Why is my voltage drop so awful?

[FlexnInLa 10+ year member]

1/0 Big Three, check all your grounds and connections.

 

[FlexnInLa 10+ year member]

1/0 Big Three, check all your grounds and connections.

 

[Stalin-ohaulic]

1/0 Big Three, check all your grounds and connections.

Way ahead of you pal.

 

[Slo_Ride 5,000+ posts]

until you figure out where the problem is i wouldnt worry about soldering anything, besides nothing is better than a straight copper to copper connection.

 

[Stalin-ohaulic]

until you figure out where the problem is i wouldnt worry about soldering anything, besides nothing is better than a straight copper to copper connection.

All of his connections are soldered right now. Also, AQ might say that but it does not make it true. You can't beat soldering if it's done right.

 

[Slo_Ride 5,000+ posts]

All of his connections are soldered right now. Also, AQ might say that but it does not make it true. You can't beat soldering if it's done right.

I know, that's what I'm saying, get a foot of wire and straight wire the amp and see if you still get the drop. I can beat soldering, but I'm not knocking it if done right. I'm just saying it isn't really necessary. Also I'm not one for listening, I prefer to find things out the hard way, so I couldn't tell you what AQ sez.

 

[lostdaytomorrow 10+ year member]

Holy ****ing shit how is this not solved yet? 5 ****ing pages?

It's your grounds.

You need + and - 1/0 awg or larger from front batt to back batt.

Ground amp at the rear battery.

If you still have issues; bad alt, bad batt(s), bad ring terminal connections.

Also, soldering sucks compared to a proper crimp, but proper crimps are pretty tough to do on 1/0 awg and larger without the proper tools.

 

[jco1385 5,000+ posts]

OP, did you ever crimp them shits? let's put this to rest.

 

[Nathan@XS Power 10+ year member]

Didn't read through everything, but I can tell you a few problems to begin with.

If your batteries are only resting at 12.6V then they are either bad or you are not getting them fully charged. A 12V battery is fully charged at 12.9V with optimal charge voltage of 14.4V. If your connections are good and your ground it good, then you should see the same voltage at your alternator, your front battery, and your back battery. Your amp should be getting the same power as your back battery, or within a tenth or so.

Best way to test the batteries is either take them to an auto parts store and have them hook the batteries up to the Midtronics tester (takes about 1min to test them), or pull them out and fully charge them with a good charger. A fully charged 12V battery just off the charger should be around 14.4V and after sitting for about 12 to 24 hours it should be resting at around the 12.9-13.2V range. If the battery drops down to the low 12 to high 11V range then you have at least one bad cell in the battery.

AH has NOTHING to do with batteries when it comes to car audio applications. AH ratings are low amperage pulls for extended periods of time. Car audio has high amperage pulls for short periods of times. So, unless you are using the battery to run a 10amp light for 20hours the AH means nothing.

 

[hatedonmostly 5,000+ posts]

OP, did you ever crimp them shits? let's put this to rest.

Gonna see if I have time today.

 

[hatedonmostly 5,000+ posts]

OP, did you ever crimp them shits? let's put this to rest.

Crimped the wire from the rear battery to the amp, didn't do anything. I'm not going to unsolder all of my connections and crimp them because obviously the problem lies in that wire alone. Since that didn't fix it, there's nothing more I can do.

PM me if you want some of the equipment in my sig, because I pretty much give up on CA. Dropping to fucking 11.7 with only 1k.

 

[jco1385 5,000+ posts]

weak jooce. you do power and ground wires?

 

[lostdaytomorrow 10+ year member]

because I pretty much give up on CA. Dropping to fucking 11.7 with only 1k.

I felt the same way when I had Voltage problems a while back. You will be back.

You need to run two runs of 1/0 awg from your front batt. to rear batt.

You need one positive run and one neg. run from front batt to rear batt.

You need to wire your amp directly to the rear batt postive and negative.

Make sure your alt is upgraded 1/0 awg to the front batt. as well as 1/0 awg from negative alt. (case of alt.) to negative of battery.

Just take your rusty truck frame out of the equation all together.

 

[Slo_Ride 5,000+ posts]

I felt the same way when I had Voltage problems a while back. You will be back.
You need to run two runs of 1/0 awg from your front batt. to rear batt.

You need one positive run and one neg. run from front batt to rear batt.

You need to wire your amp directly to the rear batt postive and negative.

Make sure your alt is upgraded 1/0 awg to the front batt. as well as 1/0 awg from negative alt. (case of alt.) to negative of battery.

Just take your rusty truck frame out of the equation all together.

do it

 

[hatedonmostly 5,000+ posts]

I felt the same way when I had Voltage problems a while back. You will be back.
You need to run two runs of 1/0 awg from your front batt. to rear batt.

You need one positive run and one neg. run from front batt to rear batt.

You need to wire your amp directly to the rear batt postive and negative.

Make sure your alt is upgraded 1/0 awg to the front batt. as well as 1/0 awg from negative alt. (case of alt.) to negative of battery.

Just take your rusty truck frame out of the equation all together.

What issues were you having?

I for sure want to do this, but not sure if that is truly the problem that I am having. The last thing I want to do is spend a ton on wire if it doesn't help.

A buddy told me that it may be because the alt doesn't have enough power to charge both batteries and the amp. But this shouldn't matter, because I should be getting the same voltage at the amp and the battery, correct?

Also, if batteries and amps should read the same voltage, why do some people have multiple volt meters hooked up to both amps and batteries? Confusing...