Batteries, and more Batteries got your truck on a wheelie

Can someone explain to me the importance of having an extra battery, or a bank of them. Does it really make THAT much of a difference?

ummmmmmmmmmm, in a way you answered your own question. YES it does make that much of a difference, more reserve, on the street it's better to have a good battery and a upgraded alt then 2 good batteriers and a junk alt but i guess that is related to your current draw.

Think of it this way.............

You need to fill a pool...........

You either have

1: A bucket of water

or

2: A hose with a BUNCH of water

what do you think is better to fill the pool with? Something you have to keep filling up?

I was alway's told you need power to make power!

If your doing a daily set up in your vehicle it is always best to have the most battery power possible without interfering with the flow of the sound. You would also want to consider a high amp alternator to help out too. And even though you would have a high amp alternator helping to charge your batteries you would still want to use a battery charger to charge them also.

Might be a dumb question once again, but I'm not knowledged on the subject of electricity at all, whether it is 12v strobe light kit or 220 freezer---

Say I upgrade the alternator to a ...ummm... for conversation's sake say a 200A one....that won't mess with my other electrical stuff, huh?

I'm currently running the stock alt, on an optima yellow top. Should I get another yellowtop to put in the back, or use that yellowtop and put my factory batt back, or it doesn't matter, or what's up?

I'm not sure what the amount of travel a speaker does is called. I've seen the term before, but have forgotten. Like when a good bass note hits it, the distance it rises and falls from it's resting position. Well, anyways, I am currently running two solo L7 15s. With a decent amp (Kicker 2500.1), how much travel should the speaker be doing? I'm producing a lot of bass with my current amp, but am thinking about upgrading to the previously mentioned amp. My amp's making the speaker travel only about 3/8 of an inch (if that much). Am I underpowering them? I know ya'll are going to clown me for this, but the current amp is an Audiobahn 1500HCT, which is currently putting 500w to each speaker. Lemme know something on that if you can. Thanks.

Also wanted to say thank you guys for all the input. I know you've not heard much from me, but I read the forum everyday. A lot of people ask the same questions that I was wondering, and your answers help him and me. There are even questions asked that never came to my mind, which ended up helping with attaining knowledge. I've even learned something from Quad!!! That is---if you put Line X on a dust cap, people will clown you. Useful information indeed. Anyways, thanks to all of you.

ARMed&Bangin wrote:

Say I upgrade the alternator to a ...ummm... for conversation's sake say a 200A one....that won't mess with my other electrical stuff, huh?

Should I get another yellowtop to put in the back, or use that yellowtop and put my factory batt back, or it doesn't matter, or what's up?

.

It shouldnt mess with any other electical in the vehicle as long as you regulate the voltage coming in to no more then 14.7volts

I would do a yellow top up front and also one in the cargo area instead of using the stock battery.

You might want to also consider doing the BIG 3 set up in the vehicle and running mulitiple runs of wire from the front battery to the back to help out.

Alright, I've heard the 'Big 3' mentioned in several posts on here, and was trying to figure out what that meant. Have yet to figure that out.

Another thing I have yet to figure out is someone posting only to say...


ttt

Now what the hell does that mean? lol Yea, words from a true NOOB....gotta start somewhere, huh?

3 wires up front you can upgrade

1 from the alternator to the battery + side
1 from the engine block to the battery - side
1 from the frame to the battery - side

You dont necessairly have to replace the alternator at first. If you go with multiple batteries, you'll have enough reserve not to put much of a strain on the alty. Especially if you're just doing burps or limited streat beat compeition.

For example, in my jeep a few years back I was running two HK4000's on one 18" sub, a stock 90 amp alternator and three optima yellow tops. As long as I charged before doing burps, I could easily do a repeatable 155+ with it. And on daily just beating down the road it wasnt a problem either since I had some reserve capacity in multiple batteries.

Was that the optimum setup ? No, of course not. But its possible to survive on that only for awhile until you can afford/make time to do other upgrades.

My point is, get some good runs of 1/0 or 2/0 cable from the front to the back, a few batteries (doesnt even have to be expensive AGM's, even lead/acid's will do), and observe some good grounding and cabling techniques and you'll then get a perspective of where you need to go next.

Thanks Kenny and Dan.

TeamSpead-Kenny wrote:

3 wires up front you can upgrade

1 from the alternator to the battery + side
1 from the engine block to the battery - side
1 from the frame to the battery - side

Indeed. Great place to start whether it be SPL or SQ.

jkrob21 wrote:

TeamSpead-Kenny wrote:

3 wires up front you can upgrade

1 from the alternator to the battery + side
1 from the engine block to the battery - side
1 from the frame to the battery - side

Indeed. Great place to start whether it be SPL or SQ.

I've seen this upgrade alone increase voltage at the amp in the rear by almost an entire volt. Thats pretty significant for just replacing a few cables with bigger better ones.

Your vehicles electrical system is designed to run at a certain voltage. The components that make up the vehicles electrical system all draw a particular current. By upgrading the alternator you will have more current to maintain the batteries in the system keeping the charge higher on the plates in the battery. The components such as the vehicle computer etc will still only draw what they need to operate.

As previously stated, even upgrading to a larger 250A alternator you will still need to charge the extra batteries occasionally to ensure they have a full charge. If you have only one amplifier in the vehicle such as a KX2500.1 you can expect approximately 225-250amps of current to be drawn by the amplifier on top of the 70-100 amps of current drawn by other vehicle components. The sum of these currents exceeds your alternators output capabilities even with the upgraded alternator. Once this current is exceeded things begin pulling directly off of the batteries. I always prefer to have more batteries rather than a bigger alternator if I were unable to afford both. If you have a serious voltage drop you will see the problem solved much faster by adding an additional battery near the amplifier rather than upgrading the alternator. It never hurts to do both as stated, but bang for the buck, the more batteries the better. Just dont forget to charge them once a week or so overnight to top them off.

ttt= to the top... as in to the top of the topic list...

Yes, BIG 3 is the most efficient mod you can do, for the least cost.

Adding 1/0 to my stock alternator and a new lead-acid Duralast jumped me from 12.8v to around 14.0. The voltage drop on a 1200w setup (2 amps) never went below 11v, even on extended notes.

Hey, seriously, thanks guys. This information is helpful indeed.

Approximately what will the BIG 3 be upgrading from....saying--the three wires to be changed out...what size are they--stock? And 0 or 1 guage is sufficient?

AHHHH...ttt....to the top. Gotcha. I thought someone was immitating their tweeters. lol

Stock is usually 6 gauge. You can leave stock wires or scrap them and just add the additional wire.

I think 1/0 is sufficient. After that, it's a matter of diminishing returns (no matter what, you aren't going over 14.7v without major mods).