HO alt, New Battery or Cap???

[DIPayton 10+ year member]

I am about to install my 1st system and my friend said I would need a cap because my stock alternator is probably weak. Is this true? I heard caps do nothing but I dont know?

I am running 700 Watts RMS... Will I have problems with lights dimming or other electrical problems? will there be a huge drain on my battery/should I buy a new bat.? or will I need to buy a high output alt?

I do not really want to buy any of them... but I do not have my system installed yet so I do not even know the problems I may have. My car has a stock 130 amp alternator... Will that be able to handle me putting out 700 watts without any problems in my cars electrical system? Will I need to upgrade wires (I dont know how to do this though)?

lol, so many questions. I am just confused. Will I have any of these problems? Any help is appreciated.

Click to read more...

 

[iceteebone 5,000+ posts]

130 amp alternator should be fine for 700 watts rms. caps do not help low voltage/dimming problems. a big 3 upgrade would be useful.

 

[davidfre21 5,000+ posts]

what do u drive that has 130a stock?

 

[DIPayton 10+ year member]

Contour... I really don't believe it to be honest. I am going to get it tested today.

But it says on Contour.org that stock alternators are 130 amp alternators... Not sure if it's true but thats what they all believe to be true. I also searched it on google and it said that. To be honest on a car like I Contour, I was thinking like 80 amp or around there.

 

[audiolife 5,000+ posts]

a small battery would work pretty decent as oposed to a cap (svr and kinetik make small 12 volt batteries that compare quite well to a bat cap 800 for about half the price of the bat cap) but on 700 watts you should be fine i have a factory 85 amp alt running a soundstream vga 320.4 . 320 watts to the sub and 160 watts to the mids/highs no dimmage what so ever. i did the big 3 and have a new battery but so far so good my rca open light doesnt even flicker. my 85 amp alt has 120k miles on it with a 130 amp alt in working condition i would imagine you can go up to 1500 watts rms pretty easy. some people think you need a 300 amp alt for anything over 1000 watts...5000 watts maybe lol . i ran an older class a/b amp set up (2400 watts rms) with a 120 dual output alt with a little streetwires secondary battery with no dimmage what so ever and i beat the crap out of that set up.

 

[DIPayton 10+ year member]

my 85 amp alt has 120k miles on it with a 130 amp alt in working condition i would imagine you can go up to 1500 watts rms pretty easy.

my 130 amp alt has 160k miles on it.... so do you think it would be in good working condition? I dont even know how to tell.. I know I was told to get my alt tested and planned to do it today but I now do not have the time for it. what would be your guess on it? I don't know anything about that kind of stuff.

 

[iceteebone 5,000+ posts]

my 130 amp alt has 160k miles on it.... so do you think it would be in good working condition? I dont even know how to tell.. I know I was told to get my alt tested and planned to do it today but I now do not have the time for it. what would be your guess on it? I don't know anything about that kind of stuff.

just hook up all your stuff and see if the alt needs to be replaced. with 700 watts rms, i don't think so.

 

[slicks5150 10+ year member]

have it tested as you said and you will know for sure. and the big 3 upgrade will help quite significantly.

 

[DIPayton 10+ year member]

just hook up all your stuff and see if the alt needs to be replaced. with 700 watts rms, i don't think so.

yeah I am thinking it will be fine now. My friend just got me a little worried by making me think I would need new stuff. Although his suggestion was only a cap and nothing major.

 

[iceteebone 5,000+ posts]

yeah I am thinking it will be fine now. My friend just got me a little worried by making me think I would need new stuff. Although his suggestion was only a cap and nothing major.

slap him and tell him he is ignorant and for the love of christ don't buy a cap.

 

[Patrick Simmons 10+ year member]

Upgrading the big 3 should be enough, if not I would say new alt if battery is charging fine and in good shape.

 

[audiolife 5,000+ posts]

on the battery side of it i have seen stock alts take 4 power acoustic 1800dbs and 1 mids highs amp with a kinetik 600 hc on each 1800 (kind of like a cap install) it didnt dim at all and ran it truck off for 2 hours at a time. it kept a steady 12.8 volts min and in the 2 months since they did the truck no power issues(its a new full sized chevy extended cab fiberglassed blow through, couple people on this forum seen it) but the big 3 up grade is a must

 

[DIPayton 10+ year member]

I may look into the big 3 upgrade... The big three upgrade is just the wiring right? I read about it before.. and will search to make sure on all that stuff. But I think that is what I will do.