The Remote Alternator

Every scrapyard has one.

A car alternator is a rugged three-phase generator that will charge a battery bank for years. But its weakest parts, the diodes and the regulator, are buried inside it where the heat is.

This book shows you how to strip one down to the bare machine and move the rectifier and regulator to the battery house, where you can see them, fix them, and keep them cool, then drive the whole thing with water, wind, or an engine.

Cable sizing that accounts for real voltage drop. Five ways to build a regulator, from relocating the original module to a microcontroller. Running at 24 or 48 volts. And a first-run test sequence that will not cook your bank.