Alternator Upgrade Suggestions?

B-train said:

I did a similar setup for overlanding and went with the higher output OE fit from carquest. There was 145 and 160 Amp option. I put in the 160 with a second battery in parallel and haven't had one issue. 2008 yukon denali.

I would assume that you are going with LED lights, maybe a 12v fridge, etc. In my opinion it's not necessary to have 320 amps available - unless you plan on incandescent bulbs, continued winch use, etc. Basically if you have reserve battery capacity you can conquer a lot of tasks. Throw in a solar panel for stationary use and you should be fine. There's only so much you can fit in a tahoe......they fill up quickly when packing for overlanding.

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Doubeleive said:

note in the photo below FITS ALL GAS ENGINES 05-13, model number is circled as well
the pulley is standard size
View attachment 397457

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j91z28d1 said:

this what I would do, oem and easily sourced parts. I've seen a few pics and threads on the corvette boards of the mechman failing and long wait times for replacements. not a big deal when your corvette sits in the garage most of the time and they do look nice all billet and powered coated. not great when you're away from home. I do road trips so have stayed with a oem and lessened the load with by changing to pwm brushless fan and things like that.


as said above, definitely make sure your alt wire can handle the extra current. my old 96 I put the larger case diesel alt on it after going electric fans. charged great but the alt wire was warm to the touch. had to step up wiring gauge.


ict makes a very nice atl spacer if you ever need to run a larger case alt in the stock bracket. all things being equal, larger case the larger the rotor and stuff, more efficient and cool better than getting the same power out of a smaller package.

just info I've found looking around at alternators.

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gmartin1215 said:

Thanks, but when I scroll down the page for that one, they say it's a smaller pulley.

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gmartin1215 said:

Can you share what you did for your second battery setup?

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Doubeleive said:

I should also not the 15-20 oem alternators

you are correct my mistake I used the 250amp just checked my invoice model 8302250

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B-train said:

I put in a group 24 battery in the tray by the windshield wash reservoir. You'll have to get the gm battery hold down for like $5 or so.

I ran a negative cable to the ground location on the accessory mount that holds the alternator. There's a stamp labeled GROUND in the casting with a 8mm threaded hole. I then ran a power cable back to the positive post of the factory battery. You could also just run it to the positive post on the alternator lug as well.

I had a crappy old pair of jumper cables that I used for my wires since they were of heavy guage and color coded. Just get the correct size ring terminals to fit the cables and Viola! I used the marine style top post battery cable terminals as well.

When I get back out to the shop I'll get a couple pics.

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gmartin1215 said:

Thanks.
Can you share the info you have about the brushless fan?

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