I have a 98' F150 ext. cab short bed 4x4 with a western plow. When I work the plow the lights dim real bad. What can I do to make this not do that? It really affects the proformance of the plow. Any ideas would be great
Thanks

 

Upgrade the alternator

 

I called Autozone about the alternator and they said you might have to do some slight modifying, i guess the case is bigger. Has anyone heard of this?
Thanks

 

powermaster makes some 200 amp alt that work on our trucks i would check there website they are also sold at summit and jegs and 4wheel parts, they are about $310, good luck

 

You have an electric lift motor on that plow assembly.
It uses a large amount of current to lift the weight.
The point it is connected to, the size of the wire, the capacity of the battery and the alternator size are all affecting elements.
The plow shop should have alerted you to all the needs as well as possible front suspension needs.
I know this because there is a WESTERN dealer close by that I deal with at times, in the spring and heavy truck repair biz.

 

we have a plow on out 97 work truck, the first season it fried the alt. we replaced it with a higher output one.

 

Would it help if I put one of them Optima yellow top batteries in. They are a deep cycle battery. Think that would help? I dont do alot of plowing just family and friends.

Thanks for the replys!

 

it would still be very hard on your alternator, and would shorten its life

 

I am not sure how often you need to adjust the plow but if it is only for 10 - 15 seconds at a time every ten minutes or so...

A car/truck battery can store a lot of energy- a NEW battery with a high CCA ( cold cranking amp ) rating and a high Amp-Hour rating would help a whole lot. Old batteries can lose a lot of storage capacity. Make sure that all connections on the battery are clean and tight.

If you make plow adjustments at engine idle speeds - try putting it in park or neutral and reving the engine up to 2500 rpm (not to high ) when moving the plow. The alternator can make a bit more power at higher speeds.

Turning you headlights off when adjusting can save you 16 -20 amps. If you still want to monitor how much the lights dim when adjusting, turn on the dome light and see how much it dims ( the dome light will only pull an amp or so)

You really need to look at the motor on the plow and see what it pulls in Amps or Watts. Watts/ Volts = Amps on a DC system.
Good luck

 

Yes, just running the hydraulic plow pump motor (up / down / side to side) draws a ton of juice. (I used to really like the older systems that ran a pump off of a fan belt under the hood.) A bigger alternator will really help here. The other thing you might want to check is the quality of your electrical connections though. I've seen loose / corroded connections cause all sorts of excess power drains through higher resistance. Consider where that bad boy is mounted - right out on the front of the truck exposed to salt, water, wind, vibration, etc. Try the easy (and cheap) stuff first.