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How common is it to have the engine start without alt energised ie you have to press a switch to  get the alt to feed amps?

 

On mine I have the choice turn on engine and alt feeding in or not. Wondered if this was not common.

 

 

 

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1 minute ago, mark99 said:

How common is it to have the engine start without alt energised ie you have to press a switch to  get the alt to feed amps?

 

On mine I have the choice turn on engine and alt feeding in or not. Wondered if this was not common.

 

 

 

Exciting?

  • Greenie 1
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1 minute ago, mark99 said:

Not the topic !

To excite or not to excite. Why would you not want the alternator not to excite. A bigger wattage charge warning lamp bulb should excite it at lowish revs without a switch.

Edited by bizzard
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My Kelvin is always started with the alternator OFF ( D+  not energised) and then the field is energised when OK on diesel.

Sometimes it  self energises anyway so B+ is always connected to the batteries though.

 

N

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Flexibility. My 140a alternator takes a few hp out of engine so prefer to have the choice to use alt to charge batteries or not (and use generator instead later). Wake up, river in flood decide extra hp may be better to have at prop.

Edited by mark99
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3 of my boats have  had seperate alternator exciting circuits, because they were hand start.  When i added electric start to one i kept the system seperate to make hand starting which i prefer easy. The current boat  still has a seperate alternator and starter circuit, and has when having a senior moment been started with the alternator off.

annoying because of course the charge light is never on to go off so to speak.

so not uncommon especially with listers.

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I have this arrangement and always use it when starting from cold. The alternator belt runs around the outside of the flywheel, so it produces 65% of full output even at tickover and the load is enough to stop a cold engine from accelerating sometimes.

 

MP.

 

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On our last living boat the 6 batteries were all paired with a master on each pair. After a week of living on the towpath, without charge we had to start up with only 2 on, and let them charge for a bit before introducing the others. If we didnt the engine would go out or the belts howl.

we had a 160 amp alternator with a small pulley off a large pulley on the flywheel. It was only a single v drive, but we couldnt change it.

the boat ate belts.

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Rigal had that arrangement on its HA2m.

Incidentally the engine is a genuine marine build and then someone after me went to the trouble of painting the Lister Marine Blue in Brunswick Green!!!!  Thus suggesting it was a stationary conversion.

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On 07/03/2019 at 21:08, mark99 said:

How common is it to have the engine start without alt energised ie you have to press a switch to  get the alt to feed amps?

 

On mine I have the choice turn on engine and alt feeding in or not. Wondered if this was not common.

 

 

 

I nearly did exactly this when some of our control panel failed due to condensation (600 quid for a new one.). It would have been an easy fix, with the advantage that the engine could be started without alternator load (as already suggested by others.)
At the finish I managed to solder the panel PCB back up and fit a diode so didn't need to go down this route.

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