Alternator upgrade

I have the uprated alternator in my t6.1
With electric tailgate and sliding doors I have to say the battery drains quickly but it takes a short drive to recharge the used amount of electricity. It would take double with the normale alternator.
 
The Renogy DCC50S charges at 50A if there's no solar input and that's plenty for my Roamer seatbase battery.
 
I am also very interested in this
Have you done this by any chance?
I fitted a 400A custom alternator in the end. It has been used daily for the past 2 years.
I upgraded the cables from the alternator to the fuse panel under the battery and the engine earth strap.
Not having the alternator control lead plugged in does not give an error or switch on the battery warning light.

I use a Victron Cyrix 230A Li-Ct relay to charge the 960Ah lithium bank in the back. The alternator put out 14.6v. Once the batteries are fully charged the Cerbo disables the relay. The Solar MPPT deals with the little bit of absorption.

IMG_3736.webp

IMG_6164.webp
 
Higher alternator output will result in higher ribbed belt load, this may reduce the belt renewal period.
 
I ordered my 6.1 with the uprated battery/alternator factory option, so it came with a 92Ah battery and a 250A alternator. I'll admit, I ticked the box without any real understanding of what the advantages would be - I just thought "more is better" and the extra £230+VAT was neither here nor there given the cost of the van.

So, in reference to @tdowning891's comment above, can I take advantage of the higher alternator output by fitting a second DC/DC charger and will this significantly reduce charging times? (IIRC, I have a 40A DC/DC charger and 220Ah of lithium).
Cripes, what are you powering?
 
I fitted a 400A custom alternator in the end. It has been used daily for the past 2 years.
I upgraded the cables from the alternator to the fuse panel under the battery and the engine earth strap.
Not having the alternator control lead plugged in does not give an error or switch on the battery warning light.

I use a Victron Cyrix 230A Li-Ct relay to charge the 960Ah lithium bank in the back. The alternator put out 14.6v. Once the batteries are fully charged the Cerbo disables the relay. The Solar MPPT deals with the little bit of absorption.

View attachment 323399

View attachment 323400
What are you doing that requires 960Ah?
I hope you have the Kombi rear bumper bar fitted, Fire & Rescue nightmare in a rear end crunch.
 
Higher alternator output will result in higher ribbed belt load, this may reduce the belt renewal period.
I've just bought an ecoflow delta 3 max plus and 1000w alternator charger on their eBay store for my T6.1 startline which has 140amp alternator fitted. Im considering upgrading to 180 or 250 alternator to reduce the strain on 140, especially while in stop start traffic. I have air conditioning etc so my output is around 100amp while charging at 1000w but the 250 alternator should be less strain because its more efficient handling the load right? Cheers
 
Last edited:
Your money but I reckon you might be over thinking the situation.
Running a conventional lithium leisure setup with solar I've never needed an higher output alternator.
Sure your power station might not always be fully charged but that's the point of larger capacity storage, there's still a lot of power, add solar rather than increasing the physical load on the engine.
We camped in France between June and July last year for a month and never came anywhere near empty, that's with 230Ah of battery and two 175 watt Flexi solar panels.
 
Your money but I reckon you might be over thinking the situation.
Running a conventional lithium leisure setup with solar I've never needed an higher output alternator.
Sure your power station might not always be fully charged but that's the point of larger capacity storage, there's still a lot of power, add solar rather than increasing the physical load on the engine.
We camped in France between June and July last year for a month and never came anywhere near empty, that's with 230Ah of battery and two 175 watt Flexi solar panels.
Yeah been down a rabbit hole on Ai chat 😅 i’ll do some weekends and maybe add solar if required. I guess if the alternator even packs in i can cross that road in future. Cheers
 
Back
Top