I plan on running an Alpine PDX 2.150 as well as a PDX 1.600 for my upcoming install and was wondering if a ground-kit or Optima battery would be beneficial.

2.150 = 300w ------> 300w / 14.4v = 20.83 amps (per Alpine spec)

1.600 = 600w ------> 600w / 14.4v = 41.67 amps (per Alpine spec)

Total = 62.5 amps for the amplifiers, correct?

I've read that the stock alternator puts out 110 amps so I think I will be fine on the alternator side of things. I just don't want to finish the audio installation only to find that I have dimming lights or something of that nature.

Any comments appreciated

 

You should be fine. A cap would help tho, 1.5 farads and up

 

youll be fine. just make sure you have some quality ground and power wires, ground your amps correctly and you should be fine. IMO caps are useless and a waste of money, build your system properly and you shouldn't need one.

 

Some things that will help:

1. Upgrade the stock ground from the - battery terminal to the chassis with a 4AWG wire
2. Add a 4AWG wire from the motor to the chassis
3. Upgrade the - wire from the alternator to the chassis

These are known as the "big three" ground upgrades. Personally I only found it necessary to use #'s 1 and 2 (but I have 2 kinetik power cells in the back in addition to the stock battery still under the hood). These are cheap and semi easy to do before dropping a lot of money on a new alternator or some of the mega-capacitors on the market.

If you do these and still see a voltage drop, add a basic 1+ farad cap close to the amp running your sub amp. This should keep you from seeing any voltage drop.

 

Thanks everyone

I was leaning towards doing the "big 3" upgrade (4 gauge) and calling it a day, and I believe I'll stick with that idea.

I'd like to stay away from caps

 

for what you have listed

factory alt okay

big 3 in 0 awg not 4 awg , if you want to comprise 2-3 awg


when you need a new under hood battery Yellow optima or Stinger 1000


and for right now

upgrade all wire to 0 or 2 awg

put stinger 680 as rear suppot



so fatter wire and 1 small hatch battery

i can get you stinger battery , and wire direct

 

I was planning on ordering a 2 gauge dual amp wiring kit and doing the "big 3" (2 gauge for that now). Are you saying that if I did not upgrade my battery I would need a backup stinger 680 in the hatch? I don't want to have a 2nd battery, so if I have to get an Optima Yellow Top battery then I will. I just need to know if I should do it now or is a 2 gauge amp kit along with "big 3" upgrade fine for my needs.

 

start off with stock alt , stock battery

all 2 awg wire

if lights dim than new underhood battery

then re -acess
if still dimage or voltage drop than

hatch battery

lets cross that bridge when we get there

upgrade wire 1st than re-access

 

I have the Alpine PDX 4.100 and 1.600 and just had to replace my stock battery. It needed to be jumped every so often after I put in my audio system. Plus I have an 03 so my battery could have been on it's last leg.

I just installed the Optimal Yellow Top today and so far, so good. I like to play my system sometimes without the engine running, plus I wanted to get a deep cycle battery as this isn't my daily driver, so this was a good investment for me.

 

Thanks for all the replies people

I'm going to make my own "big 3" kit with some 2awg wire and some ring terminals, but I notice on some sites they include 2 M6 x 10mm bolts along with 2 M6 x 16mm bolts

like this one

http://www.z-xtreme.com/installation.html

Will I have to find some of these M6 bolts or can I use the stock hardware that's already on the car?

And one other question, where do I get a tool that can crimp 2 gauge ring terminals lol??

 

Forgot to ask in my last post...did you experience dimming of lights or voltage drops on the voltage meter while on the stock battery?

 

With everything turned on, including all my aftermarket gauges, led lights, etc, etc I would get some dimming with the stereo turned up quite a bit. Normal listening levels..no dimming with the stock battery.

If your car is a daily driver and you're not going to add anymore amps or major electronics to your setup, you should be ok with the stock battery.

 

Good to hear then, as I won't be running any additional gauges, lights, electronics, etc.

Gives me some hope for the stock battery

Anyone know if I'll need the bolts I referenced 3 posts up (for big 3 installation)?

 

For the grounding points you can use existing bolts. Just make sure you clean the paint off the grounding points, Nissan paint is present under the ground points.

 

yup, very important you take a dremel or something to get the paint off of those grounding points.

 

No problemo, I already have a Dremel so that works out nicely.

One more thing...

Anyone know the lengths of the 3 ground cables off the top of your head?

I haven't checked under the hood yet so I don't know how easily measurable they are.

 

Just take an length of 4AWG wire and feed it from one point to another, allowing for proper routing and a little slack. Once you have your path figured out cut the other end and terminate.

In the first photo you can see in the center of the pic is where I used one of the factory ground points to attach a 4AWG wire to the chasis:


In this pic you can see the bolt on the motor I used to attach the other end to:


I didnt do the alternator ground cable upgrade... didnt need to.

 

right after I installed my pdx 2.150 and 1.1000 my stock battery went south. I replaced it with a NAPA branded oribital battery (same type as optima and exide orbital). it's been good since then, no dimming at all even with the system hitting, the stock alternator can keep up and voltage remains above 13volts. I did upgrade the ground at the battery to 1/0ga and the main power is 1/0ga to dist block then two 4ga runs to the amps. Each amp has a 3F cap. Don't know if I would get the same results with out the caps but they are cheap enough that I thought I'd just throw them in for insurance.

 

Thanks a lot for the pics Ichigo. Did you upgrade the alternator power wire and the battery to chassis ground?

If I understand what I've read correctly, the battery ground cable should not go to the car body, but the car frame or the engine block. So the battery ground cable could go to the bolt on your motor that you've shown in your pics? (In fact, I believe it's what the 2nd ground cable is in the pic...)

 

The best thing to do you just replace the stock ground locations with larger ga wire. theres one on the fender and one on the block.