Spend 400 bucks for dual alternators on new Ram build?

I thought I wanted dual Alternators but the sales manager said it was more if I snow plowed.

My last two trucks have been ordered with dual alternators (Ford and Ram). Unless you have dedicated wiring run to your camper, you will not see the benefit from buying two and I question whether you will even see a benefit from an upgraded single.

I have a constant duty solenoid triggered by an upfitter switch to heavy cabling running to the back of my current truck. My setup is little different with a flat bed and storage boxes than a pick up, but this might give you some ideas:

In my lower truck storage boxes I have two banks of batteries that are tied to the truck charging system, to the truck camper and to a third bank of batteries on my enclosed trailer. Interconnects for the camper and trailer are large diameter Anderson 2-pole plugs. All three banks of external batteries can power the camper and all four banks of batteries can be charged via truck, camper generator, camper solar or campground electric.

I used the connections to the heavy lines in the camper running to the generator starter motor as my tap to the external interconnect Anderson plug. All sources of power have a resettable circuit breaker if there is any short or overload condition.

I installed an isolator on the truck and ran size large battery cables to connect the deep cycle camper batteries with a rated quick plug. I disconnect the “12v +” little wire in the camper plug. Automotive alternators taper the charge as battery resistance increases as they charge. I would make sure to connect the converter charger to 110 ac once in a while so the batteries recurved a full charge.

I expect there are fancier isolator/chargers available nowadays that will alternator charge deep cycle batteries properly

new2this44 wrote:
Or will such a set-up require all new wiring, etc. to actually help?

Thank you.

Yes I believe you would need to upgrade the wire to really make it effective to directly charge the TC battery. You could have 10 alternators but you can only get so many volts and amps through the #12 wire.

I have ordered pickups with two alt. this last one I did not. I think it would help if you were doing a lot of winch work, or some other big draw application. Snow plow prep packages tend to spec a larger alt, but not the two alt option that I have seen. I would get the larger single alt and call it a day.

The thread OP is from/living in the Midwest where solar is very iffy at best and there's trees everywhere too which virtually block out the sun's rays anyway. Note that the promotors of solar are from the desert/bleak/virtually treeless areas of North America. We know the difference as that's where we live in the Midwest also and very smartly opted for dual alternators on our ordered diesel truck and been so happy we did.

Remember that the alternator works equally fast in recharging in any area/location you might be in unlike with iffy solar. Alternators are not affected by cold, altitude, clouds or trees, rain or snow, and is very fast and dependable.

It's not only the fact that the dual alternators will quickly when at engine idle recharge all the batteries (2 in the truck and 3 group 31 batteries for the Lance TC with its 1500 watt inverter or our Carriage 5th wheel with 5 same batteries in it and 2 more in the bed of the truck for powering the 5th wheel with its 2500 watt inverter). Even if in direct sun for 12 ours a day everyday, solar would be about like using a candle to heat a home in zero degree weather. Basically useless!

The additional plus is that having dual alternators and buying the extra serpentine single alternator belt stored under the seat means even if an alternator fails, you simply change belts and are good to go with the other alternator. A real game changer!

$400 seems a very high price for a second alternator as ours was well less than half of that cost.

I have towed for 30+ hours and my refrigerator was exactly the same temp at destination as departure. I have the 220A on my RAM.

time2roll wrote:
I would spend the $400 on solar or a DC-DC charger long before a second alternator.

Another alternative is swap out lights and oter devices to lower draw versions.

I would spend the $400 on solar or a DC-DC charger long before a second alternator.

“Most flooded batteries should be charged at no more than the "C/8" rate for any sustained period. While some battery manufacturers state a higher maximum charge rate, such as C/3, higher charge rates can result in high battery temperatures and/or excessive bubbling and loss of liquid. ("C/8" is the battery capacity at the 20-hour rate divided by 8. For a 220 AH battery, this would equal 26 Amps.)“ Northern Arizona Wind & Sun https://www.solar-electric.com/learning-center/deep-cycle-battery-faq.html/#Battery%20Charging