All This Charging System Talk...

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Aug 26, 2012 | 07:14 PM

#16

Fulthrotl

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Joined: Apr 2012

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Quote:

Originally Posted by Sarge261

the ground wire should be as large as the power lead.
so, if you are running #1 cable for the +12, you need the same,
or a ground braid strap with the same cross sectional area.
a 3/4" wide strap is plenty.

batteries will only take current so fast, but let's say you
have a battery that will take 100 amps charge rate,
and you have two in parallell, so that is 200 amps
load from the batteries..... now, your batteries are low,
and you start up the truck, you have glow and all the cold
engine loads, which i believe is around 100 amps....

now, you have a stereo on, and it's pulling 50 amps.....
trust me, a strong stereo can pull four times that amount...

just driving off to work one cold morning with your sippy cup
of coffee, listening to blind faith, you are pulling 350 amps,
but you are limited to 250 amps or whatever your alternator
is rated for....

so your ground lead is pulling 250 amps, as the batteries make
up the difference between your load, and your generating capacity.

and that is going thru your ground cable.

212 amps will burn a #12 copper wire in half, fuse it.
it'll heat up a #4 wire, smoking hot.

more bigger wire, and turn down that damn stereo!

Aug 26, 2012 | 08:28 PM

#17

berick

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Joined: Feb 2008

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From: AB,Can

Quote:

Originally Posted by Sarge261

Well Friday I finally got the alt. installed. I did the power wire upgrade with the fuse but not the negative cable upgrade yet. Im assumning that the DC guys want the negative cable replaced at the driver side engine block or am I wrong. It didnt come with instructions.

Also if anyone could steer Mark(Bismic) to this thread, or anyone else that has done the wire upgrade, to post pics of how you ran the power wire. I did mone temp. so I could use the truck this weekend but I dont like it, soIm interested to see what you guys did.

All in all this is a great unit and well worth the money as well. I drove the truck Saturday and the voltage never dropped below 14.5 or so, and I had pretty muc everything on except the wipers.

Anyone thinking twice about this upgrade...dont just do it.

Sarge

The wire upgrade kit that DC gives you is a "universal" kit so it's not specific to your make and model. I installed my 270XP a couple weeks ago and also got the upgrade kit as well (along with the military top post connectors).

Basically the ground cable they supply is only good for the drivers side ground terminal. The ground terminal on the passenger side has a few branches that go from engine block to frame as well as to the body on the topside.... I had one made up but it's not necessary. The ground cables on these trucks (at least on mine) is already a 1 gauge cable. The main power wire however coming off the alternator looks like 4 gauge so it definitely needs to be changed out (provided with fuse in the upgrade kit you have). The other cable I would upgrade is the positive lead cable that goes from battery to battery.... it is also 4 gauge. I upgraded this to a 1/0 as well.

Nice cable they send in that kit huh?

Here's a link to a thread with some pics of mine.

https://www.ford-trucks.com/forums/1...more-pics.html

Aug 27, 2012 | 09:30 AM

#18

Sarge261

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From: The Land Of Time

Did you remove the old charge wire from the circuit or dod you hook it up any way. I drilled out the O- connector and hooked it up just wondering what you did, and yes I need to replace the rest of the wire from the D/S to P/S battery, just didnt have time and Im a little **** so the way I wired it uick is bothering me.

Thanks for the links,

Reps your way,

Sarge

Aug 27, 2012 | 10:04 AM

#19

berick

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Joined: Feb 2008

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From: AB,Can

Quote:

Originally Posted by Sarge261

You got the 250XP and as such you MUST upgrade the main charge wire from the alternator to the passenger side battery. Just using the factory lead and drilling out the lug is no good..... your new alternator charges at almost 200 amps at idle vs. the 65 amps your old unit charged at.... you will fry the factory lead over time and in turn start to fry the ficm and possibly lead to injector problems and battery failure (very expensive consequences).

I believe you had said you got the wire upgrade kit from DC Power.... it comes with the main lead along with a fuse. Is there any reason why you chose not to use it?

Remember, it is not "necessary" to change the grounds as they are already 1 gauge from factory.... the main power supply from alternator must be changed to either a 1 AWG or 1/0 at minimum. Some say you don't need to worry about the battery to battery positive lead but I changed mine to 1/0 anyways to match the main charge cable.

Aug 27, 2012 | 11:54 AM

#20

Sarge261

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From: The Land Of Time

I did install the upgraded wire on the charge side, what I was asking was did you eliminate the OEM wire from the harness or did you just do what I did and drill out the O-connector and using in conjuction with the wire that DC sent.

Just to clarify I did use both the OEM charge wire, the upgraded charge wire, and fues assembly.

Sorry I confused everyone.

Sarge

Aug 27, 2012 | 02:13 PM

#21

berick

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Joined: Feb 2008

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From: AB,Can

Quote:

Originally Posted by Sarge261

Ahhhh.... I gotcha now! No, I actually sheathed and taped up the factory ringlet to the little harness back there and left it. That way if for whatever reason, somewhere down the road I want to put the factory alternator back in there the charge cable is still intact as was OEM. I disconnected the OEM completely from the alternator so there is no chance of a short or fire.