solar trickle charger and alternator

[TLyttle]

Probably not a lot. Now that we have all these major advances in electronics (lights, sound systems, etc), alternators don't have much work to do as before. If you dumped the water pump off that belt and converted it to electric, you would gain quite a bit, but I doubt if you would notice the difference...

[talnlnky]

Originally Posted by TLyttle

Probably not a lot. Now that we have all these major advances in electronics (lights, sound systems, etc), alternators don't have much work to do as before. If you dumped the water pump off that belt and converted it to electric, you would gain quite a bit, but I doubt if you would notice the difference...

I gotta disagree with that.... the only thing that I will give you credit for when it comes to decreasing the load on the alternator is when people put in LED's to replace bulbs... some OEM's do that on certain lights... but usually you have to pay an arm & leg to do it aftermarket style.

Stereo's are no more efficient than they were 10 years ago.... and if you go back 25 years ago people were putting in smaller systems, and thus a smaller load.

The past 25 years has seen more and more electronics go into cars just to keep them turned on.... There is a ton of overhead spent electrically on computers....

Compare a domestic car from the 70's to a modern car.... Check the amperage draw while they are turned off... the 70's car will show about a milliamp due to a clock needing power... the modern car will be 5-20times that. That's when its turned off.

Furthermore... alternators in modern cars aren't built with as much headroom as they were 20+ years ago.

Things are getting harder.