In 1989 I acquired 30+ Leece Neville, (LN) 100 Amp alternators from a friend in the fuel trucking business. At that time he was replacing them after 100,000 miles on his Cummins powered tankers - he has gotten over that after determining how reliable the LN's are. I traded a local auto electrical shop, (Orange County CA), half the alternators if he would replace bearings, brushes and regulators in the my half. I took the 16 or so LN's and a bunch of various size pulleys with me while we were cruising the Sea of Cortez and down to the canal. I installed these on several boats with inadequate charging systems. This paid for our cervezas for a couple of years. Anyway, back to the question, my LN's have an voltage adjusting screw on the internal regulator. I have a small nylon dedicated screwdriver that I use to adjust the voltage. Easy, as I have a walk around engine room. For short runs, etc. I max out the voltage. When making long runs under power, I reduce the voltage. This has worked fine for 17 years. I am still on the two LN's from the fuel tankers. I average 7 years on my house batteries, as long as I stick with Dekas or Trojans, I tried Sam's Club 6 volts once and they only lasted 2 years. When replacing them with Dekas, I found one reason, the Sam's weighed 8 pounds less Tom and Bobbie Vandiver, Cal Cruising 46, "Satori" homeported on Bayou Chico, FL

> -----Original Message----- > From: Tom Vandiver > my LN's have an voltage adjusting screw on the internal regulator. > I have a small nylon dedicated screwdriver that I use to > adjust the voltage. For short runs, etc. I max out the voltage. > When making long runs under power, I reduce the voltage. This has worked fine for 17 years. > > Tom and Bobbie Vandiver, REPY Which is exactly what a smart regulator does. For those people who lack easy access to their alternator, this is probably the most sensible alternative. A fully depleted battery will take a fairly high charge; often more than the "industry convention"of 25% od A-H capacity. However as the charge accumulates, the internal resistance of the battery causes heating and this is what damages the battery plates. Once the bulk stage of charging is accomplished, you must back off on the charge rate. Quite often a much smaller charging source is better for topping up the battery to full. This is where solar panels and even some wind generators come into their own. Although most of these charge sources cannot match the 100 - 200 amps bulk charge rate, they are perfect for topping up with a 10A or 5A trickle charge. Even that 5A is too much once the battery is fully charged so a float voltage setting that is much reduced is necessary. This float charge must be adjusted in inverse proportion to the battery temperature. Leece Neville alternators are one of the best choices since many of their models have an internal regulator which mounts on the exterior of the case making the change over to a smart regulator easy. Some L-N models can even be fitted with a small limited capability 3 stage regulator that looks just like the OEM single stage version. A number of the L-N alternators also come with an isolated frame design and require a grounding strap when used with the conventional grounded block engines. This is especially handy when doing special battery bank designs or with electronic controlled engines. One key to long life in an alternator is to never exceed the rating curve and prevent heat build-up in the windings and diode rectifiers. Add forced ventilation if necessary in order to keep your alternator cool. By all means use a belt guard, but do not fit it so close to the pulley, you block the air flow from the pulley mounted fan blades. Arild