Adding Second Battery?

[95BlackGA 5,000+ posts]

Ok, I have a 1995 Grand Am with a 2.3 Liter Quad 4 in it. The stock alternator is 105amps, and I really don't want to spend the extra 2-300 on a new H/O alternator. If I have to I will, but I was thinking of just adding a second battery in the trunk to give me a good supply. Would my alternator plus 2 batteries (one starting, one for electrical) be enough power to say power about 1700WRMS? Right now I have about 650WRMS and I get major dimming and I have the big 3 done, and it helped a little with the dimming. I was wanting to know what all I would need to place a second battery in the trunk?

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[blackbonnie 5,000+ posts]

if you have that much dimmin with 650 watts, you got something wrong. the best thing to do is upgrade your current battery first. look into an optima or kinetik. if you just add a second battery, it could do more harm then good depending on your application. because now your alt, has to charge 2 batterys then one so it puts more stress on that. upgrade your current battery and you should see the results you want.

 

[brchd]

if you have that much dimmin with 650 watts, you got something wrong.

BIG TIME X2 especially with a factory 105a alt.

 

[spin dB 10+ year member]

With only 650 Wrms you should not have much dimming if any if your alt is 105 amps. I would have to ask what size wire did you do for the big 3? If it is smaller than 1/0 awg I would suggest upgrading again to this. I would also agree with blackbonnie, upgrade the battery under the hood to something that is better suited for car audio I would suggest the xstatic batcap 2000. You get 2000 amps out of it and it will fit in very small applications, it is approximately the size of a battery in a small stock civic. I would also be curious to find out what size wire you have run to your amps from the battery. If it is to small upgrade to a larger size. I would then think about running a second battery.

However to answer your question all you need to do is buy a battery that is sealed and maintainence free ( so you don't have to vent it ) and a few battery terminals and wire. I would suggest nothing less than 1/0 awg. Then you connect the new terminals with the right size outputs to the wire and run positive to positive and negitive to negitive and stabalize the battery. Make sure your wire is run well and the battery in the trunk is secure. If you buy a regular battery make sure you vent the trunk area because the fumes will reek havic on your metal. Then you hook up the stereo as you did before but at the second battery. I don't really suggest running multiple batteries on a stock electrical system though. I would really like to see a alt of at least 150 + before I run multiple batteries. However with that said I have seen people run multiple battery setups on alts as weak as 75 amps so use your best judgement.

Hope this helps //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/smile.gif.1ebc41e1811405b213edfc4622c41e27.gif

 

[donpisto 5,000+ posts]

As been mentioned, what size wires for your power, ground, and big 3? I have a 90A stock alt with a Kinetik HC1400 and back when I had my treo ssx 1500.1 (wired at 4 ohms getting about 750w out of it) I hardly had any dimming. I only had dimming at full tilt and I had the big 3 and power and ground wires done in 1/0. Make sure you're ground is connected well with all the paint taken off so its bare metal connecting to the ground ring terminal.

 

[na_rsx 10+ year member]

yeah, i am thinking about upgrading my battery to a yellowtop. I only get dimming at high volumes, i have a 0 gauge power splitting into two 4 gauge, powering 2 amps. also i know the big 3 is a ***** to do on my car, since the alt is below the intake manifold //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/frown.gif.a3531fa0534503350665a1e957861287.gif

 

[CobaltKicker 10+ year member]

105 amp alternator is more then plenty to charge 2 batteries

Mines only 90 amps and it does a swell job......But I have one Optima Yellow Top Group 34 as my main battery and a Kinetik Hc600 for my second battery.

 

[audiolife 5,000+ posts]

i would slap in a kinetik 1800 and call it a day if you listen too it at higher volumes and dont want to add an alt just be careful then to allow the alt to charge a second (in that cas all you would need is add a 1400 to the back)

 

[spin dB 10+ year member]

I would go with the Xstatic Batcap 2000 if space is an issue, this battery puts out the same power as the Kinetik 1800 but is considerably smaller in frame size and tends to fit in stock locations better.

 

[95BlackGA 5,000+ posts]

I have the big 3 done partly in a single run of 1/0 (alternator to battery) and the other 2 in dual runs of 1/0 (battery ground, and engine ground). I didn't mean to say I have extremely excessive dimming, but for my plans with the new stereo, I will have double + power and I know it will become major dimming on my stock amp and red top. I was thinking of buying a HC1400 and throwing it in the back so I would have a little head room to possibly go with a larger sub amp. Once I get the money from selling my current stereo, I will definately be upgrading to either 150A or 200A alternator.

 

[audiolife 5,000+ posts]

I would go with the Xstatic Batcap 2000 if space is an issue, this battery puts out the same power as the Kinetik 1800 but is considerably smaller in frame size and tends to fit in stock locations better.

daily driver capacity 81 amp hours c/20 vs. 50 on a 2000 not too hard of a choice lol. 1700 watts will never use 1000 amps on a burst but it will use a stedy amount over time in the 50-120 range. the "amps" arent stored like bricks using one at a time think of it more like a fuel tank (that has a capacity) and the cca rating is as fast as it can leave (aka bigger fuel line, water line what have you) in a daily driver set up what may work best in an spl car (strong burst) probably wont last you or be as consistant as a battery that can cover what is needed for a longer time.