Bad voltage drop

[Jerm1400]

I have a 2001 buick century with stock alternator, xs power d975 in the trunk , and a everstart battery in front. I'm running two American Bass TNT 12's in a 4 cubic feet box tuned to 33HZ on a belva bb2000d and at full tilt I'm dropping from 13.6-13.8 down to 12.5 with the car at idle. Do I need to upgrade my electrical, or I'm I clipping the **** out of the amp?

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[LosIsATool 5,000+ posts]

You are going to drop at idle. The alternator only makes max power at revs. You can get a bigger alt but it's not needed in this case.

 

[Jerm1400]

So droppin to 12.5 volts is ok? My lights are dimming. The reason i asked is because i will be up grading to either a q1 2200 or vfl 150.1 later & if the lil belva is making it drop like that then I don't think my electrical now will handle one of those amps. Correct me if I'm wrong.

 

[LosIsATool 5,000+ posts]

Check your gain and ground. It's going to drop at idle unless you get a alt with enough idle current. That's going to be a big alternator. Best thing to do is turn it down at idle OR you could try raising the idle RPM a tick and see if it will kick it on.

 

[Jerm1400]

The ground wire is on the strut mount bolt touching bare metal and the gain is up a lil past a quarter. When i turn it down it drops to 13.4-13.2 but it's not as loud, hell my pioneer amp was louder and it droped to 13 volts and it was a four channel. I did blow the fuses like twice tho but now I'm using it for my mids & highs & it keeps blowing my little 5 1/4 speakers gotta keep the gain down.

 

[Jerm1400]

I was thinking about a dc power 270 amp alt and two xs power d3400's will that be to much? Cuz like I said I plan on upgrading & i want to at least keep my voltage at 13.6 at idle at full tilt.

 

[CSCStang]

Have you done the big 3 upgrade?

 

[danyopjr 10+ year member]

A Alternator guy that built one of my alts told me to keep my voltage above 12.8volts to keep amp healthy and it would help lessin the clipping, but if u running the amps gain too high u still could be clipping the f out of em. Good to use a OScope or the DD Smd tool thing to keep amp from clipping. Works great on all my boys amp but i personally never used em on mines. Before i got my alt i ran stock alts and never had a amp burning up issue because i always had a trusty volt meter installed in my sound vehicles to watch voltage.

 

[danyopjr 10+ year member]

O yea and if u have a battery charger its good to charge em every now and then to also take care of your batteries. It will also help with voltage drop if u keep them maintained properly. I never use to charge mines till i learned from Sears tech to charge em up because they do get weak after running em so long even though u have 1 or multiple alternators. I actually seen the difference where my volts wouldnt drop as low

 

[ObTechAudio]

So droppin to 12.5 volts is ok? My lights are dimming. The reason i asked is because i will be up grading to either a q1 2200 or vfl 150.1 later & if the lil belva is making it drop like that then I don't think my electrical now will handle one of those amps. Correct me if I'm wrong.

I noticed you said you might be upgrading to a Q1-2200... That's an awesome choice. I got mine about two months ago and run it at .5 ohms daily and on full tilt a lot. I only do that because I have some beefy electrical to power her up. I'll drop to about a 13.4-13.6 on about a 20 second note and major burps at full tilt, but stay in the 13.9-14.1 range on music.

Here is my two cents if you're going to upgrade: before doing anything I'd make sure the hood battery is fairly new/holds a good charge, I'd then make sure I'm running some good 0 gauge for all power and grounds. Then, I'd start to do these things and in this order: Big 3 upgrade, larger hood battery, larger trunk battery, new alternator, additional trunk battery. It's NEVER ok to drop into the 12.5 range. Your equipment will not last and will clip everything to bits.

Right now, I have all XS Power 0 gauge for everything, XS Power D5100R in the hood, (3) Kinetik HC600 in the trunk, XS Power Big 3, and 170amp HO Alternator. Some people, including myself at times, will laugh at the little HC600's. I gotta tell you I've been really impressed with them. Sure they don't hold very good for long amounts of time, but they charge back up very quickly. I'd never run just one, but the three together have done fairly well. That being said, they are being replaced with a D3400 very shortly, which will help the electrical that much more. I'm also going to get my alternator rebuilt by Singer to make it a 200amp and the idle output will increase by almost 40amps. After all said and done, I shouldn't fall below 14v on music at idle and should keep a 13.8-14.0 on notes.

 

[Jerm1400]

Have you done the big 3 upgrade?

Yes with Q power 0 gauge wire...... Really like 2 guage tho.

 

[Jerm1400]

O yea and if u have a battery charger its good to charge em every now and then to also take care of your batteries. It will also help with voltage drop if u keep them maintained properly. I never use to charge mines till i learned from Sears tech to charge em up because they do get weak after running em so long even though u have 1 or multiple alternators. I actually seen the difference where my volts wouldnt drop as low

Ok thanks for the info

 

[big scott]

get true 1/0 wire..

i use knu 1/0 wire ofc .

Kolossus Fleks Kable 1/0 Red Power /Ground Wire - Merchandise

 

[Jerm1400]

I noticed you said you might be upgrading to a Q1-2200... That's an awesome choice. I got mine about two months ago and run it at .5 ohms daily and on full tilt a lot. I only do that because I have some beefy electrical to power her up. I'll drop to about a 13.4-13.6 on about a 20 second note and major burps at full tilt, but stay in the 13.9-14.1 range on music.
Here is my two cents if you're going to upgrade: before doing anything I'd make sure the hood battery is fairly new/holds a good charge, I'd then make sure I'm running some good 0 gauge for all power and grounds. Then, I'd start to do these things and in this order: Big 3 upgrade, larger hood battery, larger trunk battery, new alternator, additional trunk battery. It's NEVER ok to drop into the 12.5 range. Your equipment will not last and will clip everything to bits.

Right now, I have all XS Power 0 gauge for everything, XS Power D5100R in the hood, (3) Kinetik HC600 in the trunk, XS Power Big 3, and 170amp HO Alternator. Some people, including myself at times, will laugh at the little HC600's. I gotta tell you I've been really impressed with them. Sure they don't hold very good for long amounts of time, but they charge back up very quickly. I'd never run just one, but the three together have done fairly well. That being said, they are being replaced with a D3400 very shortly, which will help the electrical that much more. I'm also going to get my alternator rebuilt by Singer to make it a 200amp and the idle output will increase by almost 40amps. After all said and done, I shouldn't fall below 14v on music at idle and should keep a 13.8-14.0 on notes.

Ok so I wouldn't need a 270 amp alt then? So a 240 would be enough? I plan on changing the Q power wire with ofc sky high 0 gauge wire I'm not competing I just want a loud sql car.

 

[big scott]

well this is really oversize 1/0 . its great wire.