I went with the Rick's stator and I can tell you it definitely has much more output like Brett said. Just the hefty chunk feels so solid right outta the box. A "good stator" was putting 12.9v through my system with both fans running at idle, a buncha piggybacks and stuff. The upgraded one you can get from Frank or Rick has it at 13.3. I am not so sure that Rick's regulator is as critical. And considering the heat and that I needed a battery anyway, I went with a lithium battery. You can get a "battery tender" brand lithium battery for what you would pay for a weak ass lead acid and a lithium battery does better when it is warm. And battery tender is local to me so if they sell you a bad one, it will give me an excuse to go beat them up. As far as a larger starter cable, are you certain that is a fix? As short as the conductor is, it doesnt really seem to me to need to be a larger one. If it were even 3 feet long, I might agree. But I dont think it has too small of a conductor. If it were, you would hear about it from the large displacement, super high compression guys who still run 12v.