Is this alternator enough

[tonydjd]

Have old school 1988 SN 2001 with only 40 amp alternator other then the normal things bilge,blower ,nav lights, a few fat sacks, Clarion M455 head unit with Clarion APX480 amp pushing 4 speakers. I do have a second battery just for the amp. I have a contious duty solenoid installed to keep both batteries charged.

Will this alternator be enough. I won't be sitting around listening to radio only while under way. hard to here with the duals anyway.

If not will the 51 amp be enough I do not plan on installing any other mods this is the end of the project.

I would like to thank this website and Corectcraftfan site without these 2 great sites I don't beleive I could of rewired the electrical on the boat.

[surroundsound64]

With out seeing exactly how it is all hooked up and doing the math on it, it sounds like it should be fine. With that other battery in there and all.

That's just a rough guess though.

[Mikeski]

Depends on how much you run the stuff. Most of us are running into issues with the 60A alternators on the 2004 and earlier boats if the boat has much of a system. Since you are only running one amp it might keep up, but I would suggest you go straight to the 100A if you are going to the trouble, there are some good forums here, on wakeworld, and teammastercraft. You can search for HSmunoz writeup that he did when he upgraded his 60A to 100A.

[tonydjd]

Basically there is a #10 wire that comes from the 50 amp breaker on the rear of the engine. I took that wire attached to a fuse box set up with 12 circuits with fuses removed the factory breaker switches installed lighted toggle switches the only things attached to the 12 circuits are listed below. also the #10 ground from engine is also attached to the ground on the fuse box set up

1-Hot to ignition switch
2-blower
3-bilge/auto bilge
4-anchor light
5-running lights i.e. gauge lights and bow light
6-cigarette lighter for fat sacks
7-extra
8-extra


these 4 items will be powered from extra battery but switched on from the 12 circuit box installl

9-switch to turn radio on
10-switch to turn amp on
11-switch to turn powered sub
12- switch to light bar

of course I used the contious duty solenoid set up after long research with the isolator system to charge both batteries pretty simple set up

[EchoLodge]

Your Amp min: 320 watt divided by 13.5 volts = 25 amps
Your Amp max: 640 watt didvided by 13.5 volts = 47 amps

Thats your amp alone... now add head unit, engine, blower (3 amps), bilge, and lights and your 40 amp alternator will be way short! Not to mention the resistance that your old wires have!

Amp Info

http://www.teamclarion.com/sharedwebdbs/clarionsupport.nsf/732ff3bc1327551388256a4c0078512c/e3c505678c1113f388256e690005c6e5/$FILE/Marine.pdf

[surroundsound64]

Your Amp min: 320 watt divided by 13.5 volts = 25 amps
Your Amp max: 640 watt didvided by 13.5 volts = 47 amps

Thats your amp alone... now add head unit, engine, blower (3 amps), bilge, and lights and your 40 amp alternator will be way short! Not to mention the resistance that your old wires have!

Amp Info

http://www.teamclarion.com/sharedwebdbs/clarionsupport.nsf/732ff3bc1327551388256a4c0078512c/e3c505678c1113f388256e690005c6e5/$FILE/Marine.pdf

Depending on how much night running around and bumping he's wanting to do, when the lights and all aren't running it'd be close.
And the amp only hits 640 watts, or 47amps for a fraction of a second, and depending on the volume may not even hit that.

It definately wouldn't hurt to have a bigger alternator in it. And definately at night he would need it. Earlier when I posted I wasn't really thinking about night because in all the yrs I've had my boat I've never had it out on the water at night... so I automatically assumed it was in the day.

[EchoLodge]

True! He might be able to get away with it in the day. But at night with lights and blower running... he will drop down to 10 volts... I know from experience. The extra amp hours with two bats may also get him by.