How do you guys determine how much battery, alternator and wire you need?

Intercooler
10+ year member

CarAudio.com Elite
My charging system kind of lagged a little bit before with just the QAA-1000 and Kicker 600 in my car. I am changing the 600 to the Hifonics 2006 which is advertised at 2000 watts. I have a Kinetics on the way to replace my stock battery up-front. I get headlight blinking and dips in the voltage on my stock 70 Amp alternator. I am hoping the battery plus upping the wiring from 4 gauge to 1/0 will help? Think the wiring will?

I am also thinking about doing the second battery in the trunk if it will help. I hate changing my alternator because for one some of the replacements look hit or miss whether they fail and the stocker does pretty good at idle.

How do you guys determine your wire size, battery needs and numbers and alternator Amp ratings?

 
My charging system kind of lagged a little bit before with just the QAA-1000 and Kicker 600 in my car. I am changing the 600 to the Hifonics 2006 which is advertised at 2000 watts. I have a Kinetics on the way to replace my stock battery up-front. I get headlight blinking and dips in the voltage on my stock 70 Amp alternator. I am hoping the battery plus upping the wiring from 4 gauge to 1/0 will help? Think the wiring will?I am also thinking about doing the second battery in the trunk if it will help. I hate changing my alternator because for one some of the replacements look hit or miss whether they fail and the stocker does pretty good at idle.

How do you guys determine your wire size, battery needs and numbers and alternator Amp ratings?
Anyone know?

 
You probably wont get away with a Stock 70 amp Alt with 2k watts.

And adding an extral battery might make the situation worse, because now your little alt has to keep to batteries charged and run the audio system...

Do it right get an Alternator, and if you need more power, build you up a bank of back up batteries

There are a few good HO-alt places on the net

Check out Mean Green, and HOalternators. for sure.

 
figure out your total amplifier fuse rating, you will not draw more than that. Add that to what your current alt is and you will be fine. Any bigger alt will HELP. A decent battery will keep your voltage at the 12v mark.

 
I called Maxxsonics and the 2006D CAN draw up to 350 Amps. The Tech said I would probably only see 200 Amps out of it at any given time and they suggest a 180-200 Amp fuse since the amplifier doesn't have an one.

 
Add a Batcap 400...do the big 3...follow Batcap wiring direction...have at least 4g pwr and gnd and you should be ok,,,,//content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/smile.gif.1ebc41e1811405b213edfc4622c41e27.gif
What is a Batcap?

I didn't even know Rockford made my MBQuart QAA-1000 but the Tech at Maxxsonics said that was before they bought MBQuart a year ago so now I have to find a contact for Rockford and find how much that one draws. I am going to need a 500 Amp //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/greedy.gif.5a53e6246569d7ab79867170f3b06629.gif :greedy: alternator //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/eek.gif.771b7a90cf45cabdc554ff1121c21c4a.gif :eek:

 
figure out your total amplifier fuse rating, you will not draw more than that. Add that to what your current alt is and you will be fine. Any bigger alt will HELP. A decent battery will keep your voltage at the 12v mark.
this is true. however unless you have the gains on your amps set at maximum, you'll never approach these fuse ratings. To fogure out how much you'll actuall be using, figure the gain you'll be using as a percent and then take that percent of your total fuse rating. For instance, if you're total fuse rating is 100 amps and you're running your amps at 3/4 power (75%) the most you'll need is 75 amps. Most of the time your amps won't even need that much because the power needed to amplify is directly proportional to the signal ampiltude coming into the amplifier. (aka Your volume, and the music itself)

 
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Intercooler

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