High Amperage Alternator/ largest battery

Looking to upgrade my stock alternator to a high amperage one, and also upgrade my battery to the largest/best one that will fit in the stock location. I have a lot of accessories to power, winch, compressor, and a shit ton of lights. What should I be looking at, and why?

 

i would first add up all the amps all your lights are and go with an alt that can handle that. you arnt going to power the winch off the alt so a larger battery would work well for that. however, i can say i run a stock size battery with lights and a winch with no issues.

 

Group 34 will fit in the factory spot, gonna need an aftermarket cage.

This is almost 2x the power of a tow package alternator with the voltage boost to run the group 34 attached to it https://sdhqoffroad.com/products/05-15-toyota-tacoma-4-0l-270-amp-xp-high-output-alternator

 

I would get your alternator tune as well. Did mine recently I'm running 27f AGM, my Alt charging at 14.3 -14.4v

 

I’m currently running a stock size battery(Optima red top) and stock alternator. With no load on the battery it’s at 13.4. Battery is 5 years old. With all my lights on and AC, it drops to 12.2. My installer and good friend said that my truck could really use a higher amperage alternator and fresh larger battery.

 

I believe you would be powering the winch off the alt. Just the battery would be toast VERY quick while winching. This is why I'm looking to upgrade from my non-tow package alt, because even with a big battery, the winch is going to need that alt. Am I wrong with this thinking?

 

You need to weigh the pros / cons.

A bigger battery means a lot more weight, which these trucks do not like in the front. More prone to cracking the core support. Also, the biggest amperage draw by far will be winching. A winch draws enough that no alternator will be able to provide the full load, the battery will have to make up the rest of the load.

That being said you'll never be winching with all your lights, compressor, and other accessories on. So manually switching off all the things that you dont need will help to reduce the overall load on the electrical system.

If you are in need of a new battery, you could look at a group 27F I believe it is. Those should fit with with minimal mods (maybe just a new tray) and no need to extend the factory harness.

 

Don't forget to upgrade your "big 3" battery cable wiring. Them sparky pixies get all ornery on the stock small gauge cables.

 

you would need a 500+ amp alt to do that. look at how much peak amp a winch can pull. your battery will be doing the heavy lifting. now if you are going to winch for hours a day you need to look at a PTO or a hydraulic winch like tow trucks use.

 

The reason I’m wanting to upgrade is I am experiencing some flickering of my Baja Designs lights when under a lot of load. Truck in gear, ac on, headlights and accessory lights on. I know that’s not normal. Multimeter is saying the amperage is low when all this is going on and the flickering happens.

 

Batteries are around 70amp-hours at 500+ amps. Meaning you can winch for roughly 8 minutes off the battery straight.

 

do they flicker with nothing else on? if no then you might try doing the "big 3" first. as its under 100 bucks (and would be needed for a alt upgrade anyways) this might cure that problem.

 

They do not flicker when nothing else is on. The big 3? Explain exactly please

 

you will want to upgrade the wire size for the pos coming off the alt, say something like 0ga, the ground off the case to the neg battery, same 0g then a wire from the neg battery to the frame/chassis. there are a few good write ups on here too.

 

Maybe you meant…voltage is low…. My opinion, if flickering happens, voltage and amperage are low, the alternator is probably weak. Your optima is probably crapping out. My last optima went south after 3 years, they aren’t as good as they used to be so do yourself a favor and don’t buy another.

You can check the battery with a starter voltage drop test. If your meter has peak high and low voltage it’s easier. Set it to peak low dc volts connected to the battery with the engine off, you should see 12.5 or more. Start the engine, peak low should be well above 10.0. 10.5 or higher your good, 10.4-10-3 is a bit weak, less than that is definitely weak, less than 10.0 the battery is toast.

If you have a dc amp clamp, you could see what the alternator is doing. Check it with the engine running, all lights, climate control, stereo all off. Then turn everything on loading it as hard as you can. After starting with everything off, you might see 5-10 amps tapering down as the battery recharges, it should taper down to maybe 3-5 amps. If it’s staying high you probably need a battery. When you turn everything on, amperage should go way up.

Of course you know if your battery terminals are acid covered or posts are oxidized that needs to be corrected before testing.

 

It's a cable upgrade from the battery to the alternator and starter. Here's a writeup of one installation, and a thread where a member shows the prototype he made and later had for sale in the buy/sell/trade section.

 

No offense man, but if you're trying to look cool while winching you're doing it wrong.

As I said before and like others said, the winch is the highest demanding electrical load. 300-500 amps under full load all depending on your model of winch. Even if you had a brand new battery and upgraded alternator you should still be reducing 'non-essential' electrical and engine loads while winching. Aka turn off all your auxiliary lights, turn the AC off, and turn the HVAC blower off. Winch yourself out then start cleaning and packing up all your recovery gear. While you do that the truck will work on recharging the battery. Then you can turn your light bars back on and continue down the road