Powermaster Alternators Deliver More Power When You Need It Most

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The alternator in your pickup truck or 4×4 may not be the most important thing on your mind when it comes to upgrades or improvements, but if left up to Powermaster Performance, that will soon change.

As a matter of fact, the company is already doing a pretty good job of educating car and truck enthusiasts on the finer points of alternator and starter science through the educational information readily available on its website about both of these high-performance replacement products it manufacturers and distributes.

In this article, we’ll focus on the alternator, and how to find the right performance alternator for your pickup truck, SUV or 4×4 to help support the extra electrical accessories you either have added or plan to add, and give you some examples of good choices. First, let’s look at the origin of the device.

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Powermaster Performance is in the business of delivering solutions, such as this No. 120311 (chrome finish pictured) 180-amp upgrade unit for 1991 to 1998 Jeep Wranglers.

In The Beginning

In the early years of the automobile, there were no alternators; old-style dynamos and magnetos (aka generators) allowed current generated from the engine to recharge the battery without having to take it out of the car.

The problem of overcharging and damaging the battery was solved by Delco with the installation of the first variable-speed voltage regulator in the 1912 Cadillac (incidentally the first car to receive a self-starter).

The modern starter/ignition system was born, but with a handicap. These early systems used direct-current generators and an electric commutator, which mechanically rectifies the switching current (as the coil rotates). This was an expensive, complicated and fragile system used on American production cars until experiments with alternators began after World War II.

In 1960, the alternator for privately owned vehicles was perfected: The number of electrical devices manufacturers put on cars by then began to strain the limits of the DC generator. The first car manufacturer to make the alternator available in a production vehicle was Chrysler in its 1960 Valiant. The rest of the industry quickly followed suit, as the benefits of an alternator greatly outweigh those of a generator.

Today’s Vehicles Need More

Bigger is not always better in the world of alternators. – Brady Basner, Sales Manager, Powermaster Performance

As it is, modern cars and trucks utilize an ever increasing amount of electrical devices to properly function: Power seats, power windows, mirror warmers, climate controls, heated/cooled seats, 12-volt sockets (110 converters), infotainment systems, anti-theft systems, DVD players, massage systems, not to mention the equipment used to operate the car and its features (sensors, cameras, gauges and computers).

All of these take a toll not only on the battery but the alternator used to recoup the lost power while driving. This wasn’t a big deal 20 years ago, as a 100-amp alternator was more than sufficient to keep the battery charging at 14 volts. But now, things are much more advanced.

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Accessories (or essentials, depending on your point of view) such as auxiliary lights, a winch, and other electrical devices, all demand more power from a vehicle’s alternator.

It gets worse for trucks, with the addition of accessories such as winches, power steps, airbag suspensions, auxiliary driving lights, extra cooling fans and equipment used for towing; leaving stock alternators straining to keep pace. In fact, Ford recommends an upgrade for its 2014 F-series trucks, with an optional 200-amp alternator for its stock 157-amp offering (adding over $400 to the sticker).

However, if you’re looking for proof that the alternator is being overworked, take a look your voltmeter gauge (if you have one). When you are drawing reserve power from your battery to power that 500-watt stereo at volume 11, the voltmeter will read below 12.7 volts.

Imagine if the voltmeter is below that reading for a long time (or for most of the time you’re driving); the maximum capacity of your alternator is being surpassed.

If you’re lights are dimming when you power up your winch, or your power windows slow to a crawl when your compressor is humming, it is probably time to look for a higher power alternator (or, Heaven forbid, get rid of some of your electrical-system-sapping equipment).

Finding The Right Alternator

Choosing the right alternator for your application is a function of figuring out your truck’s total electrical load; the combined amperage of all the things that are powered by your truck’s battery. The most accurate way to determine electrical load is with an ammeter.

With the engine off and the battery charged, connect an ammeter in series with the battery’s ground terminal. Switch each electrical component (lights, winch, etc.) on and off and make note of its amperage draw. “Add up the total readings,” explains Brady Basner, Sales Manager at Powermaster Performance. “Be sure the amperage output of the replacement alternator you choose is high enough to cover that need; but remember the alternator should not exceed about 80-percent duty cycle.”

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In order to obtain higher amp outputs, Powermaster Performance beefs up windings on the stator; with thicker wire comes higher idle-speed output than stock and by increasing the quantity of windings, higher highway speed outputs are achieved. On many products, five finishes are available: black (above), polished, chrome (lower left), satin (lower right) and natural metal.

A word of caution from Basner, “Bigger is not always better in the world of alternators.” They’re available with outputs up to 350 amps and beyond, but stuffing a high-rpm alternator into a modest driver will nearly always sacrifice performance at idle where you’ll need it most.

For typical use, a 200-amp alternator may offer the highest idle performance, while extreme 300-amp alternators usually offer less output at idle than stock OE units do.

A higher amp alternator can recover lost horsepower. – Brady Basner

Vehicles must have an alternator that has enough idle performance output to sustain itself. For example, an alternator rated for a maximum of 200 amps may only produce 30 amps at a given time, which is just enough to supply the car’s electrical needs.

In addition, says Basner. “On some applications, a high-amp alternator can actually add horsepower to your engine’s performance.” Sure, it’s nominal, but, when it comes to horsepower, every bit helps. “Most alternators are only about 75 percent efficient.”

Calculating HP Gain/Loss

Watts/745.7 = Electrical Horsepower

Electrical hp x 0.25 = Horsepower lost

Electrical hp hp lost = Total horsepower used

Let’s apply the formula to an alternator that produces 75 amps at 14.9 volts:

75 x 14.9 = 117.5 Watts

1117.5/745.3 = 1.49 Electrical horsepower

1.49 x .25 = .374 Horsepower lost

1.49 .374 = 1.86 Horsepower used

“Power is lost in the form of heat and wind resistance from the cooling fins, especially the chrome models where heat can’t transfer efficiently,” explains Basner. “A higher amp alternator can recover lost horsepower by allowing your electrical system to run at maximum voltage.”

Like most things you’ll bolt onto your car, a high-performance alternator is a balance-wire act. On one hand, it draws power from the engine via the drive belt and the size pulley you install, but on the other hand, it delivers back that power by helping the ignition system perform at its peak.

Of course, there’s math involved in figuring out if your alternator is providing horsepower gain or loss. For the following formula, 745.7 equals one horsepower, and Basner recommends when making your calculations, you assume a 25 percent loss in efficiency of the alternator.

The alternator does not steal much power from the engine in order to operate; and by supplying the proper voltage to your engine’s electrical system so that it operates at peak efficiency, a performance alternator, can help your engine produce more power than it needs to operate the alternator.

Practical Solutions

One method to helping an overtaxed electrical system is the wide variety of alternators offered from Powermaster Performance. They began building starters and alternators in West Chicago, Illinois, in 1981 and have a 148,000-square-foot manufacturing plant with 96 full-time employees.

Powermaster offers full-time, in-house, technical and sales support for help with proper product selection, installation, troubleshooting and more. They continually work to improve product knowledge and information availability with posted technical bulletins, web videos and seminars.

The company also offers bolt-for-bolt applications for anything from a 1966 CJ5 to trucks that rolled off the assembly line yesterday, and almost everything in between (not to mention their lines of custom hot rod and race alternators).

For many applications–especially the PowerGen line for customs and classics–Powermaster uses facsimiles of the original OE housings to maintain an original look and allow for easy install to the stock mounting brackets, but the insides are completely high tech. On many of its products, five finishes are now available: chrome, polished, satin, black, and natural-style finish.

In order to obtain a higher amp output, Powermaster beefs up the windings around the stator. By using a thicker gauge wire, they are able to achieve a higher idle-speed output than the stock alternator. By increasing the quantity of windings, they achieve higher highway speed amperage output.

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The benefit of running a one-wire alternator is that you only have to install one wire to the battery. The exclusion of the field and stator wires means a one-wire alternator does not turn on automatically when the engine starts; however with a 3:1 pulley on Powermaster units, typical engine-idle speeds are more than enough to kick on the juice.

For anything less than show custom, there’s a variety of alternators to choose from, depending on your needs and truck’s specification. For example, a 1990 Chevy Blazer’s stock alternator on the 5.7L produces a lackluster 105 amps, but Powermaster offers three levels of power output from a near-direct replacement of the Delco CS130, a 140-amp unit (PN 47861) up to one that supplies 200 amps.

With a max rpm of 18,000, the Powermaster No. 47861 unit generates 90 amps and 14.6 volts at 2,400 RPM. The 140-amp alternator comes with a unique one-wire regulator to make installation easy. The only thing required to hook it up is the charge wire from the battery terminal on the alternator to the positive terminal on the battery.

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Although the guts are high-tech, Powermaster uses facsimiles of the OE housings on many of its alternators to allow for easy installation to the stock mounting brackets.

The benefit of running a one-wire alternator is that you only have to install one wire to the battery. The only problem with the exclusion of the field and stator wires is that a one-wire alternator does not turn on automatically when the engine starts. It has no way of sensing the battery’s demand. In order to “excite” (e.g. get the alternator to start charging), the engine must be revved to the RPM where the alternator turns on.

The RPM at which this occurs depends on the alternator/crankshaft pulley ratio. As a rule, alternators must spin faster than the engine. The speed of the alternator is a function of the pulley ratio between the crankshaft and the alternator pulley. This ratio is usually 3:1, which means that the engine’s crank pulley is three times the diameter of the alternator pulley.

Turn-on speeds for Powermaster alternators are at a low 1600 RPM shaft speed. So with a 3:1 ratio pulley, the truck’s engine only needs to be turning at 530 RPM to get the alternator charging. Gone are the days of revving up your engine to turn on the alternator.

Wrapping Up

The options are out there and Powermaster Performance offers information to help you make an informed decision on its website and Facebook page. There are charts and formulas to help truck owners determine not only which alternators are appropriate for a certain model-year vehicle and what amp outputs are available from those alternators to choose from, but how to figure out the amount of amp output needed to cover the draw of all the electrical accessories added to a vehicle.

Complete and detailed installation instructions are included with all Powermaster Performance products, and technical assistance is available with a call to Powermaster, as well. So the choice is yours. Deciding how well your truck’s electrical system functions or not is an important step in building and maintaining an efficiently operating vehicle.

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Trail rigs, as well as competition vehicles such as this, are prime candidates for performance alternators to help them keep up with all the additional electrical draw from extra lights, fans and other essentials.

About the author

Ryan Price

Ryan Lee Price is a freelance writer specializing in automotive journalism and a former magazine editor. Price is also technical editor for a popular automotive repair manual company. He currently resides in Corona, California, with his wife Kara and their two children.
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