Uprate alternator?

[Nightfire]

In a few weeks my car will have loads more lighting on ready for shows etc. The lighting I have now drains the battery within a few hours, so when I've put all this extra lighting on I'm guessing it's gonna drain the battery way before the alternator can get a chance to charge the battery up.

What would you recomend? Getting a more powerful alternator (if so, which do you advice) or getting a bigger, more powerful battery (which type would I need?) to replace the standard battery, or both?

 

[16v_jon]

take yours to an alternator re-coiler they can re-coil it to be more powerful at around £50 i had mine re-coiled for £60 70amps to 100amps

 

[Nightfire]

Will that decrease the lifetime of the alternator once that's been done? Never knew it could be recoiled. Will have a look in yellow pages tomorrow

 

[V1NNY]

get another battery and a split charge system or something like that

 

[16v_jon]

Will that decrease the lifetime of the alternator once that's been done? Never knew it could be recoiled. Will have a look in yellow pages tomorrow

they can change the bearings for a small charge, i only found out due to my cup alternator going and renault not having an exchange part in stock so wanted £300 for a new one arse to that

you could also run a split charge system with the uprated alt as vinny says with yellow top batteries

 

[Nightfire]

Ahh yeah, heard of split charging. Would that put alot of load on the standard alternator? I have my lighting on all the time when I'm driving (day and night) or at shows. And as the standard alternator is already struggling with just one battery, it might not cope with 2 batteries?


<edit> Will learn to type faster and stop watching family guy during replies. Sounds a good idead jon, will find out costs. </edit>

 

[16v_jon]

cost wise i would go for an uprated alt and a bigger battery ie: clio diesel battery see how you get on then, if it fails you then upgrade to a split charge system

 

[V1NNY]

how about a spare battery and switch them over when one goes flat

 

[Nightfire]

Good idea in theory, but would be annoying to swap a battery then wire up loads of wires to the replacement battery. Might have no choice but go for the split charge, bigger battery and alternator. I hate show season some times

 

[Dink]

i'd say go with the split charge and f**k getting the alt rewound

just a get a sizeable second batt and you should be fine as it sounds like your are not really pulling that much power

my sounds kill my yellow top in about 20 mins without the engine running