Adding an extra battery...

[F150Matt 10+ year member]

If I were to run another JBL 1200.1 amp I would like to add another battery. How would I go about doing this? I think I have room under the hood to mount the extra one. Would I just wire one amp to each battery and would my alternator be able to keep this extra battery charged?

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[Alaxan 5,000+ posts]

It all depends on if you are capable of trully making the space under the hood and doing such without it making contact with the hood or anything else and possibly shorting out. Your alternator should be able to handle it, but you may want to upgrade the alternator eventually. It is all dependent too on the amperage your alternator is able to handle. If you run the batteries in a series with each other it should not matter which one you have running which amp they will both be supplying the whole vehicle either way.

 

[Steven 10+ year member]

I highly don't recommend running the batteries in series. This will reate a 24-volt system. All of your car's electronics (stereo, amps, computer, etc.) will go up in smoke. I think the guy meant parallel. If you connect the (+)'s together and the (-)'s, then conect one of the batteries as normal you will maintain a 12-volt system, much safer.

Just remember, adding a second battery will only prolong the time that you can run yer stereo without the engine running. The second battery will just be another load for your alternator to keep charged, so when the engione is running you won't have as much extra juice as normal.

 

[Alaxan 5,000+ posts]

Thanks for the correction. that is what I meant, but i have been posting so much and wiring so much of my own shiat up lately I typed out first thing on my mind. I appologize for the error.

 

[F150Matt 10+ year member]

so and extra battery is useless? I would be better off just running both amps off the one battery I have now? What kinda voltage would get to the amps?

 

[Alaxan 5,000+ posts]

Originally posted by F150Matt so and extra battery is useless? I would be better off just running both amps off the one battery I have now? What kinda voltage would get to the amps?

The extra battery does not add any extra voltage or current it only allows your system to play for longer periods of time without needing so much of a charge on it.

 

[Hellrazor 10+ year member]

Originally posted by F150Matt so and extra battery is useless? I would be better off just running both amps off the one battery I have now? What kinda voltage would get to the amps?

You may have already read the answer but let me explain further and help some more. I am running 4 different batteries in my system. They are all connected together so as the altenator spins, it charges all the batteries equally. If one goes bad, it can pull down the others as well, as it gets weak. When the truck is turned off, having the additional batteries enables me to play my system longer before I have to grab the jumper cables and have someone pull up to my open hood. //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/rolleyes.gif.c1fef805e9d1464d377451cd5bc18bfb.gif

Now, when the truck is running, only the juice that is put out by the alt is going to the amps. If you run a stock altenator (most put out from 80-120amps) then your car needs most of those amps and your amplifiers want some as well. Most high powered amplifiers want 40-60 to even more amps to run efficiently. Your altenator cannot keep up with the demand so when a heavy bass note hits, you'll see your lights dim. God help you if you are in the raid, high beams on, fog lights, wipers, a/c, fan and everything else on...most cars will almost go dead trying to keep up with a big system added to it as well. First thing you should get is a 1 farad or larger capacitor. This will help your amplifier keep up with the amps you have left to give it. It will feed the surges your amp needs when the system peaks. The general rule is 1 farad cap for every 500 watts. The more you have the merrier but not that much beneficial. The second thing is if you are running alot of things that require alot of power (amps, lights, fogs, accessories, etc) then you should really look into getting either a high output altenator or even adding a second altenator to run your system off of. Both of those options can be costly in the neighborhood of $500 and up. If you don't do either of those and you continue to put a heavy drain on your cars electrical system, you will start to and continue to burn out altenators and batteries as they won't be able to keep up with the demands that you will be putting on them. Hope this helps....

Peace...(yeah,right!)

 

[speedy03]

Okay.... I finnaly recieve my equipment from ebay and..... i didn't want to buy the crappy .88cu ft sealed boxes for my L7's.... which means i have to make one because reccomendations for my box is anywhere over 2.25 cu ft PER SUB... which then comes to space in my car, i have a 1995 passport, the only way i can figure putting a 2.25 cu ft box in my car, which would add up to almost 6 ft with the 3/4 mdf wood would take out the backseat which can't be done. So... i need some possible design's to fit my L7's into the trunk area, any suggestions or possible websites to help me planning on making my box, i actually have never made one singlehanded before, only heping my friends a little bit. So any tips for a design and equipemtn would be highly appreciated. thanks alot.

 

[Alaxan 5,000+ posts]

Ok first thing is get the dimensions of the space you have available for an enclosure. Height, width, depth. Once you have these three and an additional measurment of the available space you have in the opening to get to this area we can begin with the design of the box. Since space seems to be an issue here I would suggest going with a sealed box over a ported or other style. I canhelp with all of that once you get those dimesnions for me. Feel free to post here again or send me an email or even drop me a line on one of the chat names I have on my signature here.

 

[speedy03]

okay, i'll get those measurements in a few minutes let me go check it - I'm on aol instant messagner right now if you have time to get on i'm silentshocker17, i have you on my list so if you get on i can talk to you easier about this. thanks

 

[speedy03]

okay i figured it out approx - w = 38 inches h = 18 inches length = 18 inches thats for the trunk space.

 

[Alaxan 5,000+ posts]

I am currently at my friends office so am not going to be available until a little later onthis eve, but if you can manage to hold off until then I may be able to help you come out with a solution.

 

[speedy03]

alright i'll be available around 10 pm tonight thats when i get off work, i'll be on aol instant messanger i have you on my buddy list and my name is silentshocker17 - i'll msg you if your on - thanks.