shade_tree

I have a 96 sport 4.0 H.O. and the voltage gets pretty low when everything is on. For example a/c on high and the cooling fan on. Just curious what everyone else runs is this situation? I'll attach a pic to kinda show what's goin on. During the pic I was driving home and it was around 112° outside.

excess650

The only way to know for sure what voltage your battery is seeing is to put a VOM across the battery and watch it realtime. You can do this in your driveway by turning the engine on and then the lights, AC, rear window defroster, etc to put as much load on as possible. Your blower motor on high will likely be your biggest power draw. As long as the battery is seeing 13v+, its OK. Check at various rpms to try and duplicate engine speed while driving.

Mine was doing the same so I installed a digital meter. My concern was due the auxiliarly lights that I wanted to run in addition to everything else, but I found that I had enough amperage so that the voltage didn't drop below 13v.

shade_tree

Okay so I threw a tester on it... 13.1-13.6 volts under max load. Which consist of ac on max high, cooling fan, headlights, and hazard lights(rear defrost not working). I plan on getting a winch and offroad lights.
Does anyone know of a budget bolt on alternator upgrade?

excess650

You should be OK with offroad lights if you don't over do it. I've had my (4 x 55w) lights on with ac, high beams, ac on high, rear window defroster, radio and was still above 13v.

Search around for winch info and see what they require. There are $$ aftermarket HO alternators, but I think the GC V8 alternator can be made to work.

Lyon

With the extra accessories, it would be smart to upgrade the battery wiring to a larger size so it can handle the amp draw. You can only put so much through the crappy wiring that is on the Jeeps now.