Alternator charging solar bank problems

[meteoricide]

I was blessed to receive the chassis and body build sheets for my bus with its paperwork. What a resource to have because these things have a lot of options. The body sheet is 9 pages enumerating 209 line items - chassis is 4 @ 90. One of the line items spec'd the alternator for 145 amps and I WAS pretty happy about it till you guys show up with 260 amps. Story of my life!

[cadillackid]

Bosch makes a series of school bus alternators called SB200, they come in various mounting types to fit most any engine, they are 200 amps, can he run as SI wired or as single wire, their claim to fame is high output at low rpm so even running at idle or just above you get 80% output.
At least that would get you up to 200 from 145, it's an easy swap and not crazy expensive.

You'll want to increase the main supply wire size from alt to battery.
Christopher

[turf]

hey all, im a solar newb so im just going to throw some gas on the fire here.

why would a solar bank be so low? the poster doesnt really talk about his loads. wouldnt the solar panels and controller have kept the batteries charged given enough time?

I'm not sure why you even connect the vehicle alternator for the problems you guys are listing above. wiresize et al... alternator seems like a poor choice of a chargers for a solar bank.

someone explain why? am i missing something?

[Dead pirate]

Originally Posted by turf

hey all, im a solar newb so im just going to throw some gas on the fire here.

why would a solar bank be so low? the poster doesnt really talk about his loads. wouldnt the solar panels and controller have kept the batteries charged given enough time?

I'm not sure why you even connect the vehicle alternator for the problems you guys are listing above. wiresize et al... alternator seems like a poor choice of a chargers for a solar bank.

someone explain why? am i missing something?

It had rained for several days and my normal draw along with being at a music festival found my voltage at an all time low. Neglect. Normally it can handle all of my needs. I had no idea that at 8 volts it would draw so much just to recharge. Im trying to use the alternator to keep my bank topped off so i can run my air conditioner, through an invertor.

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[meteoricide]

It depends on lifestyle a lot. My style is I do a lot of long runs separated by 1 to 2 days off grid. If I have a high output alternator in that scenario, I want to be sure it's tapped for charging duty if I'm moving and it's needed. It's also far simpler to fire the engine for some backup charging than getting out a generator. I'm a "make best use of available resource" person and that person can't leave that many amps unused.