Thread: Alternator help
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Old 06-14-2019, 11:04 PM   #6
CharleyL
Gone Wild
 
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Cushman
 
Join Date: Dec 2012
Location: Central North Carolina
Posts: 526
Default 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
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