Need some electrical advice for my system!

[imp4pdabest 10+ year member]

Yes, I would still consider myself a newbie to the car audio world. I'm going to be getting my system installed soon and would like to do it right the first time by making sure my electrical system is more than capable of handling the amount of power my system would require on a daily. If there's a tutorial or thread somewhere out there explaining this stuff already, I'm sorry for missing it. 2001 Ford Mustang GT, here's my system:

JL Audio 1000/1v2 (over 1000w, 100A fuse)

JL Audio 12W7v3 (over 1500w)

Kicker zx850.4 (over 900w, 3 40A fuse)

Pioneer AVH-P4200DVD

2 8" wide screen visor monitors

4 MB Quart components (almost 700w total)

As of now all I have is the stock 110A alternator and a decent yellow Duralast 760A battery. I will be having "The Big 3" upgraded soon. I'd prefer to skip a capacitor and just have an extra battery installed in the trunk if necessary. Basically I need to know if I need an extra battery, and if so how many amps do I need out of my extra battery?

Thanks for any input.

Click to read more...

 

[bubbagumper6 5,000+ posts]

You'll be running approx. 2kw, so yes you'll need at least two good batteries and a decent alternator. 110A is pretty small, you'd be better upgrading it to something closer to 180A-200A.

 

[matt_bennett05 10+ year member]

What he said ^ (And plenty of 1/0)

 

[imp4pdabest 10+ year member]

I was thinking about buying one of those D3100 Powermaster batts. 3200 max amps. Would that be enough?

 

[brian84corvette 10+ year member]

that battery would work great if you upgraded your alternator also.

something else to think about is...

agm batterys and wet flooded cell type batterys.

they tend to want to "rest" fully charged at diffrent voltages. my brand new deka group 31 flooded wet cell batterys all rest at 12.7 volts when fully charged even after sitting for 3 days after being un hooked from my charger ( I have 4 and I use them to power my hydraulics on my lowrider car ) - and I also have 3 group 31 size agm batterys - wich rest at 13.3 volts fully charged up - those are going to power my system when I finaly get the all the **** I need to hook it up...

but - what im getting at is - if you hook up wet cells with agm cells and do not wire in a cut off - wether its an electrical relay or a manual switch like on a race car to turn off the battery - the wet cell will constantly drian voltage from the agm cell until they are both resting at the same level.... wich is about 12.7 or 12.8 volts

while the car is running - the alternator is putting out power - and the voltage is suposed to be above 13.5 - so having the batterys rest at diffrent voltages does not apply when the car engine is running - and charging the battery systems -

just food for thought.

my setup when finished - is a kinetic agm 800 front battery - and 3 group 31 off brand agm batterys - all tend to rest at 13.3 so I will experience no drain off from them being permanently linked together.

 

[sexy 10+ year member]

What is a battery? A battery is a storage device. What is an alternator? An alternator is a device that produces electrical power. As long as your systems alternator can produce the power you need to run everything and your wires are the right size for that amount of power you will be fine. How did it get to point where people think that batteries make power I just don’t get it.