kipman
Active member
- 2,514
- 15
- 38
- Location
- Lancaster Ohio
What advantage does the generators have over the a alternator and is it worth the swap?
Steel Soldiers now has a few new forums, read more about it at: New Munitions Forums!
Generators, as used in the general automotive field, do not have permanent magnets for the field. While the field does have some residual magnetism, it is actually an electromagnet. Without it, you would not have any control over the generator's output voltage.Blood_of_Tyrants said:A generator uses permanent magnets for the magnetic field and an alternator uses electromagnets to generate the eledtric field. The electromagnets can be controlled much more precisely to give the current required. alternators can be made smaller, lighter, and cheaper. NOBODY puts a generator on modern vehicles.
A gasoline vehicle with a generator can have a completely dead battery can be push started as the wire wound rotor will generate an electrical current as the wires pass through the permanent magnetic field. But an alternator requires SOME electrical energy to generate the magnetic field, to allow it to generate power therefore you cannot push start a vehicle if the battery gets too low.
An old points and condenser type distributor on a car would allow it to run with a bad alternator until the battery was almost completely dead. But the newer cars with all the electronic controls will not run if the voltage drops below about 10.5 volts.