deaner_gs300,
"I'm guessing series vii sits around in his front yard with his car stereo on and the motor off cruising for chicks because he's obviously not read any literature on how the charging system works." Sorry Sport, I don't have much time cruising for chicks these days, I'm putting my 25 years experience as an Installer and Audio Eng. to use. Never bothered with the literature on charging systems, I just hung out for years with Ron Jones at Wrangler. Anyone living in Phx during the 90's knew Ron. " It's funny how many chuckle heads give out free advise based on well, whatever... it all comes down to physics and the right and wrong way to do things". Heard this a lot around there.
Sounds like you are scared of alternators, so then replacement isn't the right choice? I have replaced more undersized, over worked Alts by 10:1 compared to failures with HO models. HO Alts for that TC is maybe $100 more than stock and an hour tops to change out. I'll take a HO for reliability any day of the week.
Ex: Your Alt is rated @ 100 amps hot. The vehicle, lights, fuel pump elect, systems etc draw 65 amps. Now add a 100 amp draw to that electrical system aka monster amp. The alternator now must contend with a 165 amp demand. The Alt is now overloaded and must take what it can from the battery. The battery is now being depleted. The system voltage has now dropped. Sitting at a stop light, you pause the track, your Alt is now hotter than balls trying to replace what the amp sucked out. As that batt tries to recharge and a reduced load on the system, voltage should rise, however your batt isn't charging until the voltage reaches 13.9v or higher. You get out of the vehicle down the road and turn it off. Now the batt which never saw a sufficient charging voltage is now weak. Say you have an Iso and a second Batt, now both are undercharged. Add in any voltage drop between the two batteries through wire/iso/battery differences. The number two batt may be getting a volt less charging further reducing it's available charging voltage. Start the vehicle, the Alt is now having to run the vehicle again, charge the main battery that just supplied a huge amount of current to start the engine then add on the second batt that is now linked to the main. They were under charged before shutting down, wearing and tearing both batts. Some gain is made due to the Alt being cold and supplying some additional power until it heats up. Rinse and repeat day after day and see what gives out.
Same example, enter a 200 amp hot rated Alt. and do the math. Now the Alt has a fighting chance to not only charge the battery (s) but supply enough voltage for the rest of the systems. Battery longevity and Alt reliability return.