I looked into a few companies and read up on Tacomaworld and I’m looking for an oem housing and not too high in amperage at idle.
Mean green seems to always pop up on top. Don't concern yourself with "too much at idle" Amperage is RPM based and drawn. Think of it like your thirsty. If you have a small glass and it isn't enough, your still thirsty. If you have a gallon, you take what you need, you don't "need" to drink the whole gallon just because it's there.
When looking at numbers, you want as much available at idle as possible. Lets say all your off road lights on, headlights on bright, big stereo amp, wipers on high and a low battery. Your "draw" will probably be as high as 70 amps. If your sitting at idle, the average alternator has less than half its max output available. If the max is 100 amps, you probably have 40 amps available. The extra is drawn from the battery.
To help this, the performance alternator companies will generally run a smaller pulley to raise rpm and have more available at low speed. I tend to use alternators in the 150 amp range with my vehicles. With the smaller pulley, I run about 60(ish) at idle and get max at about 2500 rpm. If I need 150 amps, I have to raise RPM to get max power.
Look at the specs on what your buying. Power at idle and max at what RPM. Then look at what your vehicle idles at and cruises at and compare it to their numbers.
Scott
