Hello guys.

I now have twin winches more eletric add on than an 18 wheeler so it time to change the alternator.

I have picked up a Ford alternator that can kick out 140amps and with a spacer will fit the mounts and has a simular pully

Jobs to do.
1. Work out what the two wires do on the Tracker stock plug?

I will be upgrading the charge cable and installing the second battery with a series of cut out switches and two voltmeters, I havant decided fully as I need to look to see whats best with the least amount of wires. a split charge relay is to expensive and teh cheap ones just set on fire lol

Any help on the question above would be great I will get and buy myself a workshop manual


Lastly anyone have the 70amp Bosch part number for the alternator if you have them

Cool, all I have is the 55amp partno. Make sure to post pics a details.... he he I"m interested in dual batteries

my friend runs dual red top optimas on his sami has 2 6000 lbs winchs, 6 warn lights, a cb, GPS, 2 back up lights, and a stereo with 2 12" subs. the stock altornator powers everything. obviously 1 winch at a time. if he uses all the lights and cranks up the stereo it causes the lights to pules with the beat because he needs a transformer/bass boaster. don't know if this helps.

Where are you putting the second battery?

I know I don't have anywhere CLOSE to enough room under my hood for a second battery!

IN the back of my truck i have a box that holds all my gear it will go in there ,

I was thinking of putting them both in there,,,

Yeah my alternator is dieing but I run a 12500LBS winch on the front that has fast line speed etc but lately my voltmeter can read down to 3 volts when winching I run a yellow top Optim at present which will recover well. before on extreme winching It woud drop down to 10volts which was exceptable. I hate having to wait for a recharge so going to up the amps stored and teh amps that can be drawn..

I tend to have to winch a fair amount when taking part in challenges and marshalling so i figured its time to up rate my stock gear that was never ment to pull lots of amps alot of the time.

Even my eletric fan pulls 22amps my winch can pull 110amp plus,,, depending on the load.  Poor 55amp alternator no wonder it doesnt last too long.

have just got a Superwinch EP9 for mine, and I think the Spanish Vit I have has an even smaller battery than a stock one.

I thought of a second heavy duty battery for the winch, with a split charger set up, fitting it to the near side (UK)under the bonnet, but I'm also fitting a snorkel, so won't have much room. I guess I'll have to stick with one battery but go for a bigger one.  

I don't expect to use the winch a lot, unlike you Mark!

Where are you putting the second battery?

I know I don't have anywhere CLOSE to enough room under my hood for a second battery!

I ran twin stock sized batteries under the hood for a while. I used a stock battery try cut the mounts off and reversed them with a 60mm off set to space it out from the air intake and bolted it down on the LH side, you would of been had pressed not to think it was factory fitted too.

Although thinking about it this would only work with a 16v model as the 8v's air box is alot further back IIRC ? and probably not with a LH drive either seems the brake  booster would interfere aswell.....

Now I've removed the LH side battery (trays still there if any wants pix) and put a steel box in the back with a 925cca silver cadmium battery for running the Warn M6000.

I still need to get around to wiring independent charging system too.

I ran twin stock sized batteries under the hood for a while. I used a stock battery try cut the mounts off and reversed them with a 60mm off set to space it out from the air intake and bolted it down on the LH side, you would of been had pressed not to think it was factory fitted too.

Although thinking about it this would only work with a 16v model as the 8v's air box is alot further back IIRC ? and probably not with a LH drive either seems the brake  booster would interfere aswell.....

Now I've removed the LH side battery (trays still there if any wants pix) and put a steel box in the back with a 925cca silver cadmium battery for running the Warn M6000.

I still need to get around to wiring independent charging system too.

I have seen an 8V Vit Sport with the airbox towards the front like a 16V so it would be possible to relocate the airbox. I don't know if the brake booster would be a problem for the LHD cars after all its not a problem with RHD with the battery on the RHS.
You'd have to be careful with a split charger as a run down battery can draw a lot of current. I have seen some that are very low rated and could fail very quickly.

What I was wondering though with the LH drive is if the air intake runs from the front air box and exits out the rear of the engine bay through the inner guard (Like I think they all do ?) you have to offset the battery tray 60mm off the inner guard because of the air intake tube, unlike our drivers side  (yours and mine anyway  ) where the battery tray is hard up against the inner guard and just clears the brake booster.

What I was wondering though with the LH drive is if the air intake runs from the front air box and exits out the rear of the engine bay through the inner guard (Like I think they all do ?) you have to offset the battery tray 60mm off the inner guard because of the air intake tube, unlike our drivers side  (yours and mine anyway  ) where the battery tray is hard up against the inner guard and just clears the brake booster.

Fair point

all looks good.

Rhinoman do you have any idea what the two wires on the alternator plug must be ignion or something.

I might go get the book of lies and see if it states anything,  

i think the way i will go is , Wire the batterys pos to pos  two cut out switches, on each battery so i can charge one or other and have them both on when winching plus  ican turn them off when its not being used .

or  relocate them to the back so i could have one main lead to the back have a threeway switch so i can either have position 1 left batt . position 2 both,  pos 3 right batt with two voltmeters. , it would be less wiring,
 
I could alwasy replace the charge wires and have those seperate.


I think its a case of take it out have a look decide and then measure up cable lengths get them made in some nice armor cables and bobs your oncle

all looks good.

Rhinoman do you have any idea what the two wires on the alternator plug must be ignion or something.

I might go get the book of lies and see if it states anything,  

i think the way i will go is , Wire the batterys pos to pos  two cut out switches, on each battery so i can charge one or other and have them both on when winching plus  ican turn them off when its not being used .

or  relocate them to the back so i could have one main lead to the back have a threeway switch so i can either have position 1 left batt . position 2 both,  pos 3 right batt with two voltmeters. , it would be less wiring,
 
I could alwasy replace the charge wires and have those seperate.


I think its a case of take it out have a look decide and then measure up cable lengths get them made in some nice armor cables and bobs your oncle

I probably should know what they do but I can't recall off the top of my head. I have a spare Bosch unit I will have a look at. Didn't get a chance last night as the bike broke down on the way home   Its worth keeping the leads as short as possible as the winch can take a LOT of current, do you have the specs? then the voltage drop on the leads can become significant. If you have any plugs in the leads they can drop a lot of power too. What cable size are you using?

i think the way i will go is , Wire the batterys pos to pos  two cut out switches, on each battery so i can charge one or other and have them both on when winching plus  ican turn them off when its not being used .

make sure not to wire them wrong, it'd suck to fry your computer , etc... he he

Check the current rating on the cut out switches too. At 100Amps even 0.1ohms of resistance will give you a 10 volt drop. At full pull you are probably looking at several hundred amps The fewer connections the better and they do need to be good connections. One test you could do is to get it loaded up and test the voltage across the battery and then compare it to the voltage across the winch that will tell you how good your connections are and how adequate your wire is too. If you can test the voltage coming out of the alternator as well, that is likely to drop off a fair bit though because of its internal impedance.

I want to limit the cables as that amount of power is going to be a fire risk.

I will have a look at it next week and decide the plan.

My ford alternator looks too big to fit the gap but we will see.

I have a carb version so no ECU for me.

I will find out what the top ampage my winch can pull and adust to that.  

I will leave one battery in the front that the front winch conects to . the cable i have for the rear is tri rated and i stupid amount of amps like 3000.

also looks lke one of those wires on the plug goes back to the ECU on the injection model.

cheers for al your help will report back but its going to be a couple of weeks