Need larger alternator for a Land Cruiser

Hi Tom,

How did you figure out that this was a Toyota newsgroup? Try using those same skills to find a Toyota car dealer and ask their parts department for one.

Go to an auto parts store and ask them for one.

Go to a auto salvage yard and ask them for one.

Check on e-bay.

Oh hell, there's almost no end of ways to get an alternator.

Are people really this dumb?

Oh, wait....you didn't really want to find out where to buy an alternator, did you? You just wanted to talk about why you needed a bigger one.

Why do you need a larger alternator? Have you checked with your local Toyota dealer to see if the alternator from a V8 Land Cruiser would fit?

Hi Ray,

Thanks for the response.

We have some specialized electronic equipment that we want to install in some 2007 V6 Toyota Land Cruisers, which requires a larger alternator. Ideally, we would like to have 250-Amp-rated units.

This is for an extremely worthy cause, and not for profit. I posted here just to try to cover all bases, and with the hope that someone might already have the needed information.

I just need a quick and good answer for this. But of course I have also been pursuing many other avenues, simultaneously. So anyone without positive suggestions toward the stated goal need not post.

- Tom

Hi Ray,

Thanks for the response.

We have some specialized electronic equipment that we want to install in some 2007 V6 Toyota Land Cruisers, which requires a larger alternator. Ideally, we would like to have 250-Amp-rated units.

This is for an extremely worthy cause, and not for profit. I posted here just to try to cover all bases, and with the hope that someone might already have the needed information.

I just need a quick and good answer for this. But of course I have also been pursuing many other avenues, simultaneously. So anyone without positive suggestions toward the stated goal need not post.

- Tom

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What sorts of responses have you gotten from Toyota dealers?

He wants someone to ask him about the "Specialized Electronic Equipment" so he can talk about that. This is the second day he's been looking for an answer. Phone calls to Toyota dealers and auto parts stores aren't acceptable, just posts to a newsgroup.

I could make a few phone calls and have the answer for him in less than 1/2 hour, but I'll be damned if I'll do his leg work for him.

Hummmm...I wonder if he's related to the guy who's mechanic stole his car's AC.

Doing Global Warming research, or Hurricane Chasing?

Oh, and I already asked...

If you need 200A hot or better, you are well up in the territory of truck alternators. Best bet is to find a local (might be 'regional' depending on how large a town you live in) auto electric rebuilding shop that deals with truck alternators, take your vehicle there.

They can look at the available space and existing bracketry in the car, and will know what they can make fit in the space. And work with the existing vehicle wiring, though you most likely will need to adapt the vehicle harness to plug into the new voltage regulator.

And you will need a much larger charging output lead going to the dual (or triple) battery isolator, and then on to the vehicle battery

- some truck alternators already have split diode stacks that can go straight to two battery banks. The existing #8 AWG lead between alternator and battery would be glowing red if you tried running 250A through it.

Note that if you don't have the extra load on-line most of the time you WILL have problems with boiled batteries. The alternator will be putting out way too much charge current for one stock battery, and regular car batteries can't accept a charge that fast. Even with a dual-battery conversion it might be too much, unless you use the big honkin' 8D locomotive starting batteries.

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Hi Ray,

Thanks for the response.

We have some specialized electronic equipment that we want to install in some 2007 V6 Toyota Land Cruisers, which requires a larger alternator. Ideally, we would like to have 250-Amp-rated units.

This is for an extremely worthy cause, and not for profit. I posted here just to try to cover all bases, and with the hope that someone might already have the needed information.

I just need a quick and good answer for this. But of course I have also been pursuing many other avenues, simultaneously. So anyone without positive suggestions toward the stated goal need not post.

- Tom

250 amps is a pretty huge draw. I would check with companies that supply alternators for emergency response vehicles like ambulances.

Like these ones?

No personal experience with them and they are pricey but they look like they might be well made.

No personal experience with them and they are pricey but they look like> they might be well made.

Yeah, like that!

Yeah, that would work... ;-)

The CS-144 is a Delco Large Car case, obviously they've stuffed the even larger coils from a truck alternator inside and hung the rectifier bridge external off the back instead of internal like on a production car unit.

WARNING: Those rectifiers look like they might be electrically hot on the heat sinks - and even if they aren't they are going to get seriously hot at full output. Keep fingers well away, unless you want them branded for life...

If you have a length problem for the complete alternator, they could take the six phase leads out of the alternator and put the rectifier stacks on the fender - but then you would have to put a separate cooling fan on the diodes or they'll go out in a blaze of glory.

The Lestek models they reference are another company that specializes in big alternators in small spaces - ambulances are notorious for needing a LOT of juice, yet they build them on van chassis that leave no room for bigger alternators or anything else.

(I wanna shoot the guy who invented the 'Doghouse' engine cover design on vans. Great on space utilization but to borrow a phrase from the Brits "a right bastard" to do /any/ work on.)

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Hi Bruce,

You're right on most of this but he won't have (or at least shouldn't have) battery problems because of the charge rate. The voltage regulator will keep the voltage down to around 14 volts so the battery won't over charge. The alternator output will be adjusted to match the current draw of the equipment up to the max output of the alternator.

He may have a problem with fusible links in his electrical system though. I'm not sure if his vehicle uses a fusible link feeding the power distribution or not.

But I still question why he is looking for answers in a Toyota newsgroup. It would seem like he would be better served by going to professionals and not a bunch of guys he doesn't know who are sitting in front of keyboards.

Because I am being as thorough as possible, on this one. ;-)

[Also, I apparently respect the quality of the online community more than you do.]

Thanks for your technical comments.

- Tom

What I gathered by the "dual" meaning is that they still have the internal bridge along with the external one and yes from the picture the sinks are both electrically and thermally hot. I think they should have put some sort of plastic shroud around the external fins both to insulate them electrically and to help the air flow through the fins instead of around them. That much exposed metal which is directly connected to the battery positive through very thick cable in close proximity to the grounded metal brackets, hard lines, etc kinda scares me.

What the maker usually means by "dual outputs" is usually two separate sets of diodes and separate output studs. You connect one to the starting battery, and the other to the secondary deep-cycle battery that runs your camper or ambulance or scientific gear. The inside lights, water pumps, radios, furnace blower, stove vent hood, suction pumps, and other "stuff".

The dual diode stack outputs mean that the two battery banks are isolated from each other without an external battery isolator system - your deep cycle battery loads can't run down the starting battery you'll need to get going in the morning.

If they built a shroud to direct the air, I can guarantee it would end up in the way on some installs. They would need two or three alternates for various obstructions.

A shroud for the externally hung diode stacks could be done, but it's easier to just make sure anyone who works under the hood on the vehicle knows what they're doing - after all, the battery terminals on all cars are constantly hot, and they are usually left exposed. If you don't do anything too stupid they never give you a problem.

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And some of us have DONE what he wants to do - but I didn't need nearly that level of power, I'm usually fine if I can get 120 Amps hot out of the alternator. I don't need to go too crazy on the mods. Second battery, three two-way radios, scanner, 100W PA System, added off-road lights and a twin rotor light bar, 4414A hazard flashers in the back, winch, 1000W inverter, and a better stereo. As long as I don't try running everything at once at idle, 120A covers it nicely.

Lestek, Leece-Neville and other "ambulance" alternators are the best, but BOY do they want a lot for them. Much better (and a lot less money) to have a local auto electric rebuild shop build up a Delco/Delphi or Nippondenso unit with standard truck alternator guts to do what you need, rather than going the full custom route.

Or find a truck sized alternator that will fit into the space you have and has the same basic mounting style, and modify your brackets as needed to mount it - that way you just walk in and say "I need an alternator for a Hino 2-1/2 Ton Cab-over" and they know.

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Check out "

" I think that anything you do in this regard will require some creative mounting adapters, both mechanical and electrical