370 Amp Alternator Instead of a Generator

With the advancements in Inverter efficiencies there really is no need for generators anymore. Why have all the extra cost, maintenance, used space, and issues of having a generator onboard when you can get 4,000 watts from your alternator.

I will be fabricating mounting kits with 16 groove serpentine belts for the Yanmar 3GM30 and 3YM30 engines soon. More to come later.

A standard v groove belt is good for about 100 amps, any more and you will smoke your belt, or you’ll need to have so much tension that you stress your water pump bearing.

The balmar 5 groove serpetine upgrade pulley kit is good for only about 210 amps.

You need 16 groove serpentine to harness the full power needed to spin a 370 amp alternator without needing the belt so tight as to stress the water pump bearing. With this arrangement you will get about 500 hours per water pump. Even when not having the belt over tensioned, The combined mass of the belt and the offset of the wider pulley does put excessive force on the water pump outer bearing.

I start with a Leece Neville 320 amp alternator. Then I remove the factory built in regulator. I made a custom brush holder to connect a Balmar Smart Regulator directly to the field windings of the alternator. This not only allows full control over the alternator but also allows you to overdrive the field creating more output current. The settings of the Balmar regulator are extremely important to manage max temperatures and field current. The ability to recharge a large LiFePO4 battery bank quickly after 2 days of running Air Conditioning and normal systems solely from battery power is a real game changer.

Replenishing the batteries at nearly 5,000 watts while running one engine at only 1,800 rpm. During this test I did a full discharge to charge cycle to test all disconnects and replenished the batteries in about 3 hours. A second Positive and Ground #4/0 wires were added to link the alternator to the battery pack after this test. By running two 4/0 wires it allowed me to distribute the current at two separate points on the batteries main buss bar. Cation, Alternator needs to be wired DIRECTLTY to the HOUSE BANK. Nothing between the alternators positive wire and House Bank! No fuses, no disconnects, no transfer switches, nothing… Any disconnect or current transfer will Destroy any alternator. The ground wire for alternator gets connected to the Ground Buss Bar that is connected to the BMV Shunt, not directly to battery.

Parts List

A price list and full kit will be announced soon. To get on the list email me at Brad@RiggleIt.com