Today is the day for power. I have plans for a winch and fog lights in the future so I've been trying to figure out the best way to adapt the electrical system of the G to accommodate those added loads. The 300SD motor I installed came with a 55-amp alternator, which was rebuilt and is ol' reliable, especially at lower RPMs when most high-amp alternators give no output. I'm just concerned that the system will not be able to keep up with a winch draw of well over 100 amps.
In fact, there seems to be a golden path for alternators, where they balance amp output with low-RPM effectiveness. For this reason I selected an alternator from a Mercedes 380/420/560 gas engine. This is a Bosch unit with the same mounting ear dimensions and a 90-amp output. There is an ebay seller that re-wires these to produce 120A but they were not designed for that kind of load and are likely to burn up prematurely, especially if you're recovering from a winch pull. In particular, the copper windings were not sized to carry that much amperage.
The conversion requires little more than crimping a loop connector in place of the two-wire plug on the charge wire, and another loop on the idiot-light wire. Mounting is just like the stock unit and uses the same pulley.
That covers only half of the challenge though. Even though the original Mercedes battery was pretty hefty, few of us actually use that rather expensive battery today. Most wheelers will opt for a dual-battery setup, either powering the winch exclusively from the 2nd batt, or using them in unison for added capacity. Both options require installing an isolator and possibly other control and monitoring equipment.
My conclusion was to go with a battery designed and built for the military: the 6TL. You can find this thing at any Napa, o'Riley, and probably a great many other locations for about $200. What's nice about it is that while being a 12V battery, it has an amp-hour (ah) rating of over 100 - a typical diesel battery is around 45. Other specs are 750 CCA and 850 CA. Not only do you eliminate the need for the isolation circuitry, but you have more than double the capacity in a battery that was built specifically to handle steep inclines, vibration, and demanding loads. It's much heftier than a car battery and has double the glass matt thickness on the bottom and special anti-short technology in the internal plates. They call it maintenance-free but it's equipped with caps so you can check whenever you like. The last fun bit of trivia is: this is the battery used in tanks!
To make that colossal battery fit, all that appears to be needed is an extended tray. It would probably be enough to just cut off the lip from the existing tray and figure out a way to strap the battery in, but I'm going a little farther. I'm making a whole new tray with sturdy clamp and hopefully a side-compartment for storing extra junk (oil, brake fluid, gum). The 6TL is 11.25x10.5x9 so it will leave plenty of space on one end of the battery for storage.
I also plan to install the military type terminals because they are much easier to add expansions to - such as a dedicated winch power cable or electrical accessories.
This is all just starting but final results will be posted as it goes.
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