Bad Alternator at 500 miles?

[Mxer0022]

We took off on our first ride of the holiday weekend and the display lit up like a Christmas tree and the voltage dropped to between 10.2 and 11.1 volts. I know in a car that's a sign of a bad alternator so we high tailed it back to camp. When we got there I started troubleshooting to the extent possible. Noticed that with it idling the temps climbed over 200 so the fans weren't kicking on. Then while in park if you turned the steering wheel back and forth the voltages would fluctuate wildly between 10.1 and 11.1 volts and within a few cycles the rack and pinion would lock up but would be active again after shutting the machine off and starting it again. The steering wouldn't go out while driving.

My question is does the machine automatically shut off steering, fans, etc to conserve battery life to get you home if the alternator can't handle the load with them all running? Or is there a bigger issue at play here?

 

[Icehog]

My fan doesn't seem to run until about 205 and off at 195, unless I run the A/C then they run constant and my temps stay at 178.