When do you start to worry about electrical upgrades?

[NSTALN 10+ year member]

I have a Nissan Frontier and the oem alternator is only rated for 110amps

I'm wanting to add (2) amps JL 450/4v2and JL 1000/1v2...rated at pulling 60amps and 100amps respectively

Power wire will like be (2) individual runs of 4gauge OFC to each amp...but upgrading to 0gauge OFC then using a distro in the back isn't out of the question.

The current system is running a single JL HD 900/5 off a 4 gauge OFC run rated at 60amps all on stock electrical, no Big 3 upgrade or battery upgrade.

If I replace the oem battery with an Optima Yellow-Top and upgrade my Big 3 do you think that would be OK for a total rated draw of 160amps?

Thanks!

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[Popwarhomie 5,000+ posts]

I wouldn't go with Optima. Duracell Platinum AGMs are great budget AGMs. Northstar and XS power if you want to spend more. Shouldn't see 160 amps draw after box rise and on music. Just do the big 3 with a good AGM up front and you should be good.

 

[Slo_Ride 5,000+ posts]

When it starts shutting my car off.

 

[Clifff150 10+ year member]

Yes don’t go optima and get a Duracell platinum agm (if you can). I’ve also had good luck with auto zones platinum agm (easy returns too). Go ahead and do a run of 1/0 to a distro as you can kinda future proof and it’ll be cleaner. And do the big 3.

I had a 130 amp alt and was running a power hog of an amp that was dyno’d over 2200 rms and I was fine with an agm up front and big 3.

 

[mastershake575]

You really don't start worrying about it till you actually see stuff like voltage drop and lights dimming.

As others have said since your running a daily setup (vs a competition setup) you should be fine with just big 3 and a nice AGM battery since your actual real world power draw isn't going to be close to max RMS rating.

 

[Louisiana_CRX 5,000+ posts]

 

[NSTALN 10+ year member]

Thanks all!

 

[Lasherž]

Not all batteries in this comparison are AGM, but it does show that more money doesn't necessarily equal more performance. The only meaningful difference is going to be the warranty and the price; that marketing ain't cheap.

 

[Firewalker]

Not too mention there is only 4 makers of batteries in the US and iirc 2 overseas. Maxx Everstart Group 65 for example is made by Johnson Controls. They make a LOT of the batteries you see out there. Same one I have in my Explorer.

 

[hispls 5,000+ posts]

no Big 3 upgrade or battery upgrade.

I'd upgrade ground from battery terminal to frame on a new car even if I weren't adding audio. The factory ground is usually inadequate even for the stock accessories. Beyond that I do not believe the other ones are necessary where you're sitting.

As far as where your battery is happy it's largely dependent on your listening habits but those JL slash amps will definitely make rated power and aren't the most efficient stuff around. Of course they're also built rock solid and I believe have regulated power supply so they're not the sort of thing that'll break from low voltage, they may not even drop output with low voltage provided you're high enough to keep them powered up. That said, if you're running it really hard you can expect premature failure of your stock bat and alternator but those are cheap and easy enough to replace.

Personally I'd try to get away with just stock electrical (with upgraded ground anyway) at 1500W and if that didn't hang just get one of the premium parts store or duracell AGMs. Pre-lithium I was using Bosch branded premium AGM we bought from Pep Boys which had 5 year warranty. Parts store battery warranties are easy to claim since the kid at the counter really doesn't care what you did to it. If it load tests bad and the date is < the warranty period the kid behind the counter hands you a new one and you're good to go.

You've got to get out to some shows up here in the Northeast at some point. Keep an eye on NADBL website. We'll probably have another one in Sanford Maine this year and there may be one in Nashua at some point.