okay, got a little impatient so skimmed over part of page 3, and all of 4. i think the problem here is everyone is usally liiking of a difinitive cause-effect result answer, and it is not that simple. no, more batteries will not give you more power continuous, but yes, they do help. here is an example with my yota and others in 99-01. so, to start, i have 60a alt, as was commont to the time period in non-luxury average vehicles. this, and many others would die with a large current draw. an all-to-often event i both experienced and helped others with. driving allong bumpin, and then just nothing. dead engine and no power. usually just a loose battery terminal. re-clamp and go. dual alts and even the load on the engine would rob more power than the engine can produce below 1k or higher. in fact, you could feel the engine cutting (manual) and trying to give up cruising down the road. to make matters worse, instantaneous voltage drops would rob spark, and in fuel injected vehicles, this meant the injectors would barely function as well, at points. 5batteries later, not only is this minimized, but so is voltage drops. it is true that an alternator is designed to maintain the battery charge. you need a large one to do this continuously, but still the recovery delay can cause the alternator to react after the demand cycle is completed. depending on your apllication, you could get away with an 80a alt. and 4 batteries, and not just so you can sit and listen. unless you need to go full balls on your system all the time, many would do fine with the available ~30a average left-over current, only question is if the batteries can handle the cycling you give, and that you are allowing enough recovery time to recharge the bank. on the other hand, you can aslo do as many and go with a large alternator and single good battery, which means that you may get some dimming, but the voltage always jumps back up and you don't have to worry about cycling the batteries. you will, however, need to contend with the torque draw on the engine to turn said alternator, and pay attention if the alternator you are running has decent idle current. i guess really, there is no good answer to your question, just 50 different veiws from as many different people with several different applications and use scenarios. my daily tahoe: 165a stock alt, x2power up front, and 1100-1200rms on tap at any time. my friend's daily tahoe, 165a, yt up front and 2xrt in back and 2x jl1200's. his can get louder for show-offs, and that is fine for him. mine runs great for longer continuous runs, with a faster recovery time to the single battery. both have benefits, and no solution is universally great, imho.
