wow i have a 8 foot MM on my 04 350 and i have the same hesitation problem except i had an even bigger problem on friday night at 3 in the morning, when i raised the plow all lights would go reeeal dim and then after finishing that driveway i was on when it first started doin this the truck died in the middle of the main road that the driveway was on and i had to get it towed because it woudlnt turn over. Ended up looking into the problem and think that snow got onto the serpentine belt, also the belt was a little loose after lookign at it today, and the belt just slipped on the alternator so everythign was running on the batteries and ended up dieing. Today i put a new serpentine belt on and a new tensioner just to make sure it doesnt leave me stranded at 3 in the morning again.. Wasnt too bad, parts cost $145 but it is a PAIN IN THE *** job to do, ended up taking about 4 hours

 

Well today I plowed for a total of 14 hours, 10hours this morning and 4 hours tonight, I found that the reverse delay got worse at night when there was more of a load on the truck. I am going to get out the old amp meter and try to monitor it but it seems to me that the plow when plowing slow and short distance with frequent plow movements draws more current than the alt. can make at low rpm operation. I plowed a few long lots then had a row of loading dock to clean while plowing the dock with short distance, lots of plow movement, and low rpm's while running a two rotator fisher roof light, strobes in directional, headlights, added reverse lights, heater, and radio. I noticed the plow lights starting to dim more and more and the reverse delay got worse. I stopped, turned off all light except parking lights and turned the high idle on to recharge the batteries for a few. After that the lights did not seem to dim and delay time was reduced.. So it would seem to me that the reverse delay is directly related to a low voltage condition. Wondering if anyone above that stated they had the delay, have a higher amp alt. or the snowplow package with dual alts. Someone else stated that they replaced the batts. With larger ones but that would just delay the draw down on the batteries. With a larger storage capacity, it would buy more time for the plow to run the batteries down, with more time it might make the difference to hold you over until you drive to the next plow job which would recharge the batteries. Just more of a band aid to me. I am going try and do a load analysis and see what the truck draws while plowing verse the charging current at low rpms. I do plan to upgrade to a 200amp heavy duty alt. from http://www.alternatorparts.com/ which claims to produce more power at lower rpms.

 

Vlietracer64, You maybe on to something there,,I plowed for 5 hrs yesterday, it was daylight though, only had running lights on, Whelen strobe, heat/defrost on low, wipers, and it seemed to be better, not as much hesitation,,only difference was headlights not on,,maybe a voltage issue ?? I only have the factory gauges,,so I cant tell,,maybe it's time for an update !

 

Definitely sounds like the alternator is not able to keep up with the load demand on it. At low RPM's the alternator puts out much less than its max rating. IIRC the alternator does not reach max output until the engine is at 1250-1500 RPM. It depends on the size of the pulley on the alternator. A smaller pulley on the alternator allows the alternator to reach max output at a lower engine speed.

 

I could change the pulley to a smaller one but what is the max rpm of the alt. On the firetrucks i used to work on at my firehouse i changed the pulley to increase the rpm's of the alt. to keep up with the demand at idle, the alt. had a max rpm listed on it and a strobe tach was used to find the rpm at 1,000 engine rpm's and then multiplied it by the redline rpm of 3,800 to get redline alt. rpms.

 

The company I work for has a fleet of f250-350's about 20 in all. All are trucks ordered with the "plow package and dual alternators". When this problem happened to me, our mechanic replaced the serpine belt, it happen again, both alternators were replaced, it happened again, our fleet mechanic then called Ford and they reccommeded replacing the batteries to larger ones. Problem solved, has not happen since.

I would be interested to see if the 200amp alt will solve your problem, please let us know.

Respectfully,

Elliot

 

ya i just changed the serpentine belt and the tensioner and for the past storm on sunday i was plowing for 14 hours straight and i didnt have 1 problem. even at night, no dimming of the lights or anything but i will be curious to see if the problem starts up again in a little while when the belt stretches out a little bit, please post back and let us know if the bigger alt. works or if we shoudl just keep the stock one and get bigger batteries

 

The bigger alt. is on the way according to my e-mail today but did not say deliver date, so I give it 3-5 days. The only thing I can see the bigger batteries doing is acting like more of an capacitor to take the initial shock of the inrush current of the plow motor. Kind of like the lightning caps do for a high performance amp/sound system; Acts like a sponge to take up the initial shock of high load items like a plow. So i would like to see what the higher amp alt. will do for me seeing i still get the intermittent battery light on startup until i hit 2500 rpms like stated in another post, still charging, just idiot light, think someone said they have a bad slip ring that causes a light to come on but still charges. If the bigger alt. still dose not fix the problem I will upgrade my batteries, could not hurt they are factor batts. on an 04.

 

OK heres my .02 $ I have a 03,xlt,sc,sb,5.4,4x4,4:10LS with the plow prep and a westren ultramount.with one yellow top battery. when I lift the plow the lights flicker once the fan still blows fast them lights are good before the plow gets up and that western is fast so you all need better alt.

 

My new 200amp alt will be here monday according to the ups tracking number, cant wait, will tell all what i find out. Hopefully for the better.

 

New Alt is in. Brand new 200amp heavy duty. It fit like a glove. slid right in place, bolted in and slid belt on. Truck seems ok, hopefully we get some more snow so i can plow and give it the true test. when i have more time this weekend i would like to put the meter on it and see what it is putting out. I did notice with the old alt. when i stoped and the rpm's dropped with the headlights on and heat on high, the heater motor would slow indicating a drop in voltage and then speed up when accelerated. With the new alt, this has not happened, guessing due to the fact that it puts more power out at a lower rpm. Well so far all is good and cant wait to load test it with the plow. Will get back to everyone when i get more results. Thanks Peter

 

Its fun for a little while, but after @ 18 plus hours straight it starts to suck
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Oh yeah. cant wait and love it the first time over the first few hours, then it starts to go down hill, after about 18 hours the coffie cups on the passanger floor become as high as the dash, and then it just drives you nuts.

 

Guess I'll add one of mine to the list. '04 550. But I can screw up the whole thread so far. Mine has a central hydraulics\clutch plump to run the plows and spreader. So theoretically it could be low batteries--mine have been changed out once, course the idiot at the dealer would only replace one because only one was bad, so as soon as I got it back I put 2 new ones in it, major case of cranial\rectal inversion--it is unlikely in my case.

I was going to start a new post on this and probably will, but here's my issue. Shortly after delivery and in service, the engine would die when lifting the plow via central hydraulics. Dealer stated RPM's too low, reflashed it, problem went away until this year. Problem is back again. Can't tell for sure but it sounds and looks like the RPM's are a couple hundred less on this truck than my other 2. RPM's drop to around 400 when raising plow under no load, so it's not a surprise that it will stall under lifting the plow while there's a load out front. So, bring it in to another dealer, they can't find a problem other than EGR, no kidding it's unplugged. They replace the EGR and I go plow with it. TRuck has virtually no power, can't even spin the tires in snow. And takes about 10 seconds for the turbo to spool. I get slightly pissed and unplug the EGR again. Truck is now 100% better. I can actually get the tires to spin now and turbo lag is slightly decreased.

Problem is, the truck is still a complete dog compared to my other 2. And a severe dead spot to the point I'm going to grenade the tranny as my '05 engages immediately and that is what I normally plow with so once I shift I'm stepping on the go pedal and this one don't go.

Any ideas? I'm going to try to find an aftermarket shop as the dealers in my area are idiots and have no techicians that have a clue. Case in point, in the above story, the dealer called Ford and was told to install a 140 amp alternator (which I'm 99% sure it has) until I informed this rocket scientist of a service manager (the second time) that my plows don't run off electric, but the clutch pump and that is what is killing the engine. Not low voltage. Complete and total morons. I'm about at the point of throwing the warranty out the window and just having someone with at least half a frickin' clue work on my trucks.

 

Well the verdict is in, yesterday I went 8 hours of plowing and I will have to say at 1am with heat, head lights, roof light, 6 strobe, wipers, 2 aux reverse lights, and radio all on and all was well. There was definitely a reduction in the reverse delay. While shifting in to reverse while lifting the plow had little to no delay and when shifting without or before raising the plow it was instant. much improvement with or without the plow movement, With low rpm and lots of plow movement with wet heavy snow the lights did not even seem to dim, even lost the dimming of the light and slowing of the heater motor when pulling up to a stop sign, Before I could notice a slight slowdown in the blower motor when stopping at a light and letting the motor reach idle and then could hear the blowing motor speed up when motor came off idle. At idle the new alt. put out about 14.2 volts where the factory one I took out would drop to the low to mid 13’s at idle. So I have concluded if you have fresh or good batteries to take the initial shock of the motor of the plow, and do not have the plow package with dual alts. Than a larger alt, will fix your problem. The factory alt. dose not put out enough power, especially at a low rpm usually associated with plowing to keep up with the electrical demand while plowing. Especially at night with extra electrical dependent devices running. If anyone has any question with the upgraded alt. or anything I have come across feel free to contact me. Have a Great New Year; Peter