Volts produced from your alternator and amps are 2 distinct different
things. As batteries are 12 volt if Your alternator puts out more then say
15 volts you'll end up frying your batteries. Why are you measuring voltage
if You are concerned about amperage? You have a voltage regulator built into
the alternator that will only allow so many volts output so You don't fry
your batteries. You need to use an amp meter to measure the actual amperage
output.
What You need to do is figure out how much draw the equipment onboard will
use when running and that will determine what size alternator you need to
use. If You don't have allot of draw down you don't need a high amp output
alternator.
"ray lunder" wrote in message
...
Ahoy, I could only find one technical reference for this which claims
it's a 30 amp alternator. Could this be correct? That's immeasurable,
that's minuscule- that's nothing. I measured about 13.2v output at
idle and I had to rev the engine to over half throttle to get 14.4v
out of it. (my batteries were topped up at the time if that makes a
difference).
It's on a 12hp Yanmar one cylinder diesel and I'd like to charge my
house batteries (220AH) and a 12v starting battery. If I'm beginning
to understand these things I'm to look for an alternator which will
produce 30% of my amp hour capacity. Since I'll probably charge the
two systems separately I guess that's around 70 - 80 amps. My crank
pulley is about 4" diameter, O.D. to O.D.. I need a 3" foot model to
fit my engine. Any similar experiences, recommendations, empowering
observations? Ok, the spell chek is complete, I had eleven errors.
Thanks again.