craziest battery charger ever?

[Mwilliamshs]

...You're worried about keeping redundant and serviceable equipment in the boondocks, but you are going to keep the old ammeter? That's an inherent contradiction...

...My real concern isn't the gauge itself, but the wiring for it and specifically its shunt...

The ammeter isn't unreliable or inferior to a voltmeter. It works well and fits perfectly and looks right and doesn't need time, labor, or money spent on it to do any of that better.
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The only redundancy is 1 relay that can connect the house battery to the start battery for self jump-starting or sharing a charge from solar panels. Two simple independent systems: one exactly as Ford designed it, the other just an alternator and a battery, is hardly rocket-science. Thanks for sharing.
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Your rapid switch from being unaware of vehicles even having ammeters to considering their elimination trivial is shocking, pun intended.

 

[Mwilliamshs]

... I also have to make sure the belt is tight, or once the state of charge starts getting up above 50% and the load on the alternator climbs, the damned belt will slip and squeal. The noise usually only happens at night with the lights on. When I hear the squeal, that's a reminder that I forgot to check that stupid belt.

That's with a stock 100a alternator with a single belt, not like some of the big blocks I've had where the alternator had dual matching belts...

Auto-Tension Serpentine ******

 

[dwh]

Auto-Tension Serpentine ******

Uh-huh. I had this discussion with Joaguin Suave. You've never seen an alternator lock up I suppose? Both off the same belt...then what? Dead in the water.

His reply (paraphrased) was that it doesn't happen often, and most alternator failures are output failures not bearing failures, and, you can usually see it coming long before it actually happens.

But yea, if one does happen to lock up...


But in what you quoted I was not advocating a single V-belt to drive an alternator. (Though, of course it's been done no doubt more times than doing it with a serpentine, so it's not it's like some inadequate hack job to do it that way.)


No, what I was talking about was the load on the alternator. The way I use my rig, the alternator frequently runs under heavy load for long periods (well, longer than it was designed for anyway). The single v-belt just happens to be what this particular truck came equipped with and as long I remember to check the tension once in a while, it's never had a problem and I haven't cared to fix something that wasn't broken to begin with.

So I wasn't advocating a single v-belt, I was describing something that I've been seeing in the real world for decades.

YMMV.

 

[Mwilliamshs]

...You've never seen an alternator lock up I suppose?...

No I haven't. I've seen them fail electrically and I've heard them growl from dry/damaged bearings but I've never seen or heard of one refusing to turn. Seriously doubt that could happen suddenly without mechanical damage like a very bizarre collision, screwdriver through the windings, etc.

...Both off the same belt...then what? Dead in the water...

Nah just swap on the shorter spare you carry, eliminating the (unlikely) failed component. I typically carry the non-ac belt as a backup for just this occasion. I've also had to use a fabricated spacer to make a belt work that otherwise was too long. V-belts can use the old "make-a-belt" gizmos in such an instance.
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Interesting that you put it this way though, "both off the same belt" since with a v-belt system each belt-driven component is powered only one belt which aligns with only one pair of pulleys. If your lone alternator were to "lock up" you could remove its belt and drive a while I guess, but only so far as your battery would take you and only if each component was indeed driven by its own sheave on the crank, etc. Lots of v-belt rigs actually power one thing with another, daisy-chain style, so the wrong busted link still puts them out of commission a-la-serpentine. Best to attempt any alternator-free during daylight hours!
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I knew what you were saying and was simply a) explaining why that squealing single-v belt isn't my concern b) suggesting an alternative and c) bragging a bit on my "modern" 1989 rig vs your 1976 model

 

[dwh]

Interesting that you put it this way though, "both off the same belt" since with a v-belt system each belt-driven component is powered only one belt which aligns with only one pair of pulleys. If your lone alternator were to "lock up" you could remove its belt and drive a while I guess, but only so far as your battery would take you and only if each component was indeed driven by its own sheave on the crank, etc. Lots of v-belt rigs actually power one thing with another, daisy-chain style, so the wrong busted link still puts them out of commission a-la-serpentine. Best to attempt any alternator-free during daylight hours!

Been there, done that. But with this truck I'd go a different route - start the generator and run it to keep the truck going until I'm able to buy, beg, borrow or steal an alternator.

I have had an alternator lock up. It gave plenty of warning though - started screaming about 5 seconds before the front bearing came apart. That was on a Mopar 440 with dual belts. Alternator was a rebuilt less than a year old.

I've also had a power steering blow a hose where the metal meets the rubber, lose all its fluid and after about an hour the pump locked up. But I've also had power steering blowout where the pump didn't seem to even notice - just replaced the blown hose and filled it back up it was all good for years after.

I sort of like the idea of having the accessories on their own dedicated belts.

 

[Mwilliamshs]

surest way I know of to damage alternator bearings is over-tightening the belt(s). Dual-belt applications are risky IMO because it takes a near-perfectly matched pair to get them tensioned evenly. All too often one ends up far tighter than the other, and the loose one squeals when it slows down on one pulley (opposite of typical belt squeal) which someone thinks they can solve by tightening the belts more, which exaggerates the difference between the two, and so on and so on. Heard it suggested belt-dressing's only worth-while application is in dual-belt apps to make one slip to match the other LOL

 

[dwh]

surest way I know of to damage alternator bearings is over-tightening the belt(s). Dual-belt applications are risky IMO because it takes a near-perfectly matched pair to get them tensioned evenly. All too often one ends up far tighter than the other, and the loose one squeals when it slows down on one pulley (opposite of typical belt squeal) which someone thinks they can solve by tightening the belts more, which exaggerates the difference between the two, and so on and so on. Heard it suggested belt-dressing's only worth-while application is in dual-belt apps to make one slip to match the other LOL

Considering I made journeyman machinist - tool & die maker and moldmaker - by the time I turned 21, I'm fairly confident that I'm qualified to figure out how to measure belts.

A slight difference is irrelevant anyway, because belts stretch. After a week they are both the same size.

And no, I'm not an idiot who had failed alternator bearings from being overtightened.

But thanks for the heads up - just in case I lose what's left of my mind.

 

[Mwilliamshs]

No offense intended, ye olde master-belter.