On Jul 31, 12:38 am, Lew Hodgett wrote:

Batteries to a cruising sailor are like clamps to a wood worker, you
can never have too many.

How about 2 alts and 2 banks, use the banks alternately so one is bulk
charged while the other is absorption charged at the same time. Plenty
of redundancy too.

Maybe 2x 75A alts and controllers are cheaper than a 150A alt and
controller.

Also solar will work better with a bank that is between 50-85% state
of charge.

cheers,
Pete.

On Thu, 02 Aug 2007 04:29:11 -0700, Pete C
wrote:

Maybe 2x 75A alts and controllers are cheaper than a 150A alt and
controller.

The battery bank in question is close to 800 AH and can not be
recharged from 40 or 50% depletion in a reasonable length of time by a
75 amp alternator. The main cost of the 200 amp alternator is in the
installation work, also an issue with a dual alternator set up.