A couple of additional anecdotal comments here, for the 30,000 foot view.
I first became concerned about the alternator failure potential when journalist Brent Rose (
www.connectedstates.com) lost his first *TWO* alternators. He has 200 AH lithium, 300 watt inverter, and 320 watts of solar on a 2006 T1N. On the internet where people are competing for followers and clicks, users tend to report their successes disproportionately to their failures, so you can't always take their descriptions at face value. The upfitters are doing a brisk and lucrative business predicated on the Sterling B2B as an integrated component - they don't want their customers to think that there might be a problem or hidden risk (I've tried to warn them of this - they won't listen to me). Brent was different - he was open about what happened, possibly because he was not the average DIYer whose technical reputation was on the line. He was just a journalist traveling in a retrofitted T1N.
We never did learn WHY Brent lost two alternators in rapid succession, because being non-technical, he simply had his van flat-bedded to a repair shop both times and "had them fixed". But during both failures, his T1N simply quit in the middle of the road without warning, when the computer shut down due to insufficient voltage from the chassis battery, after his alternator stopped charging it. He managed to extricate himself from both break-downs without a smash-up. He's exceedingly lucky.
Pay close attention to this next part: Brent's lithium retrofit was done by AM Solar, which is reputationally one of the best in the country. When I tell people that we lost a 17-month-old alternator, I get a lot of replies along the lines of, "Oh, you must have made a mistake in your DIY job." No, we didn't. And even if we did, there are reports of the SAME thing happening to the best upfitters. So what does that suggest to you?
Speaking of the best upfitters, please also read between the lines on what Advanced RV did with their alternators. They don't come right out and say something like, "We had X number of customers with failed alternators" - that would be bad for their business. They spin the alternator issue (pun intended) a different way, a more positive way, showcasing their a-mazing upgraded alternator into which they invested VERY heavily so that "customers would stop having major alternator problems" (paraphrased). This, too, suggests that there's more going on with alternators than immediately meets the eye.
This ARV video is worth 6 minutes of your time, if you have not yet seen it.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XANYxoEF_HY