Batteries..

[Montana]

Hey guys, I've never had a system with any real juice running to it, so I have yet to learn much on electrical upgrades.

So, I found a DieHard Platinum PM 1 to hopefully help with some voltage drops.

Only at on a 1700RMS. Prolly 1200-1400 after rise and what not. Dropping to 12.3 on peak; yikes! But that is on stock everything [big 3 obv]

So, I had three of these 1700RMS amps, thinking about putting two in my ride, running em at 2ohm each @ 1200rms. I'll most likely need another batt I'd assume, maybe a alternator? That'll come later, after I see how my drop looks. Not a huge groundpounder

Anyway, to my real question do I want to replace my stock battery and just run the single PM-1?

Or do I want to drop the PM-1 in the trunk and run them both?

I only skimmed a single site and it mentioned batteries do parallel/seris also; so anyone want to give me some tid-bits on what would be best to do in my situation? I'm not sure what kind of stock battery my car has, it's un my sparewheel well under my subbox, won't be able to see until I pull it out. Later tonight or tomorrow.

Thanks one and all.

Click to read more...

 

[garretttt4 10+ year member]

I'd do two batteries but the one would prolly work. If you did the one and still had voltage drop you could always put stock batt back in and put second batt in back....

 

[Montana]

I'd do two batteries but the one would prolly work. If you did the one and still had voltage drop you could always put stock batt back in and put second batt in back....

What disadvantage will I have from using both? Seeing as I have them both on hand anyway.

 

[garretttt4 10+ year member]

What disadvantage will I have from using both? Seeing as I have them both on hand anyway.

No disadvantage really, I'd do the two If you have them ! Better to have too much electrical than not enough and burn a amp or something ...

 

[Montana]

Then I am back to my starting question; how do I wire em? Never messed with multiple batts; Positive/Positive | Negative/Negative ? Then connect amps to the bigger bat?

And I'd want to drop the bigger bat in the trunk, not starter; right?

 

[cdc351jeferson 10+ year member]

Then I am back to my starting question; how do I wire em? Never messed with multiple batts; Positive/Positive | Negative/Negative ? Then connect amps to the bigger bat?
And I'd want to drop the bigger bat in the trunk, not starter; right?

positives together and grounds to grounds fuse properly from batt to batt and amp to batt //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/smile.gif.1ebc41e1811405b213edfc4622c41e27.gif

 

[Montana]

positives together and grounds to grounds fuse properly from batt to batt and amp to batt //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/smile.gif.1ebc41e1811405b213edfc4622c41e27.gif

Fuse between each positive?

I hook the amps up to the bigger batt, right?

 

[garretttt4 10+ year member]

Then I am back to my starting question; how do I wire em? Never messed with multiple batts; Positive/Positive | Negative/Negative ? Then connect amps to the bigger bat?
And I'd want to drop the bigger bat in the trunk, not starter; right?

The way I did mine was I just had a positive run from front batt to back batt and grounded back batt to chassis. Ran positive from back batt to amp and grounded amp on other side of the cars chassis... Not positive If that was right but that's how I did it and nvr had any problems..... Ask some really experienced vets on here first though..... Cuz I'm still somewhat a noob lol

And I had my stock starter batt up front and big batt in back .

 

[cdc351jeferson 10+ year member]

Fuse between each positive?
I hook the amps up to the bigger batt, right?

yes hook up to bigger batt. i grounded my first batt in trunk to frame under car and had power from front batt on it . jumped from that batt to second one . then had amp grounds and hots on that second battery

 

[av83 10+ year member]

Just to put it out there... running power and ground from batt, to batt, to alt is best

 

[gckless 5,000+ posts]

^^^This. If you can avoid the frame, do it. But you should be ok if your grounds are good.

It doesn't matter which battery you hook the amps to, they're both connected in the electrical system. Don't be surprised if you need more than a single extra battery to keep your voltages above trouble levels. With 2 1700W amps, you're looking at a potential of 250A of draw or more. Probably looking at an alternator. It gets expensive going above 2kW //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/crap.gif.7f4dd41e3e9b23fbd170a1ee6f65cecc.gif

 

[mlstrass 5,000+ posts]

Just to put it out there... running power and ground from batt, to batt, to alt is best

not always, have seen more then one install have issues running grounds from front batt to rear bank. Change grounds to frame and problems go away.

 

[garretttt4 10+ year member]

not always, have seen more then one install have issues running grounds from front batt to rear bank. Change grounds to frame and problems go away.

So I was right!?

 

[gckless 5,000+ posts]

not always, have seen more then one install have issues running grounds from front batt to rear bank. Change grounds to frame and problems go away.

This really doesn't make sense unless the wires were too small to carry the current trying to travel across those wires. I'm not saying you didn't see that fix an issue, but it's hard to believe something else wasn't wrong. If it's grounded to an actual frame, that could be better provided the connections to the frame are real good, but I would hesitate to say a unibody car would be better than proper dedicated runs of wire.

 

[gckless 5,000+ posts]

So I was right!?

Yes, to frame is one way of doing it. Not the only way and possibly not the best way.