ok my bass started to skip when i would bump (my volts were dropping to low) , i took it to my installer and he told me that my Optima Yellow top (that ive had for over 2yrs) is the problem. With the car on the volts are 14.** but when the car is off my battery reads 12.**(i think, or was it lower, i dont remember exactly) he check everything else and by elimination he came to decide it was the battery. I told him that i was looking into getting a H.O. Alternator but he advised me not to get it and just opt for the Trojan Battery (he said thats my best bet)

OK here is my problem

1. should i recharge the optima and wait for the H.O. Alternator?
2. he recomended i get a new battery the name is "Trojan", have you ever heard of it, any good? he quoted me $240 for the battery.
3. or should i get a Stinger/Odessy pc2150 or a Kinetik KHC3800?

My system is still not complete and i really want to kill this electrical problem before i add more to my system so im really thinking in the future (thats why i want such a powerfull battery)

i play my music loud , i didnt pay all this money for looks... id rather have it sound better than it looks... so i say you either go all out or stick to BOSE...lol... thats my view but hey whatever floats your boat

thanks for your input,

 

Never heard of Trojan batteries before. Probably made by some other company and relabeled. $240 is a lot......there are many cheaper options that will get the job done. My personal favorite deep cycle battery for the last 10 years has been the Exide Orbital. They make a normal and an Xtreme version. you will probably want the Xtreme version and you should be able to find it in the $150 range locally.

Most of the chain auto part stores will stress test your battery for free. Your local shop may just be trying to pull in a sale.

 

yeah, i would test the battery for sure.......

it sounds like they are pushing a sale...don't know, wasn't there, but either way its good to be certain of what your problem is...

-J

 

A battery at full charge with the car off should read 12.6. At 12V it's not perfect, but it should be fine. At 14V while running, there should be no issue supplying current unless you've exceeded the limit for your alternator+battery. What is the rated current draw for your set up? Do you have a capacitor?

 

If your spitting out 14.xx Volts Running and its Holding 12.xx while off, i Would advise à battery load test. If that doesn't work then it's your batery. If it passes I would move on

 

If you got more then a year out of an Optima you've beaten me - I'm on my 3rd red top.

How much current do your amps need at full volume?

How much current does it take to run the car (figure ~75% of the rated alt size)?

How much current is the stock alternator?

Stock alts were not designed to run large aftermarket loads. I'm surprised that an installer would tell you not to go with a high current alternator. Typically, at least in my experiance, it's the other way around - the installer is recomending the bigger alternator but the customer doesn't want to spend the money on it!

 

ya idk why he was telling me not to get a h.o. alternator. he probably was just trying to get a sell. i did look up trojan batterys and its a commercial battery, but i still dont know about it. he swore by that battery since they use it on all their demo cars. tomorrow im going to get my battery tested at autozone since its down the street and free...lol.

i dont know to much about current draw and what not, but my system is only 1. pdx 1.1000, 1. pdx 4.150, head unit w505, epicenter, 1 12 inch sub and interiors for now

so what do you guys think? i think its my alternator, i still have the stock alternator (110 amps i think). the yellow top is all i changed electrical wise bc i know of some ppl with bigger setups and still have no problem with theire alternators. i guess im just not lucky.

 

I'm kinda in the same situation as you but I'm not having any probs yet... At idle I'm getting 14.** and at rest i get a 12.2... Right now I'm running 2 12"
L5's, and before that it 3 12" L5's... Have you looked into getting "The Big Three" done?... You should look into that if you haven't yet... But yea, our electrical systems weren't designed to be beaten to death by huge sound systems... I'm probably gonna be looking into a stinger battery and a H.O. alt very soon just to be on the safe side...

 

That pdx 1.1000 is a class d amp that will put out 1200 wrms. Assuming an efficiency of 90% and a battery voltage of 13.8vdc you're looking at a current draw OVER 90A at full volume. This is just for the one amp. Your "smaller" amp will typically draw much much less current since it isn't driving a sub.

As mentioned above, doing the big 3 is a must (basically regrounding the car) when you start adding that much equipment. I wouldn't be surprised at all if your battery is wore out as you are basically charging it and draining it constantly as it simply isn't possible for your stock alt to generate the current needed to run your amp.

 

ok it has been confirmed that my battery is bad, today as we were testing it it was dipping into low 10s (volts). im going to take it back tomorrow so the can charge it but it has to be there for 16hrs

well i guess im going to start looking into the big 3, but i was hoping to do it all at once when i got my h.o. alternator...oh well




danm im losing alot of power..lol... i need to do something quick. how many watts do you think im getting right now (with just the battery) since it drops to about 12 volts at high volume.

anyone recommend a specific company for h.o. alternators? if you have one its even better, im looking for one atleast 200 amps but i really want to get the biggest one possible before getting into the whole double scene. I know sgp had one but well we all know about that .

 

SGP makes a badass HO alt but they might not be in business anymore

otherwise there's
http://www.excessiveamperage.com/
or
http://www.maniacelectricmotors.com/hiou190ampal.html
or
http://powerbastards.com/proddetail....od=Fitzall-220

 

I run a stock alternator with...

- 2 runs of 1/0 guage power wire
- 2400 watt X1 RMS Digital Designs M3
- 390 watts X2 RMS Digital Designs S2
- 200 watts X2 RMS Digita Designs C2

Thats 3580 RMS watts of real world power on a stock alternator.
My key is the Kinetik battery I am running. Its an HC1800 and it literally is the answer to all of my power delivery issues. Its the best battery I have ever owned.

 

oh man just throw it in my face...lol..jk
my battery is fried they charged it but it still didnt want to pass the load test. im going to start looing into another battery but its stocker for now. im going to look into the hc1800 thank you for your input.

i have a question for you (or anyone that has the answer) since you have so many years of knowladge...lol.

can my alpine pdx 1.1000 be wired to 3 10w6v2?
is it safe, would they work or would it be underpowered, also if it will how do i do it?..lol

thanks alot orgasm_donor,
now donate some advice on my sounds good thing i cought that early

 

Yes that amp will work well with that sub regardless of the sub's impedence.
Because the amp has a regulated power supply it'll do 2 or 4 ohms at 1000 watts (actually more like 1050-1150 from what I have seen). If its a dual 4 ohm sub then wire in parallel. If its a dual 2 ohm then wire in series. You can check out wiring diagrams on JL's tutorial secion of their web site.

Good luck!

 

SGP was simply an Excessive Amperage reseller/distributor. I know because I purchased my high-output alternator from Mark and it came with an Excessive Amperage sticker still on it.

 

3580/13= 275 amps

I'd recommend going to a high output alternator right away and adding the biggest high power battery you can find that will fit in the stock position.

 

so im only pushing
1600/12=133 amps since my volts drop to 12v or 1600/13= 123 amps, well thats good to know paul
so if i want to run continuos 14v i would need 114amps correct?

alright paul since i got your attention or anyone that can answer.... orgasm_donor thanks for replying

How do i run 3 10w6v2 to 1 pdx 1.1000?

 

im thinking of going with excessive amperage how has the alternato been for you? im assuming you got the 210amp then since you got it from sgp.

im thinking of getting there 350amp alternator and run it to 14.6v. but i still got some research to do. i want to just kill this problem right away so when i add more watts i dont have to upgrade later

 

My alternator is 240amp.

350amp aye? Yeah you'll be regretting that. The bigger the alternator the more power its going to take for your motor to spin it. Not to mention with your setup you mentioned earlier if your vehicle is properly wired you wouldn't need anywhere close to that.

 

OK An Alpine PDX 1.1000 will drive a load as low as 2 ohms.

A JL 10W6v2 is a dual 4 ohm woofer.

If you were running one of them you'd parallel the two 4 ohm coils and be done.

If you parallel three dual 4 ohm coils you're going to get 1.3 ohms which isn't enough to keep your 2 ohm amplifier happy. It's going to run hot, into clipping, and thermal on and off to mess with you. Cool amplifiers are happy and clean sounding ones.

If you took each woofer and series connected the two coils you'd end up with eight ohms each. Three eight ohm coils in parallel would be 2.6 ohms and a good match - not perfect but good. In my experience the impedance (ohm) measurements are nominal, the actual measurement drifts up and down from the published spec you still don't deviate without problems.

If I were to error one way or the other - 1.3 or 2.6 ohms it would definitely be to the 2.6 ohm side and not fry that nice Alpine amplifier. There is another factor that most people don't address and that's damping factor - the ability of the amplifier to control - "grab" - the woofer's cone and force it to comply with the demands of the music's signal. Poor damping is sloppy and weak sounding. Good damping is tight hard hitting with needle sharp transients. I like good damping by the way - and to get it the higher the woofer's impedance the easier it is to "grab". Speaker wire also plays a small factor - not enough to be important in car distances.

Wiki to the rescue: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Damping_factor