For all you electrical Whizzes out there!

[Ronbo]

Just a warning to any reading through this thread.

If you use either a external regulator or internal reg alternator make sure to connect the sense lead to a point as close to the battery as possible. (more importantly away from the output terminal of the alternator)

There's an important reason for this: The lead wire from the alternator will drop some voltage depending on size between it and the load. The battery is the critical component here so it's best to sense voltage right at the battery or off the heavy gauge wire to the starter.

For example if the alternator is supplying 60 amps and the lead wire is .01 ohms resistance then there would be .6 volts drop across the wire. IE: 13.8v at the battery but 14.4v at the alternator.

Use a good stout 8ga wire to the starter battery lug for alternator output. The sense lead is usually fairly high impedance so a 12 ga. wire sould be fine here. In the case of 100 amp use about 4 ga wire. Fine strand preferable in either case. (32 strand or higher)

The regulator won't charge the battery properly if it's getting bad readings from the sense lead so this is very important to battery life.