Alt wiring and batteries.

[Wick3D]

1st.. I put a new 1 awg wire neg. terminal to frame the other day and that helped a bunch, today I am going to slap a 1 awg power wire from alt to battery. I keep reading that you need a fuse inline though.. is this true? If so how big of a risk is it to not?

2nd.. I want to upgrade my battery power, but I am a cheap M.F.. A few idea's I had(Don't hate just let me know if there's a better cheap solution or why it's a bad idea)..

A.) Go to junk yard, find a f350 battery and replace it with my stock battery...

B.) Find another battery with similar ratings as mine and stick em side by side on the battery tray(I hear if the batteries are too different you get problems tho //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/frown.gif.a3531fa0534503350665a1e957861287.gif )

C.) Stick a sealed tractor/marine battery(Deep Cycle) in trunk. What issues do you get putting a weaker battery in parallel?

D.) Idea you have that's superior, that doesn't involve 200$

I know I know, get a yellow top.. I repeat.. I am a cheap MF.

Click to read more...

 

[bgowdy 5,000+ posts]

1st.. I put a new 1 awg wire neg. terminal to frame the other day and that helped a bunch, today I am going to slap a 1 awg power wire from alt to battery. I keep reading that you need a fuse inline though.. is this true? If so how big of a risk is it to not?
2nd.. I want to upgrade my battery power, but I am a cheap M.F.. A few idea's I had(Don't hate just let me know if there's a better cheap solution or why it's a bad idea)..

A.) Go to junk yard, find a f350 battery and replace it with my stock battery...

B.) Find another battery with similar ratings as mine and stick em side by side on the battery tray(I hear if the batteries are too different you get problems tho //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/frown.gif.a3531fa0534503350665a1e957861287.gif )

C.) Stick a sealed tractor/marine battery(Deep Cycle) in trunk. What issues do you get putting a weaker battery in parallel?

D.) Idea you have that's superior, that doesn't involve 200$

I know I know, get a yellow top.. I repeat.. I am a cheap MF.

1st - With your wire, normally when people use fuses they fuse for the size of wire they are using. However we would need to know how much amp power you would be running also? If you are not running that much power, then you should fuse for the amps power ratings.

2nd - For upgrading batterys. Leave the stock battery were it is for now.

A) Dont got get another lead acid battery for your stock battery location under the hood. Leave it as is for now.

B) People say that different batteries can cause problems. Maybe over time but i have been doing it for about 6 years honestly now and never hada issue. Im not saying its just the right thing to do but i know tones of people who run regular batteries under hood and run AGM/deep cycle batteries in the back with out issues also.

C) I would choose C and find cheap Sealed AGM or Deep cycle. Make sure what ever you get is sealed and place in the back by the amp. Again the only thing i notice is that over time the stronger battery doesnt rest as high but has always still performed well for me.

D) There are plenty of options out there for batteries. You can get a new Duracell Agm Group31 battery from Sams club for under 200. You can also find Group 31 batteries in the classifieds on here for under 200.

I would NOT reccomend yellow tops. They are not bad batteries, they are just high for how they perform compare to DEKAs and other batteries. If you have a O'reillys local you can get a Superstart Platium AGM for under 200 and will be better then Yellow tops and much cheaper

 

[adulbrich 5,000+ posts]

1st.. I put a new 1 awg wire neg. terminal to frame the other day and that helped a bunch, today I am going to slap a 1 awg power wire from alt to battery. I keep reading that you need a fuse inline though.. is this true? If so how big of a risk is it to not?
2nd.. I want to upgrade my battery power, but I am a cheap M.F.. A few idea's I had(Don't hate just let me know if there's a better cheap solution or why it's a bad idea)..

A.) Go to junk yard, find a f350 battery and replace it with my stock battery...

B.) Find another battery with similar ratings as mine and stick em side by side on the battery tray(I hear if the batteries are too different you get problems tho //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/frown.gif.a3531fa0534503350665a1e957861287.gif )

C.) Stick a sealed tractor/marine battery(Deep Cycle) in trunk. What issues do you get putting a weaker battery in parallel?

D.) Idea you have that's superior, that doesn't involve 200$

I know I know, get a yellow top.. I repeat.. I am a cheap MF.

Fuses are good to have

A) Bad idea. The battery from the junk yard is trash, or they would've pulled it out and re-sold it

B) Could do that if you have room

C) Don't mix AGM and standard batteries

D) Go to your local battery shop and see what kind of deal they can cut you

Yellowtops are junk

 

[bgowdy 5,000+ posts]

Fuses are good to have
A) Bad idea. The battery from the junk yard is trash, or they would've pulled it out and re-sold it

B) Could do that if you have room

C) Don't mix AGM and standard batteries

D) Go to your local battery shop and see what kind of deal they can cut you

Yellowtops are junk

i was kind of getting at that lol.. i do it but i know its not technically right,

 

[adulbrich 5,000+ posts]

i was kind of getting at that lol.. i do it but i know its not technically right,

Over time, it'll cost you. Go ahead though, it's your money

 

[bgowdy 5,000+ posts]

Over time, it'll cost you. Go ahead though, it's your money

im not trying to make myself out to be the exception. I bought 2 Deka Unigy 31hr4000's used in 2011(the batteries were already 1yr & and half old when i got them from a teammate). I just recently sold 1 of them still working about 4 months ago and sold the other when i sold the car still working and both were hooked up with a lead acid under the hood the whole time. So i roughly got 5 years use out them hooked up that way and the batteries are over 6 years old now. I got my money out of them easily.

 

[adulbrich 5,000+ posts]

im not trying to make myself out to be the exception. I bought 2 Deka Unigy 31hr4000's used in 2011(the batteries were already 1yr & and half old when i got them from a teammate). I just recently sold 1 of them still working about 4 months ago and sold the other when i sold the car still working and both were hooked up with a lead acid under the hood the whole time. So i roughly got 5 years use out them hooked up that way and the batteries are over 6 years old now. I got my money out of them easily.

Ok, then that's great

 

[Wick3D]

Hey guys thanks for the replies!

1.) Ok so bad idea.

2.) Would these batteries need to be brand new and identical or can it work out with 2 different age/brand batteries that have the same amp/hr cca ratings? Like how close do they need to be? I do seem to have enough room, with maybe a bit of work, but I should be able to put 2 batteries in there.

3.) So this seems mixed because I have seen many people do this. In fact almost all the audio shops/bass heads i've talked to says this is the best solution. What exactly is the downside to this?

4.) So you guys are saying that the best way is just to get a brand new higher rating agm battery up front and nothing in back? OR Both a new agm up front and rear?

I'm really just wanting to do something cheap to buff out some of the dimming and give the amp a more consistant supply

FYI, I am running a 1000 wrms alpine amp to a 12" 5th gen type R (@2ohm, 40v multimeter gain set). Plan on sticking around a 400-500 watt comp amp for the mids/highs soon. The sub amp is already dimming me up though //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/frown.gif.a3531fa0534503350665a1e957861287.gif.. The car is a '95 VW jenky jetta vr6 w/120a alt.

 

[Wick3D]

I know this is in the wrong spot //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/smile.gif.1ebc41e1811405b213edfc4622c41e27.gif But since you guys actually responded to me.. What if any are the main issues of running 2 subs off of 2 amps? Let's say the Sub's are identical, but the amps are different, but gain set to the same output? What if the LPF was set at the deck and not at the amps? What if they are the same name brand amp, but different versions? ETC...

 

[adulbrich 5,000+ posts]

Hey guys thanks for the replies!
1.) Ok so bad idea.

2.) Would these batteries need to be brand new and identical or can it work out with 2 different age/brand batteries that have the same amp/hr cca ratings? Like how close do they need to be? I do seem to have enough room, with maybe a bit of work, but I should be able to put 2 batteries in there.

3.) So this seems mixed because I have seen many people do this. In fact almost all the audio shops/bass heads i've talked to says this is the best solution. What exactly is the downside to this?

4.) So you guys are saying that the best way is just to get a brand new higher rating agm battery up front and nothing in back? OR Both a new agm up front and rear?

I'm really just wanting to do something cheap to buff out some of the dimming and give the amp a more consistant supply

FYI, I am running a 1000 wrms alpine amp to a 12" 5th gen type R (@2ohm, 40v multimeter gain set). Plan on sticking around a 400-500 watt comp amp for the mids/highs soon. The sub amp is already dimming me up though //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/frown.gif.a3531fa0534503350665a1e957861287.gif.. The car is a '95 VW jenky jetta vr6 w/120a alt.

I will not advise you to put a big AGM in the back in parallel with a small lead acid battery up front. Some people do that with a battery isolator, and that's fine though.

You can mix different AGM batteries together. The problem is when one battery is on it's last legs and eventually goes out, it can damage the good battery.

For that low of power, I wouldn't expect a lot of headlight dimming unless there was a problem like a bad ground, dying/weak battery/alternator, or you were clipping your amp a lot.

I know this is in the wrong spot //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/smile.gif.1ebc41e1811405b213edfc4622c41e27.gif But since you guys actually responded to me.. What if any are the main issues of running 2 subs off of 2 amps? Let's say the Sub's are identical, but the amps are different, but gain set to the same output? What if the LPF was set at the deck and not at the amps? What if they are the same name brand amp, but different versions? ETC...

Don't run different amps. It's just not the right way to do it.

Will it damage anything? No, but there's more going on

 

[Wick3D]

again thanks for the replies, you are like the voice of reason keeping me from doing idiocracy //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/smile.gif.1ebc41e1811405b213edfc4622c41e27.gif

So a guy on craigslist will sell me a kinetic 600 for 25$.. It seems like I should do this, because its cheap(and I am a cheap mf) and it should help? But your suggestions are telling me it's not a good idea? Or is it being a smaller agm it shouldn't be a problem? Also if its a 600 does that mean its useless for 1000+ watts?

Yea I really didn't think I should have been getting dimming either, but you got to realize that when I say jenky jetta.. I mean jenky. The entire wiring system is sub par, thus I am currently renovating it with some 1awg. I think the dimming has more to do with the dash not getting good power vs the amp. When I did that grounding strap it improved things vastly, so unless my grounding point either from the battery to body or amp to body is subpar, the ground should be good? I am assuming an alpine amp would make rated power, I MM set the gain, I don't hear distortion, the sub is not getting hot. For what reasons would the amp clip that I am missing?

I had autozone do their diagnostics on my battery and alt, they said it checks out...?

Yea I thought you would tell me that 2 amps is a bad idea.. It ***** because the whole build I keep making dumb choices, thus I am trying to get help before doing more dumbness. The idea was that I would BUILD the system pieces at a time. So the 1st thing was a dual 4 ohm sub to run by itself and then eventually upgrade to a larger 1 ohm stable amp, then add a second dual 4 ohm sub.. But I got retarded when I seen a good deal on this 1000 watt vpower alpine amp, that can only run 2ohm.. So if I get a 2nd sub, I am just going to murder my output. So my only options next will be:

1.) Sell amp, buy 1 ohm stable amp(Probably a less name brand amp)

2.) Sell sub, buy 2 dual 2 ohm subs

3.) Try and find another identical amp to run with it

4.) Do what you advised against and run 2nd any brand amp

 

[adulbrich 5,000+ posts]

For $25, I would be worried about the age, condition, and how it was maintained.... //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/eek.gif.771b7a90cf45cabdc554ff1121c21c4a.gif

 

[disturbed471985 5,000+ posts]

I got 2 90ah Schumacher AGMs for $75 each. Less then 4 months old if interested...

 

[Wick3D]

I got 2 90ah Schumacher AGMs for $75 each. Less then 4 months old if interested...

That sounds like a good deal. Just wasn't looking to spend 150$ on upgrading my battery situation, thus my post is full o cheapazz. Let me think about it a bit and if you still have them I'll let you know. Btw how does buying/selling on these forums work, is it just a faith based deal?

 

[disturbed471985 5,000+ posts]

That sounds like a good deal. Just wasn't looking to spend 150$ on upgrading my battery situation, thus my post is full o cheapazz. Let me think about it a bit and if you still have them I'll let you know. Btw how does buying/selling on these forums work, is it just a faith based deal?

PP no gifs.. That way no one gets screwed..