[upofadown]

Just to expand on this a bit. The load dump is not directly caused by the inductance of any component. That would only produce a very short voltage spike that would be easy to suppress. A load dump can involve greatly increased voltage for up to half a second.

Alternators tend to produce a constant current in proportion to the field winding current (the variable the voltage regulator controls). When you disconnect the battery the alternator attempts to maintain that current by increasing the voltage. The voltage regulator has to reduce the current in the field to close to zero to stop this voltage surge. The field has some magnetic energy (inductance) that the voltage regulator has no good way to get rid of quickly. So the output voltage zooms up to maybe 10 times the normal voltage for an extended period and any electronics in the car might be very sad.