Do I need a better battery?

[AcidicDreams 10+ year member]

For passengers, they're gonna be like $30-$40 Pioneers I think.

A) how often do you realy have rear seat passengers?

B) they can hear the front speakers just fine...

 

[bose301s 5,000+ posts]

A) how often do you realy have rear seat passengers?B) they can hear the front speakers just fine...

A) Quite often actually.

B) Not really.

 

[bose301s 5,000+ posts]

Ok, I checked it, it is a Napa The Legend 75, CA of 940 and CCA@ 0 farenheit of 770. Its also under 1 year old and is listed as a professional battery. If I do the big 3 will this be enough?

 

[fwb_1234 10+ year member]

probably. What is there to say about that battery?

 

[AcidicDreams 10+ year member]

You DON'T need a bigger battery... here is why:

Your amps are designed to run at 14.somethin volts. Your alternator provides that 14.somethin volts and can produce X amount of amps before it can no longer provide enough juice.

At that point the voltage will drop, until the electrical system finds something that can provide the rest of the power it needs. That component is the battery at 12.8v (optimally)... When this happens your headlights will dim, letting you know that the voltage has dropped. Your amps are also producing less power at 12.8v than at the 14v+ your alternator is putting out.

Your goal here is NOT to use the battery, because that will get you stranded. The battery is there to START the car, not run the electrical system while the car is running. IF you are pulling power from the battery all the time it won't get charged. This is because when your alternator is running it's supposed to be charging your battery as well as providing power to the rest of the vehicle. So if your system is regularly pulling power out of the battery while the car is running then it won't matter what color/brand/cca rating your battery is. Eventually you would end up running the battery dead and being without the ability to start your car.

Your battery should be just fine if it's currently starting the car. 770 CCA at 0deg is just fine to start your engine. Being a year old the battery should have plenty of life left in it.

If you are getting dimming headlights first do the Big 3. The idea is that you are upgrading the wires that run from the alternator to your amps (and the return ground path) so that your amps, and the rest of your electrical system can make more efficient use of the power your alternator provides. The reason the big 3 is necessary is because the stock wiring is often too small and/or corroded by the time you install a stereo that is going to draw huge amperage.

If you aren't getting any dimming while playing your amps at full tilt you don't need anything, but doing the big 3 might be a good idea anyways and it's something to do... I like to do projects and i imagine you do too if you are into the car audio hobby...

So forget the battery, it's fine. Do the big three and if you are still getting dimming get a bigger alternator. However you shouldn't be having problems because domestic V8's generally come with large 120+ amp alternators which can run your ~1000w just fine in normal conditions.

 

[AcidicDreams 10+ year member]

As for rear fill the choice is yours. Personally I talk to my passengers and only listen to music when I'm on my own. I'd rather have better staging for myself, since the car is mine and I rarely play music with passengers, rather than improve the sound for those very rare times I play music with people in the back seat. Remember, stereo music (Radio, CD's, MP3's etc) comes ONLY in STEREO. ie 2 channels, left and right.. adding rear speakers is not giving you surround sound, or anything other than a messed up sound stage.

However, if you want to please your rear seat passengers then go for it... but it's at a slight detriment to your listening when you are by yourself...

 

[bose301s 5,000+ posts]

Thanks for all of that info, it definitely helps me a lot. The one thing is that this is not a V8, it is a 4.3L Vortec V6.

 

[AcidicDreams 10+ year member]

Thanks for all of that info, it definitely helps me a lot. The one thing is that this is not a V8, it is a 4.3L Vortec V6.

Same difference... most modern domestic cars I've seen or owned had 100+ amp alts... My 3.0 SHO motor has a 125-135 amp alternator on it. you could walk into a napa or search around online and see how many amps your alt is making.. or just turn your headlights on at night and point them at a wall. If they are dimming on big bass notes you need to do the big three, then a bigger alt. If you don't notice any, or very little dimming you are fine (b/c the alt is providing all the needed power)

 

[audiolife 5,000+ posts]

amps are designed to run in the range of 11.5 to 15v generally, however the higher the voltage in this range the cooler it will run. sure an amp will produce more power at 14 v vs 12.5 but for you to notice the difference sound wise you'll probably need a db meter.

an alt that can even put out say 300 amps probably wont do 200 amps at idle. in the case here his will do 75 amps at idle and 150 max (is that hot or cold?) he could very well use up all the output at idle unless he should just listen to it loudly when driving 45+ mph. the systems demands arent controled by the engine speed but the power fed to it is. better batteries can be easier to charge and last longer with the charge. a battery has 3 primary functions in most cars. start the car, act like a filter for the alt and to back up the alt. i'll add a fourth being that its also used in key off from listening to music or running hazzard lights while along the road side. some will say batteries and extra batteries are bad and key off listening is bad because it can fry the diodes in an alt IF the batteries are ran down too far. same thing can be done if you remove the battery from a running car. a good electrical system in a car should have both a good alt and battery. dipping below 13v on an alt isnt going to "fry it" its when the drop is so bad and continous that it causes the vehicle to black out that will harm it . to get some high output alts to do better at around idle people put smaller pullies or raise their idle up. raise your idle up it can efftect gasmilage and performance and depending on the alt the added stress from spining more all the time (meaning some manufacturers actually dont recomend it). if you ever go out and cruise or do the parking lot gatherings are you always going to want to have your engine on? if you compete in most street classes you get measured with the engine off (db drag) and in SQ your engine is only on for about 20 seconds checking for noise.

 

[bose301s 5,000+ posts]

I don't plan on doing competitions anyway, as you can see my rig is not an SPL leader, sure it will get loud, but thats not its primary purpose. As for key off, I have already done a lot of that with just the sub amp running and never had it drop below 12v.