LBZ: My electric fan install

Porno Joe

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Oct 11, 2010
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Here's a couple of pics of my flexalite fans on my lbz. Used the stock mounts on the sides and made my own top mount. Then I cut the stock fan shroud so it covers it all. From the front you can't even tell

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Hot COCOAL

May the farce be with you
Jun 9, 2012
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I thought E-fans were a big no-no and couldn't move enough air for our cooling systems?

It does look good tho, nice install!
 

Porno Joe

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Oct 11, 2010
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South of Pittsburgh
Honestly I haven't even driven it far enough to know if they work well or not. Truck never got above 167 tonight.

It does say right from flexalite that these are not designed for heavy towing. But I don't tow heavy so I'm not too concerned. Most of my driving is either short trips or long highway runs empty
 

Porno Joe

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Oct 11, 2010
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South of Pittsburgh
bumping this up with a question:

at what point would I need to consider a bigger alternator?

my issue- coming home from work today, I decided to try the fans. they have not kicked on at all in my limited driving the past few days. So i turned the A/C on so that the fans would turn on also. after maybe 30 seconds, I glance down and my DIC displays "Service Brake System" and the brake idiot lights are illuminated. I reached down and hit the off button the ac, and a few seconds later the lights went off. I tried to get them to come back on once i got home but I couldn't.

Did these come on due to low voltage?
 

Porno Joe

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Oct 11, 2010
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South of Pittsburgh
Sounds like the kind of wierd stuff that happens when you either have a bad battery or bad ground.

I found an old post where someone mentioned that the brake system is the first thing to freak out when it sees low juice.

Last night when I was in my garage trying to see if i could make it happen again, when i had all my accessories on- ac on high, fans running, lights on, radio on- my system voltage dropped from 14+ down to bouncing around 13.5v.

I know my batteries are getting old at roughly 5 years, but ironically since the temps have gone up, my truck has been turning over and firing stronger than ever before. though maybe this is the batteries giving me their grand finale or something
 

Dozerboy

Well-known member
Jun 23, 2009
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I don't know of anyone that had to upgrade the Alt. There was a guys selling a kit several years ago with custom high output fans that he did advise a bigger/dual alt for.
 

Porno Joe

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Oct 11, 2010
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South of Pittsburgh
I don't know of anyone that had to upgrade the Alt. There was a guys selling a kit several years ago with custom high output fans that he did advise a bigger/dual alt for.

Yeah i never saw anyone say they had to upgrade, but searching online I found the flexalite fans draw 28-36 amps. if my truck only has the 105 amp alternator, that seems like quite a bit of extra load to put on the alternator.
 

Porno Joe

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Oct 11, 2010
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Well, Found out my truck has the 145 amp alternator, but I still wasnt sure if that was enough for this additional load or not.

In addition to the factory electrical system, I added an aftermarket radio
air dog 200
and now the electric fans.

I was getting totally random electrical issues- like the brake system messages i got last week, and then over the weekend, pulled into a parking lot, with the fans running (temp at 180) and the radio station is randomly changing???

So i found a local electrical shop to convert my alternator to a 200 amp unit. Hoping this fixes my issues