My "over the road" Niehoff, Balmar regulator project

[hal]

It has been a slow process to finally get to this stage.   Last year I purchaseed a couple large frame 450 amp Niehoff C802.   I will mount one on my Detroit S60 550HP engine.   One unit will be kept as a spare.   The problem that I was facing was the lack of flexability with the OEM regulators.   I did call Steve at Balmar and he quickly shut the door on the project.   I have 8 DEKA 8D AGM batteries that I do not want to cook.   Two new/surplus Trace SW4024 will be used.



I have to Thank Lloyd for the coming up to my place to start the planning process for me.   I made contact with Todd at Blanchard Electric.   He asked me to bring the alternators down a few month later when he had some "spare" time.  He was going to inspect the rebuilt units and schedule time to talk with Balmar and Niehoff directly.   The major concern right off the bat was the high field current.   Steve designed and hybrid unit called the SUPER TWENTY-FOUR.   It took less than 2 weeks from testing to production!   I received one unit and Blanchard Electric received the second unit for further testing.   The unit wil handle current over 20 amps on the field side, if it sees over 19 amps from the Niehoff it will throttle the amperage down to 19 amps max!    

Cudo's again goes out for Todd (Blanchard Electric) for his passion and knowledge to think outside of the box.   I now have the last major piece of the puzzle to get me supplying power while on the road.   There are far more smarter folks on this forum that have the knowledge and resources to build there own systems.   I have needed alot of time to secure all of my hardware> one piece at a time.

[mobile_bob]

Todd is a really good guy, and you are lucky to have someone like him to help you out.

with him so close to balmar helps too, as does the huge marine industry around there, that makes them have to think
outside the box on a more frequent basis than out in the heartland where finding anything like those alternators is ni' on impossible
let alone having someone like Tod to work with you.

nice setup

also i bet it was nice to have Lloyd pulling some strings with you as well, having him got you to Tod, and an ear with balmar i bet.

bob g

[hal]

Bob,  yes the location doesn't hurt!   The technical conversation with Todd with regards to the various alternator manufactures was interesting, such as cleaner power, manufacturing biases, one alternator good for this vs another one good at doing this to balancing issues and bearing problems.     

[hal]

I forgot to mention,  Todd had a GE turbine starter/ generator on the bench.   4500 to 7500RPM's..   I think that it was 50volt..   It was a tad smaller than the Niehoff, but weighed as much..