Alternator Wiring for Leece Neville 230a?

Just got my Leece Neville 230 amp alt and looking for some suggestions on upgrading the wiring.

I'll likely install it tomorrow since my current alt is dead, but would like to upgrade the wiring sooner than later.

Have read just about a million posts and just not sure what route to take. Piggyback/Parallel the Alt to Pass +, replace, Alt to. ground, batt ground, Pass + to Driver +, starter, engine to chassis, etc....

Looking for the simplest yet most efficient way, also what gauge wiring is recommended?

Only pushing 2 amps (off driver's batt) less than 1500 watts, HIDs, occasionally use LEDs and will eventually get a pair of compressors.

Why the 230amp? Why not I guess... only $50 more than the DC 185. Buy once cry once lol.



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Keep an eye on your drive belt. An alternator that size will have some pretty decent drag on the drive belt when it kicks in.

Leece-Neville builds most of the alternators for the military. I own a Deuce and a half and it sports a Leece-Neville. But it's not anywhere near the output of yours. Mine is built to swim for fording purposes, I don't think your's is.

Anyway, look at your total system current draw and factor constant loads such as your electronics (ECU, ICM, etc). Plan for a current surge in operation when you turn driving lights on, audio amps, etc. Batteries are what run the vehicle, NOT the alternator.

Always use high count wire strand battery cables, don't go cheap here. The more strands the higher current handling capability. For instance, a cable that is 1.5" in diameter but has say 10 strands will handle less current than the same diameter cable with 50 strands. Go look at Home Depot power cabling for houses and compare the two. You'll see what I mean. I always run small strand stuff for my shop machinery, it simply handles more of a load than larger solid core power wire.

Keep an eye on your batteries. That alternator could overheat the batteries, thus killing them. Pay particular attention to the sides of the batteries. If they start bowing/billowing out, that means they're being overheated from overcharge and are due to fail. You need bigger batteries!

With an alternator like yours, I'd wire the output feed to the batteries in parallel, off of a junction block. It can handle the additional load demand and Leece-Neville builds them for that type of circuit arrangement.

Have fun with that beast!

Fwiw, the regulator will only tell the alt to produce the amperage needed. If your system isn't needing 230 amps, the alt won't produce it.

You will possibly see 14 or so volts which auto companies now know is ok. Years back #'s were kept in the high 12's low 13's. My Durango runs at 15v all day long and my Singer does 14.7v.

If memory serves me correct your factory wiring will route to the driver battery then over to the pass. You can leave the stock and run another 0 gauge wire to the pass battery, as the factory config always has the pass drawing off the driver.

And currently I have discovered AGM has made NO difference in overall longevity of the system. Initially the higher CCA helped w/ cold weather starts but aside from that the diehards blow. When my diehards die, I'm going back to regular lead acid. Years ago, the yellow or red tops were awesome but as of the last few years and my experiences, there is minimal quality difference to justify the huge jump in cost.

From what I understand, the glowplugs run directly off the Passenger batt..
Buy once, cry once I guess.

I'm going to run 1/0 from alt. to pass, and pass to drivers, completely replacing the parallel wire. Also upgrade a couple grounds as well.

Might be overkill but at least it won't be insufficient

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If memory serves me correct your factory wiring will route to the driver battery then over to the pass.

Click to expand...

your memory is backward ;-)

alternator feeds the pass battery then a jumper runs to the driver side

so like you mentioned it's good to run another cable from the Alt to the battery that does not have one ( the driver side )