A "Good" Alternator

Is there a good brand of alternator out there that can put up with charging my dual optimas? I just had another one die on me and my Jeep stopped running at a light on Boundary. One good thing is I have dual batts so I used my jumper cables and drove with them on till I got home. And because there was no power my flashers didn't work and it just started to pour as this all happened. Merry f***ing Christmas!!!! Sorry about the rant but I'm pissed this is the third alt I've had.
Current alt is rated for 105Amps the isolator is good to 120A
right now the Alt puts out 8.3V.

So any opinions on a good brand of alternator would be great
Its going in a Jeep Cherokee with power everything
Thanks Fletch

Theroetically the fuseable link should fry, before the alternator. When you say isolator; I guess you mean a diode pack, to help keep the batteries from cross loading (finding the lowest common denominator). One thing that might help, is to have, the charging wires for the dual batteries, hooked up after, a common fuse, some lower, than the rated max output of your alternator. Marine fuses work well and are easy to change (I keep some spares in the tool box).

Fuse would be a good idea. Since I took out the fuseable link when I upgraded the wireing for the dual batt. Thanks

On the dual battery setüp. in my tow truck. I spliced in a high amp constant duty relay. I only turn on the extra battery to charge, after the battery I used to start/or winch, has had a chance to recharge. Filling up both batteries after a winch (or hard start), used to occasioally blow a fuse. Have a stepped fuse pack for the winch, the fuses are auto reset. Could probably find an auto reset fuse, at a winch supply, might be a way to save an alternator, without having to change a fuse (or fusible link).

Fletchs90xj, The Mean Green alternators are supposed to be pretty good, but I don’t have any first hand experience with them. I’ve been kicking around the idea of a dual battery set up. If you don’t mind, could you post a couple of pictures and a description of how you did it? Were there any major obstacles and have you had any problems other than the alternator?

err mean greens are a tad on the pricey side...I found a great website the other day thru some 4x4 buddies...THey have a 160 amp alt with a lower top power band than the mean grean for like 160...and it had a lifetime warranty on it... The site is http://4alterstartcom.verizonsupersite.com/door/ Probably the best power band Ive seen on an alternator in a while......and you cant beat a lifetime warranty...

I got one of their alternators in my CJ and the thing is a champ. I also just ordered the same 160a for my mj with a plow and salt spreader. These guys do good work when they rewind an alternator and they really stand behind thier product. I also recoment the upgraded wiring option they offer...one less headache to worry about.

The 165 amp unit advertised says it's for 91-98. Can it be used on a 90 and older model? I know they made chages with the 91 HO 4.0, but I didn't think the alternator was changed...

well umm it turns out I'm a dumba$$, after a blew off some steam and went a bought a new alt and was installing it I found that the to bat lead off the alt had come out of its crimp :looser: . The alt was fine but now it a spare. I instaled a Bosch heavy duty 100A alt. everythings good and now I have a spare. Next time I'll do a little more trouble shooting instead of getting pissed and jumping to conclusions :smsoap:

Wiley Coyote, here are some pics for ya

this is where I put the 120A Diode isolator with exciter terminal, its under the rad overflow bottle (gold in colour)

here is the starting batt in the stock location with new wiring

here is the winch/Acc battery. I also run my head lights of this batt through relays using the old wiring as the trigger. In order to put the batt here I had to do a K&N conversion. I did this using a 3" dia x 3" long piece of exhuast pipe, drilled two hole in the sides of it for the PCV air and the charcole canister return. The batt is mounted on a tray ment for the diesel option Cherokees and is a direct bolt in. Just a few cuts to clear the power steering pump hose and the rad lower hose

I ran the wiring for the power inverter an rear winch and the charge wire across the back of the engine bay.
The Ground/POS are all #2AWG and the charge wires are #6AWG

I put a 1750W power inverter under the back seat it hit perfectly

That goes to the power outlet in the cargo area where I have a 2gal Colman air compressor. Also can plug in a work light and power tools


Well there ya go theres my Dual batt, onboard Air, 120V AC, K&N project
HTH
Fletch

Your dual battery/120V/K&N/on-board air project looks great ...

Les

Fletch, Thanks for the pictures, that was exactly what I was looking for. I like the way you mounted the inverter. I mounted a smaller one (1000 watt) over what used to be the spare tire mount.

Might have lost a little of the direction of this thread over what was originally asked- I'll go back to the beginning. Ordinarily is a better thing for the alternator to have two batteries in the system. Is just like having a double sized one. Two provide a better buffer allowing the normal discharges to be spread over a longer time. If you find the two batts are dropping too low even using two of them, then there is an alternator/charging problem, you are seriously overtaxing them with something, or, of course, wiring issues....or a battery specific problem. I checked the alt on my '98 and it put out over 130 amps stock. I was aware Chrysler tends to like to put big alternators on their products, and sure did on mine!