can my electrical system handle...

[kizzo 10+ year member]

I have an optima yellow top under the hood w/ a 2ga ground, running 2ga to the my trunk split into a run of 2ga and a run of 4ga. The 4ga is going to a profile ca600 powering my components up front, and the 2ga is going to a stinger 1.0 farad cap with a 2ga ground. I want to hoow a modded mtx 1501d and run it at 1ohm. Can my electrical system handle this? I also upgraded my engie chasis ground to 4ga, the only thing i dont have is a new power wire from the alt and a 2nd battery.

Click to read more...

 

[audiolife 5,000+ posts]

try it and see but you are leaving out the vehicle and alt size...if its a 70 amp alt noway lol

 

[budahbuddy803 10+ year member]

yeah alternator size is a big factor, but try it and if something goes wrong then nope it cant handle it.

 

[kizzo 10+ year member]

i have an elantra, its prolly a 70amp alt. i usually dont really bump unless im showing some one my stuff or when i get a new cd, like rarely i bump my stuff i usually keep in on a mild-medium level. what can i do to hep feed this amp other then getting a new alt?

 

[LinxuS 10+ year member]

A second battery in the back might help a bit for when you do actually bump.

 

[audiolife 5,000+ posts]

you can get away with an extra battery as long as you DONT do serious jamming all the time. my alt is a 89 70 amp gm with an amp that potentially can draw 85 amps of current (most i have gotten it to ever draw though is 52 amps according to a bahr) i have 1 solid battery and at night i can crank it all the way up heater fan on full lights on and get no flickering (have not tried it to full blown test tones however like i did on the bahr) and i get no dimming but alot has to do with impedance rise of the subs. with a regular battery (2 yr old napa) i can get it to dim (baddly over time) it checks ok but was in the vehicle when i bought it so to say its not damaged to a degree i honestly couldnt answer as i didnt waste the time to cycle it but at a full charge it only rests at 12.6 v. when i had a 600 hooked inline with the rest of the system key off voltage to that battery didnt fall ever below 12.7 v (which means it was staying reasonably charged )and voltage to my amp was about .4 higher. i took it out just due to my amp and sub encloser put it in a real tight area that if i got into a wreck i didnt feel it would be safe from hitting metal. i also ran the 500.4 which can go up higher on draw by 30-40% and had very minor dimming with the single battery but it over powered my fronts and drove my sub harder at lower volumes that by the time i set it up to how i liked it it really wasnt any better than the amp i have now...over time of hard use i imagine it could drain the battery bad but i dont listen to it cranked for very long ever (maybe 10 min out of an hour) the rest is at a modest level. i have looked at many manufacturers suggestions about supplying power for their amps and not many ever bring up doing the full monty on the big 3 or even ask what the condition of the electrical system is prior to install (which as a salesman and installer would be the first things i would ask)...kicker just suggests doing the ground* (which is more than most tell you) but in my situation i gained .6 v by adding 4 ga along with the 6 ga wire going from the alt to the battery. .6 v wont make your system louder too much to your ear but it made the system alot more stable. squeak9798 could verify the dimming im sure as he was at my house as i hooked my system up prior to me installing the big 3 or the better battery. common sense is needed when picking parts in your electrical system. some people say its all alt but what happens when you crank it up at about idle? if you have 2500 watts on a 200 amp alt (100 amps at idle) with a weak factory type battery it will still dim if you have your amp loaded down (seen this 100000 times even with 240 amp alts) its all in how you use the system. common sense says if your amps can realistically pull alot more than your alt can put out and you constantly crank the system get a bigger alt but if its barely over and you dont crank on it other than showing it off in alot of cases though i have seen and done systems that were 1200-1600 watts with a 100-120 amp alt added an extra battery and have been totally fine. the extra battery when added to the back raises voltage up usually around a half volt to the amps and supplies extra current when needed. i ran 120 amp dual output alt on an old school 1600 watts rms of class ab ppi amps with a deep cycle in back. only issue i ever had was with the alt 1 time and i beat the crap out of that system (was 1991) car was a 85 1/2 escort with 27 speakers 2 12" 12w4's dual 8 ohm wired into a 4 ohm for each side into a ppi 2200 am amp 2 8w 2's run straight on a 2150 am and 23 other mb quart and rockford fosgate speakers hooked up to 2 ppi 4200 am's fronts were wired in a mixxed mono for a center channel. the car was judged at a local sound off with really old rules (thats another story lol).

back to the issue with the alt i had i sent it back and while i waited i put the factory back in that i had rewound to 115 amp (single output) and i never had an issue with that either(as that dual output wasnt put back into that car). that car every friday and saturday went for a 4+ hour nightly cruise/park sessions for 2 years straight only issue i had with it was when i yanked out the system when i sold the car was the wet cell deep cycle made a tiny mess that you couldnt see unless about half the system was out. battery still read 12.5+ volts and i resold it to my best friend to do his reagal. he had the entire system run off a rockford power 1000 with a 110 amp autozone alt and that napa g 31 sized wet deep cycle for at least a year and a half without issues.

i can go on and on about it but what it basically boils down to is if you run the extra battery and it doesnt dim until you have beat on it for a while without giving it time to recharge (aka drive around on it at lower volumes). at moderate levels or even loud levels about the only time the system draws anywhere close to full power is when the subs are going ballistic.. so alot of the time a slightly small alt can keep up just matters how often it is being over ran which at low rpm can happen to a ho alt. combining a ho alt with multiple batteries in back increases voltage to the amps and helps with idle/parking/low speed situations as well as give a larger bank of power in which to pull from.. lol (waits for the flame war to start)

 

[kizzo 10+ year member]

what would happen if i didnt have a second battery? i mean what my alternator will explode?

 

[audiolife 5,000+ posts]

when an alt gets drivenway too hard it squeals (gets harder to turn and starts smoking lol)..i dont know what a modded 1501 will do at 1 ohm but being at a regular 1500 watts @ 2 ohm with what i am guessing is 300 watts from the mids/highs amp you would be pushing it VERY hard my whole set up running off a 500.4 with a 70 amp alt and 1400 battery i got some dimming when i pushed my sub hard. what i would do is see if a local auto electrical shop could do with your stock alt (build it bigger) if 1 amp can totally flat out draw your alt without really pressing it you need a bigger alt. with what you have i wouldnt go too much over 1200 watts total...and thats without beating on it too much