I have just set up a dual battery system for our caravan?

Question

If the second battery which is a deep cycle needs alot of charging when touring can the alternater become overheated.The alternator would also be powering a fridge as we travel.Can you over draw from a alternator THANKS David

Answer 1

You can also purchase a box from you local auto parts store and it acts like an alternator you hook the box up to the back of the alternator and hook the other lead wires up to the second battery and the alternator will charge your main battery and the box will charge your secondary battery.  The boxes can go up to 150 amp and as low as 90 amp this way your not using one alternator to power both batteries  hope this helps.

Answer 2

The load placed on that alternator could be a little extreme,especially when the vehicle and extra batteries are low.I would be a bit nervous too.Everything has it's limit.

Answer 3

Wire all of your added accesories to the deep cycle battery. Purchase a battery isolater so the accesories will only draw current from the deep cylce battery. The alternator will then only charge the second battery when needed and as a bonus the main battery will never be drawn down and leave you stranded.

Answer 4

You could if your alternator isn't up to the voltage required! Lets say its hot and night and you have the AC on and the frig is runing and the lights are on and the radio is on and then you could burn up your alternator and go blind in the dark! Go to a auto parts store and they could tell you what you need to know about what size alternator you will need to put in your vehicle to be up to spec's! Remember that your alternator will eat up horse power as it charges your system and that also equals fuel also!

Answer 5

Alternators have a max amperage rating.  They can't go beyond it.  BUT, if your current consumption is MORE than your alternators max amperage, then you are DISCHARGING the batteries.  Over time, if you never change the consumption, your batteries will go dead.  

The other part about overheating the alternator, well, that's a function of age and quality of the alternator.  Running it at max rating for hours on end certainly puts it at max performance and will stress it more.  If it's new, it will be okay, if not, who knows, it could fail as can all mechanical devices.  

No, you really can't overdraw from an alternator, they will self regulate.  But you can certainly place more stress on it.  You can always purchase higher amperage rated alternators (police cars have big ones for all their accesories).  Campers usually do too.

I hope this helps.  I've found the charging system is usually the most misunderstood system, so good luck!