so this is a couple weeks old but here is is finally posted 400w of additional lighting
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only question is does any one make a bigger altinator for the dakota than the 136amp i think i need more lol

 

LOL, looks good. Reminds me of this.

 

The Mist sucked

 

you may need to purchase another alternator and have some type of bracket fabbed up, that way you can run 2 alternators, than you will need to have another type of serpantine belt, i have been to music show offs where people run up to 4 alternators to power their equipment, it can be done to our daks, just need to put some thought and design into it

 

LOL, yes Sir but when I looked at the brightnestt illuminating from Canadian's work of art....it was the first thing I could think of

 

What makes you think you need a bigger one? I would make sure that's what you need before spending the money/time/effort into rewrapping altenators or fabrications, etc...

With your additonal lighting, you should be pulling an additional ~33A of current with them all on. I'm not sure what all of the other lights/accessories will pull, but I'd say you might be looking at another 25-30 amps with the head/tail/stock foglights and the vehicle running(fuel pump,etc). This is just a ballpark guess, maybe it's more.

What I'd probably do is put a DC current clamp and meter on the positive wire of the battery and turn on all of the lights, stereo, wipers, etc on without the truck running and see what kind of current draw there is with all of the accessories. I wouldn't do it for very long as I could see draining the battery pretty fast when not running. Then I'd set the meter to max and start the truck to capture the maximum current draw while starting, and then see what it is once the truck is running. I would think you could at least get a good idea out of that to see if you really need to upgrade. That is, if you have meters/clamps available to you, most people don't.

 

[quote=thecause17;1869929]What makes you think you need a bigger one? I would make sure that's what you need before spending the money/time/effort into rewrapping altenators or fabrications, etc...

With your additonal lighting, you should be pulling an additional ~33A of current with them all on. I'm not sure what all of the other lights/accessories will pull, but I'd say you might be looking at another 25-30 amps with the head/tail/stock foglights and the vehicle running(fuel pump,etc). This is just a ballpark guess, maybe it's more. quote]

yeah the 400w on draws another 33amps but i got two 55w in the grill which i wann up grade to two more 100w i figue after that ill be running close to 70% of my alt. thats including whatthe truck it self draws. assuming that its the standard 40amp draw like most i dont have any fancy stereo equipment or in dash screens. plus i wanna add a couple to the rear so idk what the safe limit is on a stock alt
p.s. sorry for the low quality pic its from my cell lol never seen the mist

 

At 136 amps should be plenty to handle the load. Hell many houses still have 150 amp services and that runs AC or electric heat, lights, cooking everything all at once. You could buy the optional Caravan 160 amp alt. but I don't know if the puter may need to be programmed for it. I remember cars/truck in the 70/80 with alt maxed at 100 amp but most where around 60 amp and we ran light bars with four 100 watt lamps plus 130 watt lamps in the GLASS head lights (Illegal) but never had a power problem.

 

thanks gray you mentioned the 160amp from the caravan is that almost a bolt up or is it in need of some mod to make fit i was just wondering incase the stock one fails last think i want is to be in the middle of nowhere with no alt.