kinetik *****

[robertoyoung08 10+ year member]

it gives room to ponder thats for sure...
especially on the alternators ground side... they are tiny on Jap made cars..

big 3 then see if it helps..

personally I woulda left the optima in the factory location and "ADDED" the 1800 to it...

well i didnt want to add more than one battery. i didnt want to take up more room/weight in car and i didnt think my system was big enough.

guess il do big 3 first and hopefuly this fixes it.

unless my sae is just inefficient as hell?

 

[robertoyoung08 10+ year member]

At 13.8V, which is normal operating range for a vehicle, 1,440w will pull 104A. Most vehicles factory electrical will require 60-80% of the alternators output. Will split the difference & say 70%, which is 70A. You're now at 174A. I have always been told that an alternator can keep up with 160% of it's rated amperage, & that's at peak output. So my opinion is that it is too much strain on the alternator & it needs to be upgraded. The Kinetik 1800HC you have is more than enough, you just need to upgrade your Big 3 with 1/0 & add an alternator with a higher amp rating. Right now all you're doing is burning up your factory alternator, shortening the life of your battery, & running the risk of frying your amplifiers.
FYI, connect your Big 3 as follows:

alternator to battery + (fused)

alternator casing to battery -

alternator casing to frame

alternator casing to fender or firewall (whichever one has more factory grounds connected to it)

thanks for the good explenation/help. what you say does make sense. makes me sound like a cheap *** but i just didnt want to have to drop another 5 on another part for my system.

 

[Bob Saget]

thanks for the good explenation/help. what you say does make sense. makes me sound like a cheap *** but i just didnt want to have to drop another 5 on another part for my system.

...you beat my edit....if at all possible try running the 1/0 power & ground from the amplifiers directly back to the battery. (I'm assuming the current amp ground is 1/0?...it needs to be)

 

[xoutofmyheadx 10+ year member]

any1 who's runnin 100a alt and pushin 1500+ watts with no problem must have more than just 1 extra batt, plus they leave their vol at like 8. they'd have to. plus i bet their cars don't need alot of juice to opperate. OP, why didn't you move the optima to under the hood for your main batt, and use the kinetic for the 2nd?

 

[SacTownBully84 10+ year member]

dude i had a stock battery at 1st then added a khc1400 and im runnin a SAZ1500d and a hifonics A6400 and i never dip below 12.8 at full tilt idle...i now have a hc1800 under hood and a hc2400 in trunk and i never drop below 13 and i have stock alty on a 01 grand am

 

[audiolife 5,000+ posts]

Its a good idea to have 70 amps of alty for every 1000 watts of audio plus have AT LEAST 50 solid amps of alt for the car. I would check your grounding as it sits for your amp. People say 1400 watts is not that big thing is back in the day 700 watts was big and we had cars that didn't have all the epa BS with less electrical demand on 100 amp alts..700 watts at that time would and could be very stressful to a stock electrical system. If you really want to know if your electrical is keeping up check the voltage of your battery in the morning before you start your car. If it is not above 12.5 volts for a stockish battery or above 12.7 volts for an agm your alty is lagging behind.

 

[ahole-ic]

Lol sic you're going to have to accept it at some point. You don't know jack shit about charging systems. You might be one heck of a nice guy but your advice is worthless man. Batteries do not magically make power. When the vehicle is on and the voltage is above the batt resting voltage 100% of all current is being drawn from the alternator. The batt is drawing current from it all the time. So is everything else.

 

[CRXBMPN 5,000+ posts]

was the kinetik brand new when you bought it? is there any chance a cell could be bad on it? may as well add that in there since my battery load tester has come in handy many-a-time.

 

[audiolife 5,000+ posts]

I would also check the charge of the 1800 and charge it before you install it. Sometimes if you buy a battery thats cheaper on line than what everyone else seems to be selling it for might suggest its stock that sat for a while. When the 1800 is fully charged up it will be in the high to mid 12.8 volt range.

 

[CRXBMPN 5,000+ posts]

correct, any time I get a battery new or used I put my trickle charger on 2.0a for a few full charges, with float... then i'll put it in.

good luck though, i just took out a YT from my RSX and put an 1800HC in and I think the 1800HC is stronger (my load tester shows me this as well).

 

[misfit138 5,000+ posts]

you definately do not need an H/O alt for that little power...
you def need big3 and what guage is the wire? 0 and still have voltage drop?

did you say you had a toylexotaus?

might wanna check if they use the variable resistance alternator... some honda and toyota ( lexus is a toyota) use them... it may be the problem the voltage drops..

I have seen and even installed and driven cars with way way less wiring on more than 2 times the power with just exttra batts and never had that much problem...

even on stock 80-100 amp alts...

He may not need a high output alternator, but it's very possible that his stock alt is weak sauce. If he has a 120 amp alt, or something close to that, he should be more than okay with the amount of power he's running.

 

[Phoenix Risen 10+ year member]

one big question, what do the grounds for your amps look like? are they on solid frame sanded to make contact to bare metal, or is it on a flimsy trim panel with paint on it?

 

[SicAudio 5,000+ posts]

Lol sic you're going to have to accept it at some point. You don't know jack shit about charging systems. You might be one heck of a nice guy but your advice is worthless man. Batteries do not magically make power. When the vehicle is on and the voltage is above the batt resting voltage 100% of all current is being drawn from the alternator. The batt is drawing current from it all the time. So is everything else.

my 20+ yrs as an ASE certified automotive tech says I know more about car electrical than most people do //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/wink.gif.608e3ea05f1a9f98611af0861652f8fb.gif

I will respectfully agree to disagree with you..

never said batteries "make power" I said they store it...if the alternator supplies 100% of the voltage AND current then why do people with 10kw setups use 1 alt and 8 batteries...

H/O alts have there place but not for 1400 watt setups...

 

[ahole-ic]

my 20+ yrs as an ASE certified automotive tech says I know more about car electrical than most people do //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/wink.gif.608e3ea05f1a9f98611af0861652f8fb.gif
I will respectfully agree to disagree with you..

never said batteries "make power" I said they store it...if the alternator supplies 100% of the voltage AND current then why do people with 10kw setups use 1 alt and 8 batteries...

H/O alts have there place but not for 1400 watt setups...

You're obviously talking about burp setups because everyone that runs big power daily have BIG alternators. Please take a look at meade, price, etc. They all have 6 HO alts. You are talking out of your ass. Since batteries do not make power, and the current drawn cannot be supplied by the alternator you have an unsustainable scenario. It will not take long to blow the amps up due to low voltage if people follow your "ASE" Certifiiably retarded advise. Run tell that home home homeboy.

 

[SicAudio 5,000+ posts]

is 3kw alot for daily on a stock alt?

want pics of that setup that is about a year old now?

its all on battery power dude... he had 3 250 amp mechmans go smoky on him cuz he was drawing to much off of just an alt and 1 battery only...

if ya want I will give ya the customers number and you can call him... he would be happy to send you pics I bet..

he was told the same BS you are preaching here.. HO HO HO that ho alt is worthless w/o something to store the current...

might wanna do some reading before you insult someone dude..

there are plenty of people on here running 2kw+ on just extra battery power and a stock alt for daily rides...