Unboxing a 370 Amp Alternator

UNBOXING a 370 amp alternator! Gale Banks explains how the Mechman Elite Series billet alternator works and why he chose it for the Supercharged Twin-turbo 7.1L Duramax Monster Truck Engine. New Episode every Wednesday!

You may remember from our Building a Monster Truck series, we did data logging on the Monster Mutt with the Banks iDash. After logging data, Gale went to San Jose to watch the Mutt in action. We noticed that when she hit the rear steer, the battery voltage dropped way low. That’s scary because if the voltage goes too low, the ECU will shut off. During a long donut, the batteries could be killed. It was time for a lot of alternator, so Gale chose the 370 amp alternator from Mechman in Knoxville, TN.

Mechman doesn’t just make alternators for competition use, they make them for everything. Every alternator they make is custom-built and tested. The company began with Dennis Moore, a mechanical engineer nicknamed MechMan for short. I think you know where this is going. Mechman was started in 1978.

Gale explains why he went with a 370 amp alternator over a 500 amp before getting into every feature of the alternator.

On the next Unboxed, Gale opens up a box containing a part that could very well put the stock Duramax L5P over 1000 horsepower, a high-performance camshaft.