When we first arrived back at the boat this year it was over 100 deg in the cabin during the day. Whats better in that kind of heat than ice cream? I fired up our trusty Engel freezer to keep the frozen stuff frozen and it did the job despite the heat. After a day or so I noticed that it wasn't cycling on and off as usual. With the ambient temperature so high it just couldn't keep up.
Solution? One little computer fan blowing across the condensor did the trick. True, the fan is on all the time but it draws less than 2 amps in 24 hours and that is more than paid back by reduced run time. Now we have ice cream all the time and the freezer is back back to its usual 1 minuet on 2 minuets off schedule.
When you install a high output alternator one of the most important things to keep an eye on is the belt tension. Too loose and the belt overheats and too tight and you wear out the alternator and waterpump bearings.
After a few years of using a wooden hammer handle to tension the alternator I decided to add a turnbuckle. Becaues the turnbuckle is in a different place than the old adjustment arm I used heim joints(rod ends) which allow some degree of mis-alignment. Mine came from http://www.bakerprecision.com/fk6.htm
Belt changes and adjustments are now a "no tools required" item.
