Big 3 multiple times

[Gianotti 10+ year member]

im sure its been done, but who all on here has done it? and how much more of a difference would it make? ( using 0/1 ) i was thinking about doing it 3x, or going to try and find the biggest welding wire i can, but its gonna be hard to find ring terminals that big, up to 0/6+

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[thegreatestpenn 5,000+ posts]

you can do that, or you could just run a huge power wire straight from the alt to the back of the car and have a huge ground for the alt/engine block. Whatever is the easiest way to get current to where its needed, do that. I dunno how many ring terminals you can fit on the alt you have so keep that in mind when trying to do multiple runs for the big 3.

 

[Gianotti 10+ year member]

thats why i was thinking about one bigger gauge power wire then mutliple ones, for the fact that not that many ring terminals can fit on the alt.

 

[djman37 5,000+ posts]

how many amps can your alty put out? IMO, it's the battery sections that need the multiple runs. Alt to batt seems to be the smallest required run.

 

[mapolley07 10+ year member]

how much power are you going to be running that you need to do a triple run on the big 3?

 

[motox_727 10+ year member]

I think that would be way way way to much of an overkill bro. i did it with ONLY 4 gauge, then instead of grounding on the chassis i ran a ground wire from the battery to my other battery in the back, basically does the same thing just saved time. anyways it made a very big difference, my amp doesnt turn off when i bump my hardest now.

 

[Gianotti 10+ year member]

220 amp alt, 7kdaily i mean my eletrical dont dim or anything just wonder to help add more

 

[djman37 5,000+ posts]

220 amp alt, 7kdaily i mean my eletrical dont dim or anything just wonder to help add more

1 run of 1/0 is enough for the alt. If you have an externally regulated alt, a trick to stop dimming is to turn your alt DOWN to 12.x volts. That way your car's electrical is down to battery voltage and you won't notice the drop from whatever to 12.x.

Do this; at night with the car running play a song so you get the dimming. Turn the car off and repeat it. If the lights still dim, you need more current storage. With 7kw, I used two kinetik 2400's in the back and an 1800 up front.

Make sure you have good grounds from your amps as well. Heavy dimming(when you have decent voltage supply) can be a sign of insufficient grounding.

 

[Gianotti 10+ year member]

sounds good, if i were to run another 7k strapped, without adding another alt or upgrading it, how many more batts and what other electrical?

 

[bopo668 10+ year member]

just today i saw some 0/6 gage ring terminals at my local hardware store when i was buying 0/1 gage ones

 

[djman37 5,000+ posts]

sounds good, if i were to run another 7k strapped, without adding another alt or upgrading it, how many more batts and what other electrical?

hard to say really, how hard and how long you beat on the system will dictate how much reserve|supply you'll need on hand.

In some vehicles, it's easy to add an alt, in some vehicles, battery storage isn't an issue, some can accommodate both...suburban, etc.

With enough batts, you can make up for the weakness in the electrical supply but at some point all the batteries are gonna need juice. (I've pretty much killed my stock alt. at this point)

Kinetiks take the discharge and recharge well and there's a flood of them on the usaci boards right now.

 

[Gianotti 10+ year member]

good to know thanks man

 

[ultimate157 5,000+ posts]

6/0, 1/0 ....

I agree with djman... tripple run on the big-3 will do nothing. Storage and current flow between amp and storage is where its at.

 

[helotaxi 5,000+ posts]

The Big 3 are short wires. The difference in voltage drop from a single run of 1/0 and a single run of 6/0 is negligible if you're only talking about a 2' piece of wire. The voltage drop on the 1/0 is only about a hundredth of a volt per 100A of current. This amount of power is where running a heavy gauge dedicated ground becomes important because the resistance of the chassis is causing a significant voltage drop, that is unless you have a truck and use the frame to ground.