I have no vested interest in Snow Cats, other than answering a few questions of a general nature. The amount of HP that is required to run the alternator depends on if the batteries are fully charged. If you start off with a fully charged battery, the amount of energy to turn the pulley will be negligible. Once the batteries start to discharge, then the demand will pick up and it will require HP to turn the pulley. Unless you are "asking" the alternator to charge a fully discharged battery, the amount of energy (HP) required will still be negligible. The more demand on the battery, the more the alternator will try to replace those used up amps in the battery. Consequently the larger demand on the HP output of the vehicle. I don't believe that you will even notice a difference between full output of the alternator and when it is just idling if you are underway. It will only show up as a decrease in RPM at idle. If this is a problem, then install a vernier cable to increase the idle speed when you are standing still for long periods of time with the engine running.
Who was it that has the Corvair engine in the snow cat that said that they would send me the generator when they removed it?
thanks