Powering all the electronic gear.

[Adam Lucio]

Hey everyone. On my last chase to Kansas this past weekend I had an alternator die out on me. 10 year old vehicle never had a problem before. Just this year i installed a CB-radio, new fog lights for better visibility and i now run a DC-AC power converter that plugs into the cigarette lighter to power a laptop.

The mechanic said the new battery i had put in this past winter wasnt accepting voltage and thus wasnt backing up the amps on the alternator, i told him i had been driving for about 36hrs straight with only 30min stops here and there. He said thats what lead to it quitting and added the extra equipment wouldnt affect anything. He highly recommended i get a new battery and added that its a problem he noticed with Interstate batterys, I know he wasnt giving me a sales pitch because he didnt have any batteries to sell me and I had to drive to an Autozone in Salina to get a new one [I broke down about 9 miles out of Lindsborg and thats where i ended up staying]

I just wanted to get some POVs from everyone, do you guys power all the extra electronic equipment in any special way? If so what do you use? I just want to make sure this doesnt happen again.

Thanks for any help.

 

[David Drummond]

After 10 years to have an alternator go out is completely acceptable, even on normal vehicles without all the chase gadgets. It's just one of those things that eventually will wear out.

 

[Robert Rohloff]

I added a Optima Yellow top deep charge and cycle battery to my car and it has helped running all the equipment. I put it on a trickle charger before a chase and make sure it all the way up. It has worked great. They run about $200 but I am sure it has taken a load off the alternator.

 

[David Drummond]

The way your starting/charging system works... When the vehicle is off, all the power comes from the battery. As you start the engine, the power for doing so is of course pulled from the battery.

As the engine starts, assuming the alternator is working properly, it begins supplying all the power for everything on the vehicle and also begins to recharge any depletion the battery has suffered.

After the battery depletion has been recharged, given the entire system is operating properly and the load does not exceed what the alternator can provide....ALL power is then provided by the alternator, NOT the battery.

Technically, in a properly operating system, once the vehicle is started you can completely remove the battery from the system and it would still operate just fine. In older cars you certainly could, but with todays electronic loaded cars it's generally not recommended to do that....but it is possible.

So just adding a high end battery, or even a second battery won't take any load off your alternator unless it is completely isolated from your starting/charging system. You would need a more complicated setup, such as battery isolators and connecting all the additional stuff to the isolated battery and only allowing charging at specified times, etc.

 

[Johnathan Brouwer]

I will add that you should have your inverter connected directly to the feed line of the battery. Using the cig lighter is a very bad idea. It can drop voltage at the device, the connector can have a bad contact and thus cause a short. You should have a qualitfied installer do this type of hook-up

 

[Glenn Dixon]

OK, this is probably hare-brained, lame-brained or something like that, but I had an idea:

1) Put all chase accessories on this separate super-battery
2) Charge this battery with a trickle-charge system that runs off of your car's lighter adapter

http://www.atbatt.com/product.asp?c=&b=&m=&ct=&ItemID=19681&cs=&ID=pd&src=froog

That way your alternator runs the car only plus the lighter adapter - less strain on the alternator, but your chase accessories have a battery that is being constantly charged.

So, am I a genius or an idiot? (just about this one issue, please)

 

[Adam Lucio]

OK, this is probably hare-brained, lame-brained or something like that, but I had an idea:

1) Put all chase accessories on this separate super-battery
2) Charge this battery with a trickle-charge system that runs off of your car's lighter adapter

http://www.atbatt.com/product.asp?c=&b=&m=&ct=&ItemID=19681&cs=&ID=pd&src=froog

That way your alternator runs the car only plus the lighter adapter - less strain on the alternator, but your chase accessories have a battery that is being constantly charged.

So, am I a genius or an idiot? (just about this one issue, please)

Well for 6 bucks if it works, your a genious...but I'm afraid to be the test subject on this one . Thanks for the suggestions guys ill definitley look into them, especially since i plan on adding more gear as time and budget allows!

I just want to make sure it wasn't the extra chase gear I added that caused it, if most of you have your stuff hooked straight to the battery then I'll be at ease, but if theres some prefered, smarter method most use, I will definitley consider it.

 

[Mark Blue]

It would probably be cost prohibitive, but I know of a couple of prominent chasers who have 2 alternator set-ups in their chase vehicles. Not sure if this would be necessary, but I think it offers some peace of mind.

 

[J West]

It would probably be cost prohibitive, but I know of a couple of prominent chasers who have 2 alternator set-ups in their chase vehicles. Not sure if this would be necessary, but I think it offers some peace of mind.

Not only is it cost prohibitive in most cases, it's also impossible in a lot of vehicles due to the lack of mounting space under the hood or the ability to mount it in an area where the accessory belt can spin it.

My previous "road trip" car was a 2002 Impala LS, in which I had three high power (110 watt) Motorola radios, a freq-agile Icom ham radio, 300 watt DC/AC inverter and a pair of 55w Hella driving lights. The Motorola radios draw ~28 amps on transmit, and granted I can only talk on one radio at a time, but the vehicle only had a 125 amp alternator (spec'd from the police/taxi package) and the stock Delco battery but I had zero issues with power distribution in the vehicle with all the added equipment in operation.