Hi Mark,
That's one of the great things about alternators, if there is no load on them, they don't produce any power and they don't take hardly any energy to spin them. So spinning an altenator by hand doesn't really show anything. If I added enough belts I'm sure that I could spin a dozen alternators off of a hand crank, as long as long as the voltage regulators sensed no load.
The only thing that you should be interested in is how many watts are being produced. There's a reason that marine regulators for high amperage alternators have a "soft start" load, slowly ramping up the alternator to peak power, even after the engine is started. If the alternator went directly to full power, it is very likely that the just started engine would die before it had a chance to warm up and get to reasonable RPM. If it didn't quit, it would be like starting your car with no clutch in 3rd gear going up hill. Pretty hard on the engine.
And just because I could, I grabbed the Balmar 90A 12V marine alternator off the shelf in my garage, and it spins by hand very easily. Of course, it's not producing any power at all....
Fair winds,
Eric
Marina del Rey, CA
--- In electricboats@yahoogroups.com, Lochadio Who <lochadio@...> wrote:
>
> Architects live in a fantasy world.
> Engineers live in a perfect world.
> and it's up to the field guys to drag them (kicking and screaming) into the real world.
>
> I'm not sure where the gentleman got his information, but...
> A 4 horse Briggs and Stratton side shaft with an oil bath air cleaner, (salvaged from my grandfather's 1950's lawnmower)
> with an 8" reeve salvaged from an electric dryer will, in fact drive, two 70's era GMC truck alternators (with stock pullies) so well I pulled it apart to add 2 more alternators (and fix the oil leak on the main shaft).
>
> I apologize for correcting our esteemed member, but anyone with any doubts should try spinning an auto alternator by hand.
> I'll post a video ASAP
>
> ...Before you ask, no, I don't know how many watts it puts out.
>
> Regards
>
> Mark
>
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