Quote:
Originally Posted by dwtaylorpdx
On many race cars the alternator is driven by a belt off the pinion gear of the differential. It reduces the load on the engine in the vehicle because its taking advantage of the gearing at the output end of the transmission. It also means the alternator spins at a more consistent RPM and does not see the extreme rpm's at WOT.
Its also only charging when the car is moving, if you added a field switch to the gas pedal it would only charge when your foot is off the pedal. (Coasting) This might work for reducing the charging cost of the vehicle? Might be a intermediate way to extend the distance of a vehicle that is running without a alternator currently but not go to a full time alternator, could even be a downsized alternator, (Mitsubishi forklift alternator) that has like a 45 to 55 A output.
Just thinking..
Dave
|
I'd love to do this and started a thread discussing it about this time last year. I just couldn't come up with any practical way to accomplish it. I also didn't know that's what was done on race cars, but it makes sense, plus those guys will do anything to get more total power out of the engine. Do you know of any aftermarket parts for this that would work on my pickup? Or on any production vehicle, or are all the setups you're talking about completely custom?