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--- Russ Wolfe <russw@classicvw.org> wrote: > On Wed, 2005-03-23 at 22:42, Jim Adney wrote: > > On 23 Mar 2005 at 20:13, The Rossos wrote: > > > > > Also, if generators are so great, > > > why aren't they used in modern cars? > > > > Generators are limited to somewhere under 50 A, > just because the brushes in a > > generator carry the full output current. > Alternator brushes only carry the > > field current, which is usually something like > 2-10 A. > > > > Modern cars use so much more electrical power than > older cars that they just > > could not survive on even 50 Amps. Even now, cars > will soon be moving to a 42V > > system just to keep the current down. We'll > probably be seeing 4kW alternators > > in cars before long, and they'll take about 6 HP > from the drive train just to > > power all the accessories that we insist on. > > My wifes new car has a 120 amp alternator. That is > 1500 watts. > Some of the newest VW models (Touareg and Phaeton) use a 190A water cooled alternator. Of course they have a large amount of electrical accessories. __________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! Small Business - Try our new resources site! http://smallbusiness.yahoo.com/resources/ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ List info at http://www.vwtype3.org/list | mailto:gregm@vwtype3.org ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~