Ok folks
Anyone who has purchased a 120 amp Hitachi alternator in the last 24months should read this.

The white plastic plug on the back of the alternator which has the exciter wire conection in it should be checked. The crimp lugs in this plug may not be correctly crimped. Ours came apart whilst easy tarmac driving and hence burn't out the inbuilt regulator. You only get a couple of seconds to shut the motor down or its toast. So would be worth pulling the plug apart and soldering the crimp lugs.

Hope this helps.

Justin

ps you can get about 8 hrs of driving on 2 Optima blue tops running air con, Engel fridge and a fuel transfer pump. Note that the engine could not be started after around the 6 hr mark.

pps no I would not turn the air con off as it was bloody hot and it would be the last item to get switched off

Justin