Quote:
Originally Posted by 8307c4
And on a rainy night, with headlights and wipers and at least some fan?
You might make it 200 miles, maybe not... Maybe 100, maybe 50...
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About 30 miles is about it... and that was with the assistance of an "emergency" alternator belt, which didn't work worth crap... rain wouldn't let up, had to have the wipers and blower on full... just hovering above freezing... soaked to the skin from standing out in it trying to rig the emergency belt... crawled it about an hour on the back roads... before it started bogging really bad at low speed... AND I was turning the headlamps off every chance I got, just running sidelights until I saw another vehicle, then popping them on lowbeam again... so I parked outside a small town garage for the night... coldest damn night ever... so I kinda have this habit of regarding people willing and eager to do away with their alternator as severely disturbed
2nd instance different vehicle, this time with the alternator dying, did 1 1/2 hour of highway travel in good weather before it stalled out and wouldn't go, had DRLs and nothing else running. Had cellphone, had CAA, got towed, phew.
IMO, trying to run off a regular car battery with no alternator or provision for charging, is like getting all the disadvantages of an electric car, while keeping all the gasoline bills of of an IC car... by the time you're carrying the 4 deep cycle batteries that I would consider a decent reserve source with no charging system, you probably aren't saving any gas.
Unhook the field coils, use an electric clutch if you like, but as soon as you feel the thing stumble you can hook it back up and rev the motor at 2500 for a minute or two, and not have to sleep a night in the back seat with wet clothes and only a mars bar for supper in 1-2C temps.
mustninty 
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