I noticed the Alternator Capacity on my ATV and was wondering what I could run on such a Alternator. Like I would like to run a plug of some sort maybe charge a laptop or phone while ridding and such and was wondering that you think?

 

I have a friend that uses his ATV to go camping/hunting off of. He has a AC 500 and uses one of those 40qt coleman (I think) DC coolers with the adapter. He claims it works great as long as the engine is running and you are moving. If you stop for more than an hour and leave it plugged in it drains the battery enough that you need to pull start the engine.

Personally, I think if you can run a winch you should be able to run other things like a laptop through an inverter. But you have to understand it has limitations and extra heavy use of the charging system may casue things like the voltage regulator to go out earlier or other charging components to wear out faster.

I don't see why you couldn't run a small inverter and plug you cell phone or laptop into it. But I would only do it while I was riding or moving.

SJ

 

Thanks for the reply. Yeah I mean I would be charging it moving anyways. I was thinking more of doing some type of wiring towards the back or front where I can seal the laptop (it would be off) and let her charge while I was moving. That way when I stop for lunch or break or whatever I have a full battery.

Is there more info on how to wire things like that? I don't own a car and this 700 Cat Diesel (2007) Model will be my first thing with 4 wheels.

 

Not sure if your laptop would survive......they kinda DON'T like being bounced around.

Your 40amp rating is the MAXIMUM your alternator/stator will put out to charge the bat. depending on your machine and run accessories. Your ATV battery- if stock - doesn't have the greatest overall capacity itself...so the MORE stuff you plug-in and run......eventually your bat will lose the battle.
example: ON my TRV I run a 2-battery set-up to run ALL my accessories in the winter - winch/handwarmers/aux. lights/becon. I kept "draining/killing" my stock battery in about 20min cause of the continuous combined amp draw.(the winch alone draws more than 60amp....and the harder it works..the more amps) I needed MORE initial bat. storage capacity so my alternator/stator could keep up. It also sits on a 1.5amp bat maintainer when not in use.

But in the summer I use a cellphone charger on mine with NP. - never tried an inverter - can't see need'n 110volt on the trail
You should have a 12v plug on your dash pod the plug in things and a 2 prong external plug up under the rear right fender along the frame. Be carefull...they both run off the same 30mp fuse. Also if your unfamiliar with 12volt wiring/grounding/fusing you might want to limit your accessories.....

my 2¢

 

It's more of a apple book there more like not laptops but a piece of junk :P Anyways I would put in some type of soft casing and once the drive dies I will put a SSD and there be no moving parts.

 

Bumping this again. Yeah there is a 12V amps on it.. Kind of wish I knew while the engine is on how much I can use without passing the amount it takes to regen the battery example:

50watts battery full

100 watts battery is starting to take a slow discharge aka like 5 hours to discharge it all

200 watts battery is taking a fast discharge aka like 1 hour use like this hehe.