Extra Battery or HO Alternator

[Humpty 10+ year member]

OKay So I have been working on a stereo for my 2005 Silverado.

I have installed 1 15" L7 Kicker 1000w rms and an Alpine mrp-m2000 2000w rms amp.

Its been wired with a stinger 0 gauge amp kit and has a 175a anl fuse.

I have completed the "Big 3" upgrade with 0 gauge wire.

I have a newer motomaster battery with high cca and a stock 105 amp alternator.

Now my problem is when i turn the volume up and get significant dimming of the interior lights and headlights. I was wondering if my first step should be to get a new high output alternator? (if so how many amps?) or if I should get a second battery like kinetik 1200and a battery isolator?

I can pickup a 160amp alternator for $200, or it looks pricey to go for 200amp and up, like up to $500.

I can pickup the battery setup between $300-$350

Any suggestions on which way to go?

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[goingdef 10+ year member]

OKay So I have been working on a stereo for my 2005 Silverado.I have installed 1 15" L7 Kicker 1000w rms and an Alpine mrp-m2000 2000w rms amp.

Its been wired with a stinger 0 gauge amp kit and has a 175a anl fuse.

I have completed the "Big 3" upgrade with 0 gauge wire.

I have a newer motomaster battery with high cca and a stock 105 amp alternator.

Now my problem is when i turn the volume up and get significant dimming of the interior lights and headlights. I was wondering if my first step should be to get a new high output alternator? (if so how many amps?) or if I should get a second battery like kinetik 1200and a battery isolator?

I can pickup a 160amp alternator for $200, or it looks pricey to go for 200amp and up, like up to $500.

I can pickup the battery setup between $300-$350

Any suggestions on which way to go?

since your only running the amp at half it's output I would go back and check your gains and you really need the largest agm deep cycle battery you can fit up front, also without a HO alt don't do a second battery it won't help much as you will drain them faster then you can charge them. Also cca rating isn't nearly as important as the ah rating.

 

[quackhead 10+ year member]

Put the biggest Kinetik (or other AGM Deep Cycle battery)that will fit up front and go from there. You need the Deep Cycle AGM because they are more efficient than a regular flooded wet cell starting battery, I don't care how many cca's ya got. You take 2 batteries of the same size reg. starting and AGM deep cycle and the AGM will have twice the capacity because the Absorbed Glass Mat design means mucho more plate density.

 

[quackhead 10+ year member]

@goingdef;
lol

 

[CRSO 10+ year member]

OKay So I have been working on a stereo for my 2005 Silverado.I have installed 1 15" L7 Kicker 1000w rms and an Alpine mrp-m2000 2000w rms amp.

Its been wired with a stinger 0 gauge amp kit and has a 175a anl fuse.

I have completed the "Big 3" upgrade with 0 gauge wire.

I have a newer motomaster battery with high cca and a stock 105 amp alternator.

Now my problem is when i turn the volume up and get significant dimming of the interior lights and headlights. I was wondering if my first step should be to get a new high output alternator? (if so how many amps?) or if I should get a second battery like kinetik 1200and a battery isolator?

I can pickup a 160amp alternator for $200, or it looks pricey to go for 200amp and up, like up to $500.

I can pickup the battery setup between $300-$350

Any suggestions on which way to go?

Also, spend the extra 100 or so and get the 270 and > HO alternator... It's the amperage at Idle you want... My stock was a 165A but significantly less at idle and my lights dimmed with a large AGM up front and the big tree.

 

[goingdef 10+ year member]

[quote name='quackhead']@goingdef;
lol[/QUOTE]

at least we are all on the same page!

 

[goingdef 10+ year member]

Also, spend the extra 100 or so and get the 270 and > HO alternator... It's the amperage at Idle you want... My stock was a 165A but significantly less at idle and my lights dimmed with a large AGM up front and the big tree.

It's that initial drop from 14.4 alt to 12.4 battery resting that everyone try's to eliminate, but it's hard to do an under sized pulley helps bring the idle rpm's up on the alt at idle some as well.

 

[Humpty 10+ year member]

So as far as the gains I have it set to 0 i believe. I know the cca mean nothing for this application it was just the opnly number i had for the battery.

If i was made of money i would get a huge alternator and a battery as well, but im not so i'm really hoping that I can fix thisproblem with only one of these options.

So it seems like the ho alternator should be my first move? any suggestions on a good place to buy?

 

[goingdef 10+ year member]

So as far as the gains I have it set to 0 i believe. I know the cca mean nothing for this application it was just the opnly number i had for the battery.If i was made of money i would get a huge alternator and a battery as well, but im not so i'm really hoping that I can fix thisproblem with only one of these options.

So it seems like the ho alternator should be my first move? any suggestions on a good place to buy?

I think you need to go back and read over gain setting because at 0 makes no sense, you need to use a test tone and a dmm and go ahead and start with a decent agm battery after that you may find the alt isn't needed, I have ran 2000+ rms off a single agm deep cycle and stock 70amp alt and would only dip to 11.9 full tilt at idle.

 

[Humpty 10+ year member]

so i read because my sub watts are half what my amp can do that I should use the numbers from the sub in stead of my amp.

1000w x2ohm =2000w, square root of that is 44 and change. When i hooked the multimeter up and had the gain to the lowst setting i was getting 66v. Therefor I never turned the gain up and left it at the lowest setting. Does this all sound right?

 

[goingdef 10+ year member]

so i read because my sub watts are half what my amp can do that I should use the numbers from the sub in stead of my amp.1000w x2ohm =2000w, square root of that is 44 and change. When i hooked the multimeter up and had the gain to the lowst setting i was getting 66v. Therefor I never turned the gain up and left it at the lowest setting. Does this all sound right?

what where your hu settings when you did this? sub out @0 all filters off, eq flat? and what db test tone did you use if 0db that's why you couldn't get below 66v you need a -5/-6db tone.

 

[goingdef 10+ year member]

so i read because my sub watts are half what my amp can do that I should use the numbers from the sub in stead of my amp.1000w x2ohm =2000w, square root of that is 44 and change. When i hooked the multimeter up and had the gain to the lowst setting i was getting 66v. Therefor I never turned the gain up and left it at the lowest setting. Does this all sound right?

what where your hu settings when you did this? sub out @0 all filters off, eq flat? and what db test tone did you use if 0db that's why you couldn't get below 66v you need a -5/-6db tone.

 

[Humpty 10+ year member]

the settings were all flat, I don't know much about the tones, could very possibly have been 0db, could you point me to a proper test tone, so I can try setting the gain again

 

[goingdef 10+ year member]

the settings were all flat, I don't know much about the tones, could very possibly have been 0db, could you point me to a proper test tone, so I can try setting the gain again

what hu? and as far as tones all I can tell you google a tone generator and use that to get your tone,or make a thread maybe someone knows where theres a download. I can tell you if you used a odb tone you would have had to crank the settings in the hu to get the sub to come to life and that can cause clipping.

 

[Humpty 10+ year member]

jvc avx840, i used the instructions at sonixelectronics for the gain, used a tone from somewhere that said it was 50hz 0db like the write up said