Originally Posted by
Crazy001
I don't think you have a good understanding of how an electrical system works.
A 2 amp trickle charger will do more than keep a 540CCA battery charged, it'd overcharge it with time! It doesn't take a certain amount of amperage to charge a certain capacity battery...just doesn't work like that.
You seem to think that the battery is what powers your electrical devices...which is only true with the engine off. The alternator is NOT sized to the battery, rather to the electrical demands of the vehicle. The battery has no bearing on this whatsoever, other than having enough power to start the engine. If your electrical demands exceed the capacity of your ALTERNATOR, you will discharge your battery and things will fail. You can have a 540CCA battery, or a 5,000 CCA battery...makes no difference other than the amount of time it would take to discharge it.
If the alternator produces enough current to power your devices, everything will work and you'll never touch the battery's stored power. If it can't, you will discharge ANY battery.
Wrong. The BATTERY provides power to all your devices even when the vehicle is running. When your alternator fails while you're driving down the road, what happens? If the idiot light doesn't come on, you have no clue until everything starts to go dim. Why is that? Because you were getting all of your electricity, including power to your fuel pump, cops, etc from your BATTERY. Disconnect your battery when the truck is running, and what happens? The truck DIES. Why would that be the case if the alternator is powering everything? The alternator requires battery power to run itself, through the field wire!
Also, the difference in cranking power is night and day between a 540 and an 850cca battery. Especially when it's cold outside. The starter turns faster, and stronger. That little 540 is supplying power to a lot more than that starter when the key is turned. A LOT MORE.