alternator shutting down under high load?
 

in the middle of winching my way out of a situation this weekend the alternator voltage dropped to zero ("check engine" chime notified me of this) and shortly after I stopped using the winch it came back to life. my electric fan was also running at the time.


I have no doubt that the alternator was overtaxed, but do they have a safety switch that turns them off until they can produce enough amps to charge the battery again? will this damage my alternator?