Mean Green Alternator For First Gen Tacoma?

[Dusty T.]

I've been running a 180A DC Power alternator for about two years, and noticed that the lower adjusting bracket is cracked. The alternator never quite fit up perfectly to the adjuster bar. I had been following another 1st Gen Tacoma owner with the same issue HERE....

The case hasn't cracked on mine, but am looking for a replacement anyway. What a bummer, because the unit was far from cheap and DC Power makes what looks to be a very good product.

Not many options out there so I'm now looking at Mean Green. Any fist hand experiences, especially with the 3.4 applications? Their website gives no information on output specs, so a phone call to them revealed that they offer two flavors- a 140A and 220A! The 140A case is the stock size, with the 220A having a larger case. I've read good things about them but have a couple questions....

1. Should I expect more broken adjustment brackets with higher output alternators due to added stress required to spin one of these?

2. I feel that my current 180A DC Power alt is the perfect size to keep the dual batteries charged, fridge, and stereo running. Looking to add a couple lights, provisions for a travel trailer (brakes, charging batteries, etc), and possibly a winch in the future.... Would 220A be a better choice or overkill?

Thanks for the help. Would rather not need to get this right the third time

 

[Nate_gb]

No first hand experience for you, unfortunately. But I'm also in the market for a HO alternator for my third gen 4runner and have come across the mean green name before so I'm curious what the response will be as well.

If you were just sticking with your current setup, I would say 140 amps would be plenty, but that's a pretty big list of add ons you have. I would say it depends on what size batteries you have or plan on having. The fridge draws minimal amps, as do most led lights and the stereo. The big amp draw that you mentioned is the winch. If you have big batteries to back it up, you would be fine going with the 140 amp alt I would say. If you don't have big batteries to support the winch, I would probably recommend the higher amperage alt for the faster recharging capability. It really is going to come down to calculating your amperage draw and going from there.

The stock alternator puts out about 80 amps I believe. So if you add all your amp draws to that 80 amp starting point, that should get you an idea of what amperage alternator you should be searching for.

 

[Dusty T.]

Thanks Nate.

And who knows when those add-ons will happen lol. I went the dual battery route not so much for capacity when winching or running high demand devices, but for running accessories when camped out in one place for a time. Between the solar and Yellow Top, I can keep my Engel running for several clear days. So that battery is mainly used as an auxiliary to keep the main from running down and mounted in the bed with #2 awg connecting it to the main battery up front with a Hellroaring isolator separating the two. It's worked flawlessly for almost nine years already!

I agree that 140A is about right for my current setup, but I sat down and ran some very, very rough calcs (see below) that yield a demand of close to 250A and that's not including the winch. Of course, everything was calculated at peak demand, so this is deserving of a deduct of some kind. I've been following NIghtprowler's post on TacomaWorld and his saga with high output alternators. It's been interesting to follow....

 

[Rivers2run]

I have a dual battery with IBS a installed. I ordered a DC power alternator for my Gen 1, before I read about the cracked alternator bracket issue. I asked DC power about it and they confirmed there were issues, so they have redesigned the case. That appears to have taken care of the issue time will tell. Keeping my fingers crossed they are spendy.

 

[lucky13don]

theres a guy on tacomaworld that offers rewound stock alternators up to 250a, i belive he's bamatoy77.

 

[Rivers2run]

Just an FYI I have a gen 1 DC Power Engineering Alternator 180 amp. I also had a cracked bracket. It looked like a hairline crack but when we took it out it broke in 2 pieces. We decided to reinforce the bracket along the lower edge. I'll let you know how it works. Alternator works well, cut the spacer down with a lathe then it fit fine.