Just realized my alternator was choking my winch performance for months

I kept having my winch slow way down under load, especially when pulling my buddy's F-250 out of a ditch last fall. Tried upgrading the battery and even swapped cables but nothing fixed it. Finally a guy at the auto parts store told me to check my alternator output at idle, turns out I was only getting 12.4 volts. Bolted in a high output 200 amp alternator from a junkyard Ford van for $40 and now my winch pulls like a monster. Anyone else run into voltage drop issues with their electrical mods?

3 comments

3 Comments

river95221d ago

So you're telling me you basically had a paperweight on wheels for months and just figured it out? Classic. I've seen guys swap out everything but the kitchen sink before checking the obvious stuff, happens to the best of us.

gavin46920d ago

Actually he said months not years, might be misremembering.

diana_kim6620d agoMost Upvoted

That "he said months not years" thing is exactly the kind of nitpicking that proves my point. People love to argue over tiny details while missing the actual lesson. I've noticed this pattern everywhere, not just with car problems. Someone will say their internet was down for a week and someone else will jump in like "actually it was 6 days" like that changes anything. It's like we're all so scared of being wrong ourselves that we have to correct everyone else into the ground. The real story is still the same - guy had a problem he could have fixed way sooner but didn't because he overcomplicated it. That's the takeaway, not the exact timeframe.