ year member]

I'm not sure what fried it. its been broken ever since i installed the system yesterday, and my battery won't hold a charge. I don't think i'll need that big of an alt to power 1300w. All in all my system ran me around $600 with the head unit

Think of it this way. Your vehicle will consume roughly 60% of the available amps. So.if your vehicle has a 100 amp alt(and you get a smaller amount of that at idle) that means you have roughly 40 amps to play with.

You have a 1300 watt amp that, if you're lucky as heck, is 80% efficient. 1300 watts, and let's assume you can hold 13.5 volts(unlikely...) at 80% efficiency means you'll draw 120 amps at full tilt. You will need to cover what your vehicle needs(assuming 60 amps again, if the og alt was a 100 amp.unit)+ a minimum of 50% of the amp's maximum draw. And you want that at idle. So, a good alt for you will be 100 amps at idle. Alts generally are rated at rpm's that are higher than idle. I would suggest a 180 amp alt, minimum. You'll likely want to upgrade later on as well, so be sure to get yourself some growing room.

 

[bgowdy 5,000+ posts]

Guy at autozone, said when he tested it it only put out a few amps at about 13 volts.

they told me the same thing about my DC power alt, turns out 1 of my batts was like completely dead and would not accept charge. in turn it was acting as a "load" on my alt. i disconnected the batts and charged them all up 1 by one and havnt ad a voltage issue since. i myself was unaware of the dead batt due it being wired in with 2 more g31 agms so together plus the batt under hood, the batts showed to be good. but over time it brought all the batts down pretty bad and i did not know it can make your alt do that.....

advance hooked up there tester and checked my starter, batts and alt/amperage. and said your alt is going out etc would you like to buy a new from here(

 

[Braindead]

they told me the same thing about my DC power alt, turns out 1 of my batts was like completely dead and would not accept charge. in turn it was acting as a "load" on my alt. i disconnected the batts and charged them all up 1 by one and havnt ad a voltage issue since. i myself was unaware of the dead batt due it being wired in with 2 more g31 agms so together plus the batt under hood, the batts showed to be good. but over time it brought all the batts down pretty bad and i did not know it can make your alt do that.....
advance hooked up there tester and checked my starter, batts and alt/amperage. and said your alt is going out etc would you like to buy a new from here(

Yeah, it sounded weird that the battery AND alt went bad at the exact same time. My battery has trouble holding a 12.5v charge right now, but its cheap af

 

[bgowdy 5,000+ posts]

Yeah, it sounded weird that the battery AND alt went bad at the exact same time. My battery has trouble holding a 12.5v charge right now, but its cheap af

have actually taken the battery out to try and charge it with a battery charger? it sounds as if the battery it self is probly bad or or about go all together. i would take it out and try and charge it before i say the alt is bad.

 

[Nutdawg651]

@bbeljefe look at the last two posts above from av83 and biggowdy31 there you have it out of two more peoples mouths both senerios I stated hmm I guess its just opinion over real car facts

 

[Braindead]

have actually taken the battery out to try and charge it with a battery charger? it sounds as if the battery it self is probly bad or or about go all together. i would take it out and try and charge it before i say the alt is bad.

I don't have a charger... whoops

 

[glitchsta 10+ year member]

Charger is $20 at your local walmart, Also check your local yellow pages, I know in Denver there is a generator repair place that will rebuild your stock alts to high output like 230amps from 100 for only $90.

 

[bgowdy 5,000+ posts]

I don't have a charger... whoops

yea getting a decent charger is a good item to keep around

 

[av83 10+ year member]

[quote name='glitchsta']Charger is $20 at your local walmart, Also check your local yellow pages, I know in Denver there is a generator repair place that will rebuild your stock alts to high output like 230amps from 100 for only $90.[/QUOTE]

Having a guy stuff more powerful components into a stock casing can be hit or miss. I'd hit up @mylows10 ; I did and he was able to help me order a bitchin Mike Singer alt, without breaking me lol.