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We have talked many times about battery management and charging schemes, ACR's vs. manual switch(es), isolated engine start battery or just use the house banks and different types of alternators.
I'm in the minority with my preference of a dedicated start battery, further in the minority with manual battery switches, a single wire, self excite alternator and probably the only one who has had an excite wire added to a self excite alternator energized off of the solenoid R terminal. The benefit of the added excite wire is the alternator leaps into production at the hit of the start button, no need to rev the engine to wake the alternator up. I also enjoy an easy starting engine, it fires right off within a second of cranking regardless of layoff. Well, part of what makes it easy starting is minimal alternator load upon startup courtesy of the dedicated start battery.
Last weekend I started the engine on the house bank as a test to see if there was any difference. There was and it was significant. The engine labored immediately upon startup with a 49 amp alternator load, like starting in gear. My usual starting routine with the dedicated start battery results in a 10 amp load on startup. The difference in dead cold, choke on engine performance was more than noticeable, it took maybe 30 seconds to gain her feet and smooth out compared to the normal 3 seconds.
I'm in the minority with my preference of a dedicated start battery, further in the minority with manual battery switches, a single wire, self excite alternator and probably the only one who has had an excite wire added to a self excite alternator energized off of the solenoid R terminal. The benefit of the added excite wire is the alternator leaps into production at the hit of the start button, no need to rev the engine to wake the alternator up. I also enjoy an easy starting engine, it fires right off within a second of cranking regardless of layoff. Well, part of what makes it easy starting is minimal alternator load upon startup courtesy of the dedicated start battery.
Last weekend I started the engine on the house bank as a test to see if there was any difference. There was and it was significant. The engine labored immediately upon startup with a 49 amp alternator load, like starting in gear. My usual starting routine with the dedicated start battery results in a 10 amp load on startup. The difference in dead cold, choke on engine performance was more than noticeable, it took maybe 30 seconds to gain her feet and smooth out compared to the normal 3 seconds.
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