I have a question for all the alternator gurus out there. I'm upgrading to a LN 230 amp alt. I have run a 1 AWG ground from the driver side frame to the block where the passenger side is and added a 1 AWG ground from the alt to the same point at the block. I plan to run either 1/0 or 2/0 between the batteries. However, what do you run from the alt to the passenger battery? I started to cut back the positive harness towards the alt from the battery and found that the glow plug wires and the feed from the alt are fused with what looks like 12 gauge fuseable links. How do you upgrade the wire and do you fuse it?

 

I'll just link to the answers you need: (you can also get pre-made cables here)

https://www.ford-trucks.com/forums/1...l#post16189585

On edit, just so you don't miss it: 6 Gauge will be fine as a second cable...

 

You leave the stock wiring in place as its needed for both the glow plugs and to the alternator field for voltage regulation. There are five fusible links in that assembly, 2 12 ga for the GPs, 2 12ga for the alternator, and a 20a for the alternator field.

The stock wiring can actually handle the LN230a for a short time, but it's REALLY NOT recomended. An 6ga parallel cable from alternator to batt will do what it needs but you would probably be more comfortable with a 2ga based on what you're doing.. The 1ga you're using is too small for between the frame and the block, it should be a 1/0ga to balance with the stock cabling. If you are going to replace the battery to battery 2ga with a 2/0ga, then you really do need that 1/0ga between the block and frame to balance the flow or your wasting copper.

And you need a fuse for the extra parallel cable alt to batt. If the alternator ever goes unregulated, without a fuse you risk a battery explosion. BlueSea makes a nice assembly that you connect one of their fuses to. I've run as low as 75a with my 230a but right now have a 150a.

 

Jack. What your saying is I can leave the stock setup, add another parallel cable with a fuse of around 150 amps, and upgrade the grounds to at least 1/0 to match what is allready there. Then I connect the batteries to each other with 2/0 and all should be well. Should I use 1/0 from the back of the alt down to the block on the passenger side also?

The main reason is I have a winch that gets used every once in a while and I wanted to be able to charge the batteries quicker after using it.

 

Ahhhh, a winch! That gets a little more interesting. I should have looked at you signature.

Right now I'm in a discussion on another forum so if I may need an hour to get back here.

The 1/0 from the alternator to the block is redundant as there is plenty of pathway through the block. You do need an improved negative cable from the drivers battery neg frame connection to the block. That could be a cable I've talked about in the "batteries" thread.

But the winch changes things a little. Do you know the stall amps for the winch? The manual usually has a current load per each cable wrap along with the pulling force. Well, at least they used to.

 

It typical when installing a higher amp alternator from stock to just add a parallel cable to flow the additional current flow. Parallel cables of the same size will more then double the current capacity. A good seat of the pants guide is that if you double up a cable, the rating goes up two sizes. By that guide, our trucks come with a 2ga cable between the batteries. If we install an additional 2ga the two will equal a 1/0 cable, two sizes up.

However, it's better to look at the cross sectional area of the cable. If we double the area of a 2ga cable it's area is actually about equal to a 2/0 cable, so even better. So going from the stock 110a alternator with its 6ga factory cable, adding another 6ga allows for a 220a flow. Upping the cable size however reduces the voltage drop under high load conditions. Most of the forum guys will never use that. You, with your winch, and me with my dump trailer on the farm, will use the alternator to its full intent.

We had a 12k winch at our test facility to pull tractor trailers, long story. And growing up in the pine barrens of NJ, I set up a number of trucks to pull out of sugar sand and swamps a few decades back. So I understand what you are doing.

Edit found your winch.

 

Just got back on line, looks like you found the amp draw for me. I figure 2/0 between the batts should hold for most of what I'm doing. I tried the idle up trick but it did not work, guess that the computer in the truck does not recognize +12 on the wire.

I'll get some heavier wire Monday.

 

So if you haven't ever used the little thing in the corner of a post that looks like a set of scales (giving credit, props, reps, etc.), this is one guy that is worth doing that for...

Jack rocks! and he just helps each of us in turn...

Jack: I have to spread more love before I can give you more reps!!!

 

Others have done more.

The biggest problem I have setting up the electrical connection for a winch is the positive connection. The factory terminals work fine in the OE setup, but they are not the most robust connection for a winches cable. For the 2/0 across the batteries, as I mentioned you could just parallel another 2ga 70" cable with 1/4" ends and pair that to the stock terminals. It is what I have done. The 6mm bolt on the terminal may be able to handle the circuit breaker adaptor as well.

But I'm not really thrilled with the longer time drain through those stamped terminals when winching. The problem is the starter cable connection here. There is a recent thread here about a new member installing a standard lug on that cable so a more robust military terminal could be used for all cable attachments. The other option is to replace all the positive cables so you have all option available to you.

I may be overthinking this, and if so another member with a winch hopefully will respond to say they never had an issue.

With an additional ground cable between the drivers frame connection and the block, your winch ground cable can be easily attached to the engine block, which then would give the best shared flow path for that electrical side.

A 2ga alt to batt would be fine and going a little larger would not hurt, but no serious gain. With the thought of longer draw time, I'd up the fuse to a 200a just to be safe. If you install a smaller diameter then stock pulley the LN 230a will provide a higher output at normal hot idle. If you plan on upping the idle, it probably won't matter.

Bed calls.

 

Jack, not getting off topic here but-i have a 16k lb winch on my flatbed with its own big truck batt and a line from drivers pos batt to the trailers batt, i winch none running equip alot, you think the factory alt is ok for this, gauge shows 13.8-14.2 all the time and new batts on the truck and i hit the high idel switch when winching to spin alt faster,alt has a lifetime warr from auto zone in case.

 

Jack reps given. Diesel Dan thanks for telling me how to rep someone.

I tried to do the idle up option but for some reason it would not work, so that is one reason I went with a bigger alternator and heavier wiring.

I have used the winch to drag a JD 350 dozer up a hill and back up the side of a pond we are building I slid off of into some trees. OE lol

 

My winch works fine with 16ga wiring, Oh ya it's hydraulic. I also have an electric on another truck that I ran 4/0 cable for both ground and positive, original when I got it was 1 ga if memory serves. Big cables help a lot especially if winch is any distance from the batteries mine is 20ft away on rear of old F650 wrecker to augment the PTO winches on the boom.

 

Your doing the same situation that I do with my dump trailer. There are a few times on the farm I need to move mass quantities of soil or chips a few hundred feet, which if I used my tractor and loader to transport would be a lot of travel with little amounts each time. Not efficient. So I end up using my truck and trailer as the transport tool. The problem is after an hour or so my trailers battery would be depleted excessively as the recharge through the trailer electrical plugs circuit was too low. My volts never really dropped, but the charge to the trailer's large battery was never sufficient. I could return to the farmhouse and replenish the battery on a charger in a relatively short order. My opinion was that although I had a 140a alternator, the factory supplier trailer charging circuit was limiting the flow to the trailer, therefore the trailer batt was diminished while the truck side never saw an increase in current flow and subsequent voltage drop like we do when starting our trucks in cold weather.

My change was to up the size of the alternator since I was adding much larger cables from the front of my truck to the trailer, bypassing the factory cables that were sufficient when using the dump trailer in its more common mode. Since then I have been fine when doing this rapid amount of dump cycling.

If your not seeing any significant voltage drop then you are fine as you are. The trailers large battery is handling the winching, the depletion of the battery is not that excessive, and the current flow from the truck to the trailer is moderated by the setup so the trucks voltage is not excessively lowered while winching and the trailer battery gets recharged, probably a little slower but still very well just over a longer time period. The truck and the trailer are separated entities, but the trailer charging is sufficient.

A truck mounted winch using the trucks batteries for energy ends up being a different animal, is what my take is.

 

04,

Didn't realize your up and running. Are you seeing any distress on the terminals? I may be overthinking these terminals, been known to do that.

In cold weather we draw about 300a from each battery, 400a peak at in-rush. So your winch current flow is not as high, but it is longer. Have you ever felt the cables after high use or used an infrared thermometer to check their temp? Just trying to figure out their situation. And what size cables do you not have to the winch?

 

Jack

I'm replacing the positive's with the military type. No real distress but corrosion is starting to eat the cables at the Ford OEM connectors, neg terminals are good. I believe the winch cables are 1 gauge short run from passenger side to bumper, maybe 3 ft. I have not checked cable temps after a pull, but most of the time its a 15 or 20 ft pull to get whatever unstuck, then its just putting the winch cable back on the spool. Most of the time I have to run most of the cable out to get to whats stuck. We have 5 acres on the side of a mountain that's unimproved, so its get the truck close, run out cable, sometimes the ****** block to get around a tree, chain to whatever, block the wheels front and back, unstick whatever, then put it all back. One of these days we will get it where we want it.