Alternators (again)

"My ride to Alabama", or "How to ride 750 miles without taking your eyes off the voltmeter"

As some of ya'll know, I've had alternator troubles, to say the least. I picked up this Valkyrie in October, and since then, have put ~4000 miles and 5 alternators on it. After the initial 1k miles (ride home from Florida), I started killing alternators every hundred miles or so. I put one on in February (while my knee was still recovering from surgery) from MARS in Indiana. His performed much better. So much so, that after 3000 miles, I THOUGHT I was in the clear. It died in June. Anyway, I got a replacement from MARS (great guy, no hassle at all on a warranty return, even though I admitted freely that I thought the bike was killing it somehow), and put it in in July. While was was poking around, I inspected the amplifier that the PO had put in. Serious overkill, and poorly executed install. I yanked that out at the same time.
I can't prove it, but I think that was the issue. Every time I had gone on a long ride (and the alternator survived), I (believe I) had my helmet headset plugged into the bike's system, thus bypassing the alternator. This is more evidence that the amplifier was the killer. I was still concerned that I had a problem that remained undetected. So, I rode it around town for a month, then hit the road for a 750 mile trip. The voltmeter I installed to give me early warning of an alternator failure got a lot of attention, but showed no issues. I'm now 900 miles into my 750 mile trip, and happy as a clam.
So, if anyone has an amp, check it out. It may be a silent killer. (:

Side note: On the way, I came across a Goldwinger on the side of the road, broken down. Guess what? Dead alternator. My first thought was to buddy ride (he runs off my charged batt. while I run off my alternator and his discharged batt., swapping when necessary) to get him home. The Wing battery is too big for the Valkyrie battery box. But wait, there's more!
Before I left, a friend suggested that I get some small battery cables as a backup plan in case my alternator dies again. That way, I could set a car battery on my back seat, hooked up through these cables, and have plenty of power to get to the next battery charger, and make my (slow) way home. Instead of hooking up a car battery in parallel with mine, I hooked his up without mine in the loop. We rode ~30 miles like that, with my battery in his oversized batt. box, and his battery bungeed on my backseat. With the headlight fuses pulled, both bikes were happy. Switched batteries back when we got him home, and mine cranked right up, and another four hours of high speed running had my battery charged and happy.

I think I'll keep those cables as a permanent part of my touring tool set.

Mark