hmmm?

[JuicyJeff 10+ year member]

Ok so.. within the next month im going to be UPGRADING from my rf 12" p3 and rf p500-2 to an aq sdc2.5 and an aq 1200d. And i have 4 75wrms rf power 6X8s running off of cadence txa3004

Question. My lights don't really dim that bad now, like they do, but not very bad. Do you think the extra 100 watts is going to like fry my alt or do any electrical damage? I haven't done the big 3 as the alt on my focus is dam near impossible to reach. But i have ran this system over a year with no problems. Maybe my car is tough. Its completely stock but i have never had a problem with the electrical system. I could run the system from just batter for like 20 minutes with subs on an everything, and my car would start fine..So i guess my question is if i add another 100-200 watts with the new sub would my stock electrical be fine. I have heard of a kind of basic rule that anything over 1500 on stock you need to upgrade. This system will run me around 900-1k watts.

Tell me what you thinK!

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[JuicyJeff 10+ year member]

Anybody?

 

[ejschultz 10+ year member]

I thought of Tim Allen on Home Improvement when I saw the title.

Anyways, I wouldn't worry about the extra 100 watts. Do the big 3 no matter how hard it may be to get to the alt. It won't necessarily stop dimming, but it will help reduce voltage drops. My system is running a few more watts than yours and I get some dimming too, but my big 3 definitely helped out with voltage issues.

 

[JuicyJeff 10+ year member]

i actually found the positve on my alt today which was pretty exciting. So whenever i get my new setup ill do doing the big 3.

Question. As you are running power wire from the alt to the positive of the batter, where do i connect it on the battery, And do i fuse closer to the alt or the battery? And what size fuse, Im pretty sure my alt is 110a

 

[ejschultz 10+ year member]

As much as it's frowned upon, I don't fuse mine. I just make sure the connections are very good and hope for the best. I trust myself and my connections. If you can make a good connection with ring terminals and battery terminals and so on, you shouldn't have to fuse it. The factory one isn't fused. If you want to fuse it, maybe fuse it with something slightly higher than the alt. You said you have a 110 A or at least that's what you think. If it's a 110 A, fuse it with maybe a 120 A or maybe a 150 A. There may be some surges created by the alt that could blow a 110 A and kill your car. You can also get a slow-blow fuse that's rated at 110 A. If you have a slight surge over 110 A, the fuse will not immediately blow. But again, I didn't fuse mine...

 

[JuicyJeff 10+ year member]

Hmm sounds like risky business. And anyways your car wouldn't blow bc you leave the stock wiring. I'll probably go with something like 6 foot of 0g and a 175 or so anl fuse

 

[ejschultz 10+ year member]

Hmm sounds like risky business. And anyways your car wouldn't blow bc you leave the stock wiring. I'll probably go with something like 6 foot of 0g and a 175 or so anl fuse

Yeah, I guess it wouldn't. I didn't think of that. Oh well. Mine's done and I refuse to fuse it. lol. Man, sometimes...

Anyways, if you can go shorter than 6 ft. I'd do it. The shorter the better. Mine's probably less than 2 feet from the alt to the battery. My chassis ground is the longest of my big 3 wires.

 

[JuicyJeff 10+ year member]

Ya my Alts all the way on the left on the car and buried while my batt is on the right gonna use at least 4 feet. I'll measure it out today. But I'd have to route it along the firewall and then back to the front so it should be a good amount of wires

 

[ejschultz 10+ year member]

Measure it and try to take the shortest route possible. The shorter the wire, the less resistance it will have.

 

[JuicyJeff 10+ year member]

Any other way would have to run across the engine which is a nono

 

[ejschultz 10+ year member]

Yeah... I wouldn't recommend doing that. Where's the factory wire?