Tom, let me describe three actual serious cases where alternators and
a charger tried to produce more amperage than battery could accept:
1. Owner adjusted smart voltage regulator to 14.2 volts for bulk
charging rate. After repeated belt failures it was found that Link
1000 meter had an error on voltage scale of one amp. When the
alternator received a field current asking to deliver a bulk charge of
15.2 volts for a preset time of one hour the amperage went to max and
alternator belt was overloaded.
2. Lightning struck boat while motoring down ICW in poor visibility.
Alternator went wild putting out enough amperage to cause number 4
output wire to turn red hot and started a small fire. The open
question was it the two batteries that shorted out first or the
alternator?
3. Boat left unattended for a day connected to shore power when Heart
25 inverter charger sensed a low voltage caused by a one of six
batteries in the house bank developing an internal short. Charger went
to maybe its max charge rate of 125 amps overheating all batteries
filling the boat with flammable gas fumes.
It would seam from Skip's reports that everything thing points to a
battery problem because charging current from any source, Alternator,
Charger, Solar Wind and Honda generator results in the same poor
battery performance. I projected when the refrigeration was selected
for this boat that the daily amp-hours for total boat would be at
least 200 amp-hrs.