Driftgate 2000 alternators- any experience

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robpoulter

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My 20 year old 50 Amp alternator has recently died (or stopped working at least).
The very nice & cheap alternator repair man in Plymouth tells me it will be £120 to resurrect it.
Driftgate do a compatable 90 A alternator for £165, but I had never heard of them until I started looking a couple of days ago.
Does anyone have one/has had one and feel that they can offer an opinion.
Of course others may offer opinions also /forums/images/graemlins/ooo.gif ideally on this subject though, although some thread drift onto whether I need a charge booster/diode splitter/vsr or should just stick with 1/2/both switch (which it how I think it blew) that is both muppet and 3 year old proof would be great.
It is a VP 2003 engine with small engine start & 230 AH service bank

Cheers
Rob
 
with a smallish service bank that you have and assuming you don't rely on your leisure batteries alot then i would say a 90 amp alternator would suit you fine ,driftgate are fitted on quite a few narrow boats and are reckoned to be very good,but your local motor factor could probably provide you with something similar for less money
the 121/both switch is not a good device and as you have found out it can blow your alternator,there are better ways of charging,if you look through some recent posts you will get some ideas,
the ultimate i guess is to use a booster,i use stirlings and in 12 years have had no problems,depending on your expertise they do a range of products that IMHOare good.some you need to access the back of the alternater some almost plug in.
with some diodes,etc you get voltage drop which is something to be aware of'.
i will try and find the thread explaining my system and post it
there are lots of ways of doing it but this way works for me
 
basicly i use an ordinary isolater switch details below

the isolaters i use are the one with a red removable key /heavy duty used for battery isolation.
connect the +cable going to your leisure/service battery and the thick charge wire coming out of your alternator onto one post of the isolater switch.
connect another cable from the other post to your start battery.
as has been mentioned before,i am assuming you have an isolater between the start battery and the starter motor,you can connect your charge wire to that as when the engine is running you will have that switch enabled.

when you start the engine you would enable the start battery switch and start as normal,all the charge will be going to your service batteries,after awhile say 1/2 hr enable the charge switch,this effectively connects all your batteries together and provides charge to your start batteries.
the reason for the heavy cables is that they will take all the power from both sets of batteries,which i,ve found useful in the past when the start battery is a bit low and the leisure batteries well charged,if you enable the switch you are effectively jump starting the start battery.
its hard to say what size cables to use as it depends on the distances they have to run, the heavier the better,think jump leads and how hot they can get under load, the cable to the alternator does not need to be as large though as its only a charging wire.
the beauty of this system is that its simple, cheap and effective,there are no electrical components to go wrong,you get no voltage losses and your alternater is connected at all times to a battery bank.
i always carry a spare switch but if it should fail and you don't have a spare you can always bolt cables too one post,
 
I have used Driftgate alternators in the past with no issues. We have since re-engined so no longer have the Driftgate alternator. We still use the Driftgate X-Alt and X-Split. All seems ok.
 
I would suggest that you remove the old alternator (it is probably out already) and check the slip rings and brushes. These can get very worn and the brushes can be replaced by yourself quite easily. If the slip rings are badly damaged then you are up for a new rotating field coil which might bring you to getting a new alternator.

Your service man is probably quoting for an overhaul (worst case scenario) when all you really want is a fix. If the diodes are dead and that is a bit technical to determine then new diode plates can be bought.

A higher current alternator may not give you much more charge or any real benefit unless you fit a smart regulator.

By the way I was going through the Alternator Handbook (thanks to that recent poster) when I noticed he had a 1,2,both switch with diodes attached from the common to each battery pos terminal (anodes at common). It struck me as a very elegant cheap way to avert the problem of the battery switch going to off while running. There would always be a charge circuit (load) via diodes albeit at a poorer charging characteristic. You would always charge using the switch but if it were left in off or during switching the alternator would still have a load.

it is like using a diode splitter but then actually using the switch to bypass the .7v drop. Does anyone use this arangement, Are there problems I havn't seen.
I actually don't like the 1,2 off switch but they are so common and it is a cheap way to remove any co9ncern about the alternator safety.

olewill
 
Driftgate alternators...

Driftgate sell the Prestolite/Leece-Neville range of alternators, which are also sold by Adverc. They are American, heavy-duty, good quality units, with good output at fairly low revs. I have a 90A Leece-Neville, about 6 years old, which is very satisfactory. They have a user-variable regulator, which could be useful for setting a higher alternator voltage to offset losses in diode splitters.

With only 230Ah domestic batteries, you don't really need a 90A alternator, but it won't be working too hard, and will give you some scope for future expansion of your domestic bank.

Your easiest solution to split-charging would probably be a VSR. And I'd certainly suggest getting rid of the 1-2-Both switch and just having 2 simple on/off switches, one to isolate the start battery, one to isolate the domestic bank.
 
Re: Driftgate alternators...

Thank you to all. I know that 90A is a little overspec, but gives me more flexibility for minimal extra outlay.
Rob
 
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