Andyba20

I’ve got good batteries, but I’ll be pegging the heck out of them with a 40 year old Ramsey worm gear winch. I’ll keep spare fuses with me.

Would a 200A fuse be ok for a 180A Nations alternator?

Was there ever a consensus on the fuse or the breaker for the charge lead? What size/brand did y'all go with? Anyone catch on fire yet?

Great info from all of you, I appreciate it. I have some Rigid Led cubes on the front bumper that throw plenty of yellow light so I can always turn off the headlights and KC’s. I tried an H3 type led in the KC housing and it just wasn’t near as bright. I’m a huge fan of LED technology but I will say I haven’t found an LED yet that will outshine that 100W halogen spot light pair (for the size). I’ll also go ahead and swap out led bulbs in the tail lights and blinkers. I have the Daniel Stern kit for my headlights and I have been extremely happy with that, one of the best mods I’ve done to this truck so I’ll probably keep it as is.

Sounds like healthy batteries, clean terminals, and good cables along with a healthy stock alternator works for you. I might just do the ground mod (my cables and terminals/connectors are new) and replace the diodes. Also guess I’ll check the brushes. The alternator that’s on it now was a brand new Denso I put on 3 years ago and has about 25K miles on it. But I admit I did push it really hard with the winch the other night...the last pull was a doozy and after 7 hours in the snow and at 1:30am I wasn’t stopping and giving the winch or the truck a break. Lesson learned I guess.

That’s a really good analogy. What set up are you using with your winch? Connected to the passenger side battery? Using a quick connect? Using a stock alternator or upgrade? What batteries?

I’m a reliability first performance second kind of guy, and I don’t mind spending the money to keep things working correctly. If the nations unit is more reliable than the oem unit then it’s worth it to me, I just don’t have any experience to go by.

Would the Nations upgrade be worth it, or should I do the WT ground mod and just drop in a diode in the 136 and get back on the road? I use the winch like twice a year in emergency situations for the most part.

Thanks Mike, if it was your truck would you just replace the diodes and get fresh batteries? (My batteries “tested good” yesterday, but who knows.) Also, the diodes on the site store, are those “improved” or were you just providing the correct part number for stock diode replacement? The only reason I think my diodes are shot is because after 3 trouble free years my TC lock/unlock issue came back after I pegged the charging system with all that winching. Also had a random “surge” in acceleration from idle the required me to throw it in neutral and turn it off (did I damage the Timbo apps too?) I had just changed the fuel filter 25 miles earlier so I don’t think it was air in the fuel, also had dumped some cetane booster (injector cleaner) in the tank when I changed the fuel filter. A lot of variables I know.

Thank you for this link. I’m definitely considering the PowerBastards unit, but only if I get a PowerBastards sticker for my window

Thinking hard about replacing my 136 with a higher amp alternator, I’ve read a lot of good info on here, but seems like the last info I found was from 2018. Is there anything new I should check out for a good drop in replacement option with some more amperage? It snowed here in TN a few weeks ago on Christmas Eve, I spent the entire night winching tourists and holiday visitors from Florida out of ditches and creeks and one guys trout pond. Pretty sure the old 1981 Ramsey worm gear along with the 100W KC Halogens fried my diodes, figured I’d just upgrade it instead of replace.

I live in TN but my “office” has always been in the Silicon Valley. Big tech will push and push to see what all they can get away with and they’ve realized most people won’t push back at all. However, I’m really surprised to see that AWS is threatening to shut down Parler. After years and years of my customers resisting moving their data and workloads to the cloud, they finally gave in and started migrating critical workloads to AWS, MS, Google...this move by aws is going to have companies scrambling to get their data back into private data centers...bad business move on the part of AWS. The cloud is like Hotel California, you can check out anytime you like but you can Never leave. No company is going to leave themselves vulnerable to sociopolitical whims...

I did this dash in my 2000, and it’s the last time. Not because it’s difficult, but because it’s time consuming I don’t have the patience or right personality to deal very well with a lot of small parts (screws and bolts etc). Only advice, replace everything you can while you’re in there (heater core, evap, blend door, actuator, and clean out the drain port going through the fire wall)

Heck I don’t know...but it was definitely above 35 degrees outside. More like 50.

I’ve read Mike’s comments on the AC compressor cycling, and tend to agree that it shouldn’t cycle if performing correctly. However, I’ve noticed mine will cycle with the heat on (defrost). Is this a normal function?