i need help with capacitors please!

[loudcar412s 10+ year member]

i have two amps running off of my battery, and it is really killing my alternator.

right now, all i have is a 1 farad cap and its not helping a whole lot. the amps are lanzar 1000w and lanzar 1600w pushing 2 polk dx12's and 2 JBL 12's.

can you daisy chain caps? could i buy a 2 farad cap and link it together with my 1 farad cap to make 3 farads? or does it not work like that

also, what guage power wire should i be using. i have 8 guage right now, is that good enough? and do i need to run two wires from the battery? or can i just use the same wire for power?

sorry for the noob questions, but im just getting into this stuff and i need help

thanks

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[carguy 10+ year member]

Whoa 2 amps thats quite a bit u should just run 1 amp 2 amps would **** to much juice. thats what i would do, u dont need two amps

 

[loudcar412s 10+ year member]

thats not an option

i already had 1000w and i needed another one to push my other subs, and i didnt have enough for a 2000w amp

also, no one would buy my 1000w so this is what happened

i just need a big enough cap to take care of it

i figure a 3 farad audiobahn could take care of it, but does anyone have any experience or tips for me?

thanks

 

[carguy 10+ year member]

what u talkin bout not an option??? sure it is, just dont run 2 amps then u wont have not enough juice problem, u dont need 2000w amp, man i had a 500watt amp and it pounded one sub like crazy the sub was 1000w pyle bluewave

 

[maylar 10+ year member]

Caps only handle the peaks, not the continuous power. Your alternator does all the real work. If the alternator is hurtin' no amount of caps will help.

A single 8 gage wire for 2 killowatt amps is way too small. Each one should have its own 4 gage wires (power and ground). You're putting the amps under stress by having to much voltage drop in the wire, and also have a potential fire hazzard feeding so much current through a small wire.

1 Farad per 1000 watts is the general rule. But like I said, it's not a substitute for a good alternator.

 

[Phatillusion 5,000+ posts]

YOu also need to check into getting a distribution block. Like maylar said, a stock altenator is going to have trouble keeping up with 2k watts, your best bet is to get your altenator rewound. Why are you running two different brands of subs? You might be better off just running 2, and I'd probably go with the Polk DX.

 

[loudcar412s 10+ year member]

i guess you guys didnt understand

its not an option because of $$$

im not really into spending a ton more money, so i guess ill just return two of my subs

and im running different kinds of subs because i got two of them for $100 in a sweet bandpass box...it was basically a gift from my friend, but ill tell him i dont need it anymore

oh well, thanks anyway guys

 

[Phatillusion 5,000+ posts]

We read you post just fine. You asked if you could hook up another capacitor, and the answer is no, your charging system can't keep up as it is, so the use of another capacitor isn't going to help. If you would have read the bottom of my post you would have seen the quick fix.

You might be better off just running 2, and I'd probably go with the Polk DX.

 

[ramos 5,000+ posts]

You say you don't have the money. What are you going to buy the other cap with ? But besides that. It won't cost you a dime to take out one of the amps and two of the subs. If your electrical system is already strained, another cap will do nothing but add more strain to the electrical system. By something else needing to be charged. So if you don't have the extra cash. Take out one of your amps and a couple of subs. I don't want to see you blow a bunch of money on something that's going to end up hurting more than helping. Everybody is just trying to help you out. //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/smile.gif.1ebc41e1811405b213edfc4622c41e27.gif

Two of your subs are in a bandpass box what kind of box are the others in ?

 

[mindensweetness 10+ year member]

just buy a higher amp alternator or get yours rewound. Then get 3 farad cap.

They're not that much more money.You should be able to do this for under $400.

 

[loud_drums 10+ year member]

To actually answer his original question...

Yes, you can use more than one cap at a time. If you wire a 1 farad and a 2 farad in PARALLEL, then you will have a 3 farad cap. But, like the other guys said, it still won't solve your problem.

 

[loudcar412s 10+ year member]

my car is working fine, i just want to know if its going to hurt it

its an 83' blazer 4wd

i dont see why it would be any different to have two 1000w amps and one 2000w amp, its 2000w either way

and i got the subs for a great deal, so i wanted to stick the other two in there..i was planning on making a new box for all of it, one big bandpass

can someone send me a diagram of how to hook up a 1 and 2 farad cap into parallel to make it a 3 farad?

and why wouldnt that help any? i dont play bass that goes on for more than 1 second at a time, its just the beat and it hits really hard but for a really short time

i dont see why a cap wouldnt help that at all...thats what they are for

and i know everyone was trying to help, you dont have to show me a quote of your reply, i read it

and for the record, right now its hitting 148.3 db and its on 1 8guage power wire, so why would i be better off running 2 polk dx 12's that probably only hit 120 (if that) alone

it should be a lot louder as soon as i put it all in a nice box and get the 4 guage wire run back there...

im getting a lot of this stuff at a good deal, if i can figure out how to save my alternator then ill put this in, but my voltage dummy light meter thingy sways from 13 to 7 when the bass hits...i have the 2 amps on a 1 farad cap..its not doing crap right now i guess

 

[Phatillusion 5,000+ posts]

and for the record, right now its hitting 148.3 db and its on 1 8guage power wire, so why would i be better off running 2 polk dx 12's that probably only hit 120 (if that) alone

I could get one of those polk 12's to hit over a 120, do you even know what you are talking about.

 

[maylar 10+ year member]

Putting caps in parallel is simple: plus to plus, minus to minus. If you're hitting peaks that last only a few milliseconds, like a bass drum whump, then another cap might help. But if the duration is long enough for it to show up on your voltmeter, you just need a bigger alternator or need to reduce your power. There's only so much a cap can do.

 

[loudcar412s 10+ year member]

yes i know kind of what im doing

anyways, yeah im not looking for long long bass duration, just small peaks here and there...

so if i took positive -> 1farad cap positive -> 2farad cap positive -> amp positive and then the same thing with the negative, that will make 3 farads worth of capacitors? that is what im looking for here....

thanks guys