Good afternoon everyone. As of this morning I became the proud owner of a 1998 2500 with a 454. I assume when you guys say 7.3 - that is the 454? the math is about right, but I need to learn the lingo.

So 185K miles on the clock, goes straight down the road, shifts smooth, steering seems to be tight. Interior is in excellent shape, 4 WD works.

My plan is to turn it into an Adventure Burb! Use it for travelling around the US, fishing, pulling motorcycle trailers, canoes and kayaks, that kind of stuff.

the 3rd seat will be removed, and reoutfitted as a sleeping area.

For my first issue: I plan on putting in a deep cycle marine battery, and hopefully wire it into the alternator. I will use that circuit to run cell phone chargers, LED lights inside, a TV or a coffee port stuff like that, using an inverter.

The idea would be use the alt would charge it up, but I could isolate that circuit so I am not draining the primary battery when running accessories inside.
so I know these things came with several different alternators, anyone know the build code for the biggest one - and what was that extra electricity supposed to run?. Edit Update, according to build codes, it looks like I have the 96 amp generator, which is one of the smaller ones. would it be capable of keeping the primary battery charged, while bleeding over enough to charge up a second marine battery?

so there is a battery tray on the drivers side under the hood - but I see no wiring, anyone know why that is there? seems to be the perfect location to retrofit.

thanks for sharing your knowlege and experience, I absolutely depend on it!