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Well... other options include improving system efficiency. I'm not willing to give up the ability to drive 8 hours overnight (lights on) without the battery going dead, and I'm not going to lug around any extra batteries and/or a charger to do it. If I'm far away from home, that car had better be able to start by itself out in the middle of nowhere in the middle of the night. To that end, I will not be doing an alt delete either.
Doesn't mean the situation is hopeless.
I can reduce electrical loads. I already have basically done that simply through device management- run heater/defrost fan on low, radio off, lights off until needed. The a/c clutch is disabled.
So now I have this big 95 amp alternator spinning at 2 or 3x crank speed (haven't measured it all yet) plus, as far as the accessory drive system, I have plenty of things I don't want or need. I think all I want is a flat vee belt from the crank to the water pump to an alternator. I've bypassed the power steering pump and ishtcanned the a/c compressor and by doing so can also throw out two idler pulleys.
Car Craft or some such says it's usually safe to under drive water pumps 25%- I'll buy that. They also say to not under drive an alternator by more than 10%... well, that sounds good for the general public, but I think I can go further because I'm trying to economize my car's electrical production/consumption BUT MOSTLY because my car is NOT IDLED, so if the alternator can do it's job at cruise rpms I should be fine. Alternators are designed to take care of everything at idle; as a result they go way faster than necessary at cruise speed. A 25% undersized crank pulley would take care of it all. I was considering installing a far smaller alternator too, but heck, they're expensive and the stock one is all set up for the wiring.
I won't get the "10%" reduction of an alt delete, of which supposedly 5% comes from belt delete to it and 5% from the alt itself? I think I can expect an fe increase of up to 10%, though, because of my accessory drive simplification program.
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