well heres the story. so 4 moths ago my alternator took a crap on me. i went and got a replacement from oreilly. this is a reman unit and im unsure of the what the amps are on it. well ever sence then i have been having issues. my FICM went out, also if i let the truck sit for a week i would have to jump it off because the batteries would be too weak to start it and it would be dangerous for my FICM. once i got my FICM back from Ed, i also replaced both batteries, got the 850cca from ford. i also cleaned all 4 conections for the batteries. this was just 2 weeks ago. well i let my truck sit for a 4 days without being drove and today i had to jump it off.
once running and after the glow plug cycle, i only see as high as 13.6 but most of the time it hangs around 13.2 i have only seen 14 a couple of times and it wouldnt be for long.

so im thinking something is wrong with my alternator, not charging good and also thinking its pulling my batteries down. so im kicking around the idea of returning the alternator back for a refund and ordering a DCpower unit offline.
I have heard alot of you running these dc units but i havnt heard any info on them other than there pricy and i have one and dont have any problems.

Heres what i want to know.
1) Do you think my alternator is to blame?

2) What else could it be?

3) What DC Power Unit are you running?

4) How long have you been running it?

 

In my sig - I love mine. Had it a year and a half or so (May of 2010).

 

Iv only had mine 8 months or so but works awesome I went with the 190 amp unit and the wire upgrade

it has the Smaller Pulley so it can Kickout more power at Idel and IIRC its built on the same plateform as the 250 amp units

Has your Battery Light been coming on

 

no my batt light has not been coming on. What is iirc?
im thinking that the 6.0 just has so much electronics and computers that this alternator cant keep up. if i reach real high rpm like if im racing or something like that, the light will come on for a second. but im not sure if the voltage is going high or low. once i was it come on i was like wow i didnt like that. so i didnt do it again.

 

Over 3 years on a polished DC Power 190 and still putting it out. No regrets.

 

I'd lay money on the diode bridge in the O'Reilly P-O-S being bad/blown. That would allow current to flow backwards, even when off. Thus your batteries dying.

You've got at best a 50/50 chance of getting a GOOD alternator from O'Reilly's. Take the junker back and get your money back.

Take that money down the street to your local alternator shop, and get one from them. Yes, it will cost more. But you'll have a better product.

You'll also have to either replace both batteries (a good idea anyway if they're more than 3 years old), or put them on a charger for at least 12 hours to make sure they're well charged.

If one battery or the other (or both) is bad, it doesn't matter how much $$$ you spend on an alternator, the bad battery will kill it fairly quickly. And if you don't do them all at once, the vicious cycle will destroy your wallet.

-blaine

 

thanks for the info guys. also i did just replace the batteries 2 weeks ago. 850cca from ford.

 

Who did the polish work...looks nice?

 

That's how it came out of the box. I got it straight from the DC Power guys at an event in SoCal. They'll talk to you about alternators all day.

 

show-off ........ lol
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(very nice William!)

 

now is it dangerous to have a alt with too high of a amp rating? also can you only get these off their website. is there another place to get them?

 

Boy Mark I cant beleive yours isnt Polished too. You Always seem to get the Best of the Best

 

No. At least in theory.

What USUALLY happens is that in order to get the high-RPM output up into the eyebrow-popping range, they sacrifice low-RPM performance. That is, you've got 300A when your engine is redlined, but you can't keep the headlights on at idle. As I recall, this is what DC-Power manages to avoid. But they're not cheap.

300-ish amps is about the upper limit for "normal" vehicle alternators. You can't get much more than that before the diode bridge breaks down (or melts down) from heat. The packaging requirements simply don't allow for adequate heat dissipation at that current level. The larger-capacity alternators I've seen at my local shop dwarf a standard Ford alternator. They're used on charter-buses and big-rigs.

Most of the time, if an application requires more current than 200A or so, the route taken is to use multiple alternators (thus the option from Ford for a dual-alternator setup).

-blaine

 

well it looks like you guys may have me sold on the 250 amp xp. thats a lot of doe tho. $540.00. i dont suppose anyone has a promo code? i searched on google but didnt see anything. i may have to wait a couple weeks. just forked out 1500 for pro comp lift and another 1500 for fresh tires. wife may get a little upset over this one. lol anyway thanks for all the input guys.

one last thing. when you guys ordered, how long did it take to get. and how is there customer service?

 

customer service is top notch