Alternator help
 

So I have a Hyundai cart that I am doing a clone. I found a deal on a predator 420 dirty cheap. I am looking for options for charging my battery. The engine does has a charging feature but it is only 3 amps. Please help. Thanks

Re: Alternator help
 

Can you mount a pulley on the motor shaft? If so, you could get a small GM type alternator and make a mounting bracket for it to be driven by a belt from the pulley. I say GM because they have the voltage regulator built-in. The smaller ones have about 25 amp output. One of them is OEM on my Cushman Truckster and the motor in it is a 22 hp air cooled made by OMC. Then you wouldn't need to hook up or use the one inside your Predator motor at all.

Charley

Re: Alternator help
 

Thanks Charley I’ll give that a try but I don’t have much room under the seat. Now the hard part finding a alternator.

Re: Alternator help
 

Blunt, what kind of accessories are you going to be running on the cart? That little 3amp system will work fine as long as you aren't running big sound amps or a winch.
If you have a good battery and just start your cart and drive it will do as it is supposed to do, maintain state of charge in battery.
If you need/want more and are mounting a clutch with a S/G pulley then reattach your starter/generator and use it, that way you can start and stop the clone just like the cart used to be.

Re: Alternator help
 

If you have any lights, or any accessories at all, 3a ain't gonna cut it.

Re: Alternator help
 

A small GM car in a junk yard would likely be the cheap source, but maybe you can get an auto parts store to help you find out what cars used the low amperage alternators before you go to the junk yard (used auto parts store) to make it easier to find the right one. The one that's in my 1987 Cushman Truckster is a 25 amp, but there aren't very many of these Cushmans around now, let alone one in a junk yard. You could probably use a 35 or 45 amp version, and they are a similar physical size, but a low battery connected to a bigger one like one of these might take too much motor horsepower while it's charging the battery for you to have enough left to be able to drive the cart. With my 22 hp motor and 25 amp alternator I can sometimes feel the slight sluggishness of the motor when the alternator is working hard to charge the battery. Looking at the ammeter when I sense this sluggish condition tells me what is happening.

I had considered a larger alternator because I had wanted to add some large flood lights so I could provide light for a work area at night. These lights are 120 volt, so a power inverter was planned, but with a 12 volt input and the need to get 120 volt output at say 500 watts would require 50 amps at 12 volts for the input, not considering any conversion losses. So I bought some small 12 volt tractor flood lights instead at 4 amps each. They aren't near as bright, but using them saved me from wasting a lot of money on trying to get 50 amps at 12 volts out of my little 22 hp Cushman/OMC motor.

Charley

Re: Alternator help
 

Please take lots of pics and do a write up on swap. I plan on doing the same swap