Is 160A+ alt enough for 1200w?

[waggs 10+ year member]

i have a ford escort with a 90a factory alt. i had about 700w going and i killed my new battery in like 3 months. i'm planning to buy an 12" fi q. could i just buy a h/o alt and do a big 3. will this be enough to power my sub daily and not have any electrical problems?

Click to read more...

 

[Intercooler 10+ year member]

****! My little Civic has a 70 Amp alternator and I have one 1000 watt amp and one 600 watt amp and haven't killed anything or never been able to get started at all! Something sounds wrong! You aren't cranking on it with the car off or at an idle are you?

 

[32tl 10+ year member]

Do the big three on your stock setup and you'll be straight.

I've had 1500wrms on my stock 80a alternator for a few months with no problems.

 

[Coolwazabi 10+ year member]

u should be fine...

i had 2500w on 63 alt for like 2 weeks... worked great until it blew..

 

[SCIVIC94 10+ year member]

ame here.i have a 90amp alt enator in my civic.i was running a 1300 watt amp and a 400 watt 4 channel.never had a problem with my local auto part store battery.i am also using two farad caps.sounds like something else may be wrong.

 

[waggs 10+ year member]

i did the big 3 using 4awg wire and i still had major headlight dimming. i used to crank it everywhere i went and did so at idle too. thats one mistake i learned from. summers coming up and i'll have my a/c cranking all the time cause it gets ****in hot in az. will 160a+ be enough to run my a/c and still bump?

 

[mike dressure 10+ year member]

yes that will be plenty!

 

[Moocow16 10+ year member]

ford's notoriously **** for electrical issues though. I had a 200A alt in my old mustang, lights would still dim when i turned the heat on and when my old 400w mtx amp hit!

 

[Lakota 5,000+ posts]

Check your grounds under the hood too and make sure the bare metal is clean.

 

[n2audio 5,000+ posts]

i did the big 3 using 4awg wire and i still had major headlight dimming. i used to crank it everywhere i went and did so at idle too. thats one mistake i learned from. summers coming up and i'll have my a/c cranking all the time cause it gets ****in hot in az. will 160a+ be enough to run my a/c and still bump?

Should be. Even with your listening habits.

With your 90A I'm wondering if there wasn't an issue with the installation vs. just the undersized alt.

I ran right about 1000w in an older ford with a 75A alt. That particular car was notorious for having an undersized alt with just the stock electronics. However, it ran pretty well for a couple years.

Anyway - 160A is a big alt. Should easily be good for about 1500 IMO.

 

[krisfnbz 10+ year member]

With 160amp alt dude, you can run alot more than 1000 watts, you should have done the big 3 with 1/0 wire and not 3awg, but 4 is still better than stock. Check your grounds, and think about getting a new battery(Kinetic is cheaper than optima) Although I dont know what battery you have.