I have a Mechman alternator, 0 gauge Sky High Big 3, a Kinetic HC1200 under the hood, and a Kinetic HC600, running about 1200 total RMS in the trunk of my Mustang. No dimming lights and starts up no problem every time. The HO alternator is the best investment I've ever made in 30+ years of car audio.
Not only do I really dig the content that you share, I take notice to the extra care and effort you do with the editing. The sequencing, video effects, fades, jump cuts... and not to mention the background tracks and sound effects are also all on point. Look forward to the alternator install. 💪🏽🔥
Great video, very informative. I've used the super expensive Fluke clamp meters and the $20 no brand clamp meters. You won't notice the difference, apart from maybe the resolution of updating is 0.2 seconds slower. I recommend buying the $20 one. The other reason is, that you are going to be paying for features you're probably never ever going to use.
I second this. I work in electrical motor repair and we have name brand test equipment that can be serviced and calibrated. That is were the additional cost is as compared to some cheap Chinese equipment we keep for reference only spot checks that is realistically just as accurate.
Man, it really gets complicated when you want to go over a few hundred watts it seems. I love how in-depth you go with this stuff. I've said it before, but you car audio guys are brave!
Audio itself is a complicated subject when you delve into it. Cars and how they operate, especially these days, are a whole other headache…now combining them? Oh boy…
Mechman alternators are fantastic. I had a 240 amp Mechman in my pickup. Battery technology wasn't what it was today, but I remember having 2 giant 1000CCA batteries in the back. They were huge and super heavy. Built for commercial trucks. Was running 8K watts with that setup. Btw you should check out Kaiweets HT208D clamp meter. Has inrush and all the features you want.
In my daily I do have a 300A alt from GP. I’ve done the big 3 and also have 3 runs of 1/0 sky high to my back battery. With that being said, I use Northstar batteries. As I don’t have the tools to actually test them I had to rely on the Internet for information. The research that I did looked promising. And one thing that I noticed is that it was hard to find negative reviews about them. I threw one in my sons car on a big 3 and a sundown 1k and it handled it well. So my daily has the agm34/78 under the hood and a smsagm220 in the spare. It’s running two sundown 1500’s and even though I’m usually around 14V I never go under 13. The front battery is three years old and the back one is two. I should get plenty more use out of it considering my kids battery is six years old and still running strong.
I put a optima yellow cap battery under the hood, big 3 1/0 gage, and yes a 5 fared power cap. Running 2 amps, and a crossover on a factory alternator. No issues thus far but plan to upgrade alternator down the road since I m adding a complete 3 dvd screen set up as well.
Thanks for all your videos! I'm running one CES Large Case 390 regulated cold start 16.3 volts, down once warm to 15.6 to 144ah of Lishen LTO powering 4 Orion HCCASPLX3ks to 4 Crossfire C-7 18s walled in a Bobby encloser called a "slid in" yes, I cut the back wall of my truck out to slide this 500lb pound box in place. Still in the install stages have not played the woofers yet, I have the celling and back walls left to fab up, I should be powering it up in 3-4 weeks.
Sometime when you don't need that much power, you can simply limit your amp using proper calibration and keep running it off stock electrical. We don't need 4 digits+ of power to have a good sounding and loud enough system, but it's harder to find quality amp with lower power output, so better use the quality amp anyway, but just not at it's maximum output.
This is true, but if you just go big on your electrical system right away then all your "cheap" high powered amplifier power is just that, inexpensive. I remember when I was in high school over 20 years ago now and if you had a 1000 watt amp in the car pushing two 12s your car was "bumpin". Now I have two 8000 watt amps pushing two 15s and my car is "meh".
Best tip I can give, don't rely on the alt to fully charge your battery. It's best to charge your batteries with a charger once in awhile. This will extend the life of your alt.
Yep I have a battery charger connected to my rear battery and a power inverter in my car. Once a month I turn on the battery charger overnight to top off the batteries.
If you're like me and enjoy older vehicles it can also be a challenge. In my 83 S10 it had a 37 amp alternator. Previous owner did an electric fan upgrade. I put a simple 250 watt amp running a single JBL 10 inch sub and I had to turn the stereo down at stop lights because the fans would slow down and it would start to heat up lol. I ended up getting a bigger stock alternator from a different truck, but that was crazy, even with that small of an amp.
@@DIYAudioGuy carbureted V6, no computer, manual trans, manual windows and lock. It was as basic as it got. But with a simple sound system you could watch that volt gauge drop like a rock
its definitely not just the alternator. you need to have the battery bank to match or be better then what is needed for your system then you can run any size alternator to keep it topped up as you don't have your tunes cranked all the time I use to run a stock 135 amp alt with a 5x100AH battery bank on 5000+ watt system with no light dimming at all mind you all upgraded cabling 0/4 haha great video btw!
It makes sense you wouldn't have too many issues with such a large bank. I think many do not realize how current flows in a DC circuit powered by an electrochemical battery. The sole job of the alt is to force extra power into the positve side of the battery so electrons drop from the cathode and can then exit the battery from the negative pole. Electrochemical batteries are designed with a chemical on the negative side that has extra electrons and they use a closed circuit to travel to the positive side of the battery which houses a chemical deficient in electrons. Without the alt, the cathode would fill up as the chemical attraction between the two chemicals in the battery reduces and it would be seen as reduced voltage.
17 Silverado 170amp factory alternator. Nape 80a agm, & xs power d1200, xtr1500, xtr500.4 . It's a daily driver. I do a maintenance charge about every three months so far no problems. Been up and running about three years. Going to upgrade charging so I can upgrade a little
This is why I try to aim for efficiency, and why I like Williston/BigDWiz efficiency % tests on amps. I have 2 12s in an isobaric configuration in a 3.4cuft box previously tuned to 16.1 hz and now at 28.5hz; wired to 4 ohms. I only need 250-300w to hit xmech. I don’t think I could ever go away from isobaric setups now.
@@blakebrockhaus347 from my exp with a clamshell, the ohm load doubled, but I still could hit the same excision w/o touching the gain. Ie: still bottomed out the sub. Plus, most cases when you increase the ohm load you increases dampening and amp efficiency. So i actually got more output out of a cheap amp I had. But in terms of like 2 subs parallel, you r right, but the cons vs isobaric pros is that the frequency response in the same box will hit lows louder, so it’s a win-win tbh. Try it and it’ll blow your mind.
What I would like to see conceptualized is the difference in these max power Dyno runs on a test tone as opposed to what the average output and current draw is in a vehicle playing a couple of music genres ranging from heavy base to less so.
The old school beer style caps can help when used in lower power setup adding one to my setup with just a kicker 600.1 gave me a gain over 1 volt and that’s using the cheap Walmart 500k cap. I got it for free so I tried it.
Great cover of the big details of cheap and powerful amps. I have to add my experience. I Powered a 2k skar amp fully off of a 400ah lithium ion battery I made, with very little dip in voltage. With a 20amp battery to battery charger made by renogy solar, it made stock alternator use a breeze. It's not like we are cranking these systems up for extended periods of time, so on some instances, this is a good idea too.
@@DIYAudioGuy the renegy controller charges with the vehicle alternator, only when the remote trigger is on, or ignition is on. The renogy will charge at 20 amps until it hits a preset voltage, which I think is 14.7v max. They make larger versions. So a 4s4p 400ah lithium ion battery to diy will set you back $1000. However, a 200ah pack would probably do just as good for 200amp draws.
@@DIYAudioGuy if you want to do a pt 2 to that video, I'd build you something to try out. I have some 130ah cells I could part with, just to see my idea tested. No cost, no need to return.
in older vehicles like from the 70s you only had light bulbs and ignition coil to power but today there are computer modules that are sensitive to noisy power so your car could be effected. you can get a cheap clamp meter and it should give fairly good reading the only thing i can think of that the more professional ones would have is maybe better features and better safety like forgiving for applying voltage across the resistance ports and settings or across the current ports and settings by having internal bleeder shunts to bleed off the voltage to the resistance and current ports and ensure a blown fuse. cheap meters may or may not blow the fuse before destroying the meter.
I love the 9106d it’s a great amp. I run 8 of them in my jeep 😎 this amp makes a load of power and can handle high input signal voltages (I feed mine 15v from my matrix line driver and never had issues.) only thing I don’t like is the terminals are not big enough to run 0 gauge power wires easily, you need a reducer or run 4 gauge.
I have the 2 channel version of this amp that bridges to 500w rms a JBL p1222 subwoofer in a box the same as what U have 🤣 factory alternator with a odyssey extreme pc1750 battery , it slams hard glad too know these amps put out there rated power
My setup is two xs power d3400 batteries, two massive audio hippo xl122r, two jp33 amps and a 320 amp alternator. And of course the big 3 upgrade. I have yet to check the voltage on full til because it keeps snowing here.
Got an LTO XSPower VX6500 under the hood and a D4S LTO6.0 in the back powering a B2 Audio Rage 2500v2. Still got the stock alt with the big3. 13' Ford Edge V6.
@@DIYAudioGuy Have you looked at the jp40 lithium battery? Might be cost effective to get one of those and then put an ultracap under the hood. Just a thought.
Project Farm channel showed the best car batteries with his awesome tests I'd give it a look if you want to see which battery really was best, and it wasn't the red top optima, not even close
@@DIYAudioGuy you're a busy guy Question, is there or should there be a noticeable difference between 2 or more amps from different companies that offer the same stats like mtx kicker skar etc offering 500 watts max @ 2ohms And what really makes a subwoofer hit deep lows. Watts, magnet size, or what? If you could answer this or make a video some day that be incredible
80a factory alternator, Odyssey agm, 24ah Headway bank, big 2 (can't get a good connection to the alt post) powering a Sundown 2500. I check my voltage periodically and it's always strong but I don't push it for very long.
First something to know about newer cars/trucks is that they do not run at 14.5 volts anymore, they run 13.5 volts and are switched charging. Switched charging is when the ECU controls the alt and loads and unloads it, this is done in the name of "Fuel savings". But like the stupid start-stop in new cars/trucks it does nothing to help real world MPG numbers, just makes shit wear out faster. So you're starting out a full 1volt less than and older car/truck, and the OEMs started using them at different times. Toyota has it as far back as mid 2000's with Ford picking it up in the 2010's. Second you really need the BIG 4, the BIG 4 is the same as the BIG 3 but you add a direct ground to the rear casing of the alt. In some alt setups the casing grounds through the front cover with the rectifier mounted on the rear casing. It then has to pass through the casing bolts to the front casing then to ground. On almost all alts there is a threaded hold on the back of the casing and it's for a ground strap, take it straight to the chassis. Also on Toyota's if you have weird voltage fluctuations you need to completely replace all your main power and ground wires. For some reason Toyota used bare copper wire and did not seal the ends of the terminations and this causes corrosion to start and travel down into the casing and ruin the wire and increase resistance. I have cut open tons of their Alt Cable's to find over a foot of corrosion into the insulation. I normally replace with a Marine grade OFC tinned cable and make sure to seal all crimps and terminations with Marine grade heat shirk, that fixes the problem and keeps it from happening again.
Mechman makes a 240 and a 320 for my engine. The 240 makes more power at idle and the 320 makes more at higher RPM Mechaman tech support told me to measure my drive shaft pully. If it was big enough then the 320 would make more power than the 240 at any engine RPM. IT WAS!
Running new 12v amg under hood, big 3, 320 ho alt, and d4800 xspower in parallel. Pushing cab45 about half way up Running two vxf12s and a d4s 234 Running highs and mids. It runs nice but i still need to install the pwm controller to trick the computer to charge without running lights or a/c
I’m still on a stock 150A alternator. I have an additional ground cable from engine ground up to main battery ground. I have a Rockford Fosgate T600-4 running front 2-way RF T1 components, no rears. A Memphis VIV700.1 running a single Memphis M6 12” sub, all from an AC DM-810. Total rated RMS wattage with the sub wired to 2 Ohms is 550W. On music, testing mostly metal, the system draws an average of about 10A at my normal windows-up listening volume. For my battery, I use an Odyssey Performance series group 48/H6…which is overkill for my system, but I’d rather be safe than sorry because my TCM needs all the power it can get😂 (it’s a DPS6 for those that know)
Xs power battery to replace my stock battery and also have a high output alternator and big 4 upgrade. Supporting 3000w rms. Best idea is to replace the stock battery with a xs power and then upgrade your alternator and wiring.
I got a 320a alt at 14.8 with 64ah headway bank and xs power d3400 on an isolator powering a smart 5k. I only drop .3 or .4 in a Mercedes-Benz E350 🤷♂️
I have a 2021 Toyota Hybrid,the hybrids take their 12v dc from a ac to dc converter,not an alternator! Toyota recommends 30a max acc power,I have a JP3 that can pull 100 amps on bursts,have never had any voltage problems,the 12v battery in the hybrids is a deep cycle type,as this battery does not start the car. Hybrids do not headlight dim,no alternator,or any other belt device! I also have a rav4 hybrid with a sub and amp,they work great for modest systems.
I upgraded to a BNR Parts - 200 Amp High-Output Alternator just for my Skar Audio - RP-1200.1D amplifier wired at 1-Ohm. The amplifier is very inefficient at 1-Ohm @ 54% efficient & my headlights still dim pretty badly & my 200 amp high-output alternator can not keep up with the heavy current draw. I changed to LED headlights but they still dim down to about half there brightness at full undistorted volume level. I have tried everything I can to stop voltage drop but sometimes there is too much current draw even with a high-output alternator to help solve the problem.
Great video as usual bro... In Our country,lithium is still very new and not really aimed at car audio.. I wonder how those 100ah deep cycle solar lithium batteries will work for car audio...it's the only ones we can get Our hands on currently
I've been trying to learn as much as I can about lithium batteries lately. My understanding is that those batteries do not have a fast discharge and recharge rate. Apparently the thing that makes the magic happen in car audio is the discharge rate. If you put a bank of those solar power batteries into your car it would perform like a big AGM battery.
The more I read about lithium the more confused I get,I see numerous companies now offering "drop in" replacement lithium batteries for vehicles,plenty 100ah aswell,they actually look very much like a stock lead acid battery that fits under the hood,but strangely when I read the specs of these batteries(they also have built in BMS)...they say "max" charge current 25A...won't a stock alternator put out much more amplege to this lithium battery.
@@DIYAudioGuy I definitely get that! The Klein one was only 80 or so from Home Depot though and it seems quality. Even came with a temperature sensor (cool but unnecessary tbh)
DIY audio guy: how about a guide for finding the right amplifiers to use for a hybrid car where you are limited by your 12v battery and charging system. ive seen some people run 2,000 watts in a prius say they have no problem and others say if you run more than 500w you could case fires. its a minefield of misinformation out there! More and more cars are going hybrid and electric it's not so simple as buying an upgraded alternator and adding auxiliary 12v batteries anymore!
love your vids... even got an oscilloscope to tune the amp (nice)... problem I'm running into is 3 letters: BMW... My alternator is liquid cooled embedded into the timing cover (M62TU 4.4L V8). In theory it should be 150A. I am running the SKAR Audio RP-600 5 channel AB/D powering 2 SKAR VD-12 D4, and 4 Kicker 5 1/4. I stripped out all of the OEM stereo/nav 'stuff' that I could find from tracing wire harnesses and figure that should 'free' some overhead to power the amp/head unit. BMW has a beefy 2/0 possibly 3/0 wire going from the alternator to the battery (in rear hatch- 1999 540it wagon) which already uses an AGM battery. TL:DR Question: How much do you predict I could throw at this system before needing to manufacture a bracket to add an 'external' alternator, which I would then run 2 separate voltage systems, OEM and audio? Mind you, I am not looking to find the resonant failure point of 23 year old plastic bits, or do the t-shirt floating in window trick... but I would like to occasionally scare the neighbors :D
Holy crap that is crazy. When did luxury get redefined to mean over-complicated? The problem is that all of the fancy electronics are going to soak up most of your alternator's capacity. So I have no idea how much power you can run. I would not go more than 1kw.
@@DIYAudioGuy I probably should have recorded how much each of the devices consumed while operating before I took them out. You showed in your video the KLEIN clamp meter. I use the one I got from homedepot almost daily and is an excellent entry level meter, but does not support DC. Another one I use for DC power is the Reed 5030 clamp meter for testing 24V/125A welders. The Reed meter is a great meter if you're looking for "I don't have to sell a kidney for a meter" price point. If you're looking for HIGH amp readings, the Reed 5060 goes upto 2000A DC.
Nice video, Sir. However.....adding batteries to a stock or aftermarket can technically help. This because you create a larger pool of power stability. Now, if you run all your extra batteries into the dirt.....theeeeeeen your alternator will hate life. Alternators like to maintain or top off batteries, not completely recharge them.
@@DIYAudioGuy I’m my 25 years of car audio and being the importer of mechman and xs power to New Zealand I’ve always lived by the saying of you need power to make power. Using a cap bank on certain 2k Amps if seen over 2800wrms out of them, the good things of holding 14.9v ,)
I had no idea these answers were so popular! When I bought mine several years ago it was a good deal, but the price seems to have shot up a bit since then.
i've got a question :D I'm running a 74Ah 750 CCA battery with an stock 120A alternator, Big 3, an Vibe Subwoofer with 450W Rms and a AB Class Crunch 2ch amp, which can output 1x600W Rms 4ohm and 2x300W Rms at 2ohm, the sub is DVC 2ohm ... And when i crank the Gain up the lights with the engine running are start to flash :)) ... I''ve got good 4AWG cables, good grounds points ... And now my question : If i buy an clas D amp which is more efficent, then clas AB, and it drows less current, my headlights stop flashing :-? Or shoud i upgrade the battery with an 80 or 100Ah and 800 CCA :-? Sory if my english is bad :D Thanks
Those crunch apps are probably only doing about a fourth of their rated power. Honestly, you should have enough electrical to support that much power. Switching to a more efficient amplifier will help, and upgrading the battery will help. I recommend that you do both. But there's no guarantee that that will completely fix the problem.
I have a question about audio and the power needed for the speakers. I have an amp that is rated 2*220 x 350 for the sub. If I get speakers for this 2.1 channel amp should I be looking to get 2 speakers that add up to the rms or 2 speakers that are both equal to the rms?
@@DIYAudioGuy yeah, I've been monitoring power output. With all accessories turned on and I mean everything, I can still pull 60 amps without voltage drop. Stock alternator is 140 amps. According to my amp clamp, with everything turned on and my amplifier pulling 60 ampers, total current output from the alternator is approximately 128 amps. So I am absolutely positive that any power upgrade will need an alternator. 90% of the time I'm driving the car when I'm playing music, but the other 10% I like to draw a little crowd in the parking lot at my job. I work for AAA so I'm surrounded by a bunch of car guys who are indeed quite interested. As the weather gets warmer, I do spend a bit more time in parking lots. I looked up linkwitz Transformer. I kind of want to test that out. I'm not sure how far I'll go with it though because my goal is to get a two and a half Cube ported box, and eventually 1,000 RMS. Keep up the good work buddy, I am a big fan
I need to ask you a question, about sundown subs like the one you have, what's the quality of the sound compared to jL audio,and where did you get the box?
That depends on the car, and how hard you push that amplifier. Is your car has a 90 amp alternator and you crank it up to 11 every time you're in the car, for the entire time you're in the car, you will have problems. If you're riding around in a heavy duty pickup truck with a massive alternator from the factory and you listen to your music at a moderate volume and very rarely crank it all the way up then you will be fine.
So I have 2015 royta corolla s and I'm pretty sure mechman said I could put a HO alt in my car for some readon..I can't remember exaxtly why but JS alternators says they sell them for my car so now I'm confused because 2 reputable companies have told me to different things and I don't wanna spend almost 500 just to guess of it will work or not..csn anyone help me with this??
for the love of God do not buy the d4s LTO 6.0 it's a horrible battery and absolutely a horrible value. which lithium setup you go with would really depend on charging voltage. anything above 14.4v and 6s lto takes the cake, under 14.4v and 4s lifepo4 typically is used granted it has a lower lifespan. sometimes you can get away with 5s lto but usually you need a changing system that charges low like realistically 14v or less. else you start to eat up the lifespan of the lto cells. cylindrical cells don't require compression and only containment, punch cells and several but not all block cells require compression and containment. if it were me I would want to run a 40ah 6s lto setup at 15-15.5v in conjunction with a 6s ultra cap under the hood. this should easily support 4kw and be rather low strain on the alt. I like ultracaps under the hood due to the increased temperature range they can operate in. plus the closer you get them to the starter the easier the care will start. and since you are ditching the traditional batt under the hood they work well as a battery delete. the lto in a single 6s configuration can be configured to fit a large variety of shapes be it the traditional 6 pack 2x3, end to end pole style, or sitting next to each other in a 1 layer thick approach 6 cells wide. the 15.5v is acceptable for most car electronics and 15v is plenty to get 85% of cell capacity while being low enough for most sensitive car systems. if you already have a large reserve bank of lto and want more dynamic power the shenquan 6ah cells are amazing for the size. they can pulse discharge 75c which is 450amps and continuous 40c or 240amps from a 6ah bank. I love using these in conjunction with the normal yinglong banks right next to large amps but they are expensive and little reserve capacity makes them fairly niche use.
Send and email to diyaudioguy@gmail.com with the word wire in the subject line. I have an auto-reply set up that should take you to the spreadsheet. You just have to download it.
I have a stock alternator in my 2019 Chevy Trax LT but I have a full throttle 4800 AGM an isolator in between that and my D4S 6.0 LTO and a 500 farad cap bank for a D4S JP23 on 2 Resilient Sounds RS 10'S voltage doesn't drop below 13.5
To learn more about amp power check out this video: ruclips.net/video/GuK0FLijYDE/видео.html
I have a Mechman alternator, 0 gauge Sky High Big 3, a Kinetic HC1200 under the hood, and a Kinetic HC600, running about 1200 total RMS in the trunk of my Mustang. No dimming lights and starts up no problem every time. The HO alternator is the best investment I've ever made in 30+ years of car audio.
💪💪💪
My 2016 GT basemodel has stock components - 1800.1 kicker RMS - no issues 😮
@@Youngsoldier93 I think V8's are usually good on alternator output.
Thanks for the shout out! Can’t wait to see what amp is going in the truck.
I have not decided for sure yet. Hoping to catch some black Friday deals (or a sponsor) before I pull the trigger.
Not only do I really dig the content that you share, I take notice to the extra care and effort you do with the editing. The sequencing, video effects, fades, jump cuts... and not to mention the background tracks and sound effects are also all on point. Look forward to the alternator install. 💪🏽🔥
You are far too kind.
Great video, very informative.
I've used the super expensive Fluke clamp meters and the $20 no brand clamp meters. You won't notice the difference, apart from maybe the resolution of updating is 0.2 seconds slower.
I recommend buying the $20 one. The other reason is, that you are going to be paying for features you're probably never ever going to use.
Good advice.
I second this. I work in electrical motor repair and we have name brand test equipment that can be serviced and calibrated. That is were the additional cost is as compared to some cheap Chinese equipment we keep for reference only spot checks that is realistically just as accurate.
Man, it really gets complicated when you want to go over a few hundred watts it seems. I love how in-depth you go with this stuff. I've said it before, but you car audio guys are brave!
Audio itself is a complicated subject when you delve into it. Cars and how they operate, especially these days, are a whole other headache…now combining them? Oh boy…
Brave, Stupid, it's the same thing.
Truth.
Great video!!
Not to be cliche, I recommend running headway. It’s a great balance between energy density, cost and compatibility.
Mechman alternators are fantastic. I had a 240 amp Mechman in my pickup. Battery technology wasn't what it was today, but I remember having 2 giant 1000CCA batteries in the back. They were huge and super heavy. Built for commercial trucks. Was running 8K watts with that setup. Btw you should check out Kaiweets HT208D clamp meter. Has inrush and all the features you want.
Thanks! I'll make sure and give that a look.
In my daily I do have a 300A alt from GP. I’ve done the big 3 and also have 3 runs of 1/0 sky high to my back battery. With that being said, I use Northstar batteries. As I don’t have the tools to actually test them I had to rely on the Internet for information. The research that I did looked promising. And one thing that I noticed is that it was hard to find negative reviews about them. I threw one in my sons car on a big 3 and a sundown 1k and it handled it well. So my daily has the agm34/78 under the hood and a smsagm220 in the spare. It’s running two sundown 1500’s and even though I’m usually around 14V I never go under 13. The front battery is three years old and the back one is two. I should get plenty more use out of it considering my kids battery is six years old and still running strong.
💪 that sounds awesome!
I put a optima yellow cap battery under the hood, big 3 1/0 gage, and yes a 5 fared power cap. Running 2 amps, and a crossover on a factory alternator. No issues thus far but plan to upgrade alternator down the road since I m adding a complete 3 dvd screen set up as well.
Thanks for all your videos! I'm running one CES Large Case 390 regulated cold start 16.3 volts, down once warm to 15.6 to 144ah of Lishen LTO powering 4 Orion HCCASPLX3ks to 4 Crossfire C-7 18s walled in a Bobby encloser called a "slid in" yes, I cut the back wall of my truck out to slide this 500lb pound box in place. Still in the install stages have not played the woofers yet, I have the celling and back walls left to fab up, I should be powering it up in 3-4 weeks.
Holy crap!
Sometime when you don't need that much power, you can simply limit your amp using proper calibration and keep running it off stock electrical. We don't need 4 digits+ of power to have a good sounding and loud enough system, but it's harder to find quality amp with lower power output, so better use the quality amp anyway, but just not at it's maximum output.
True
This is true, but if you just go big on your electrical system right away then all your "cheap" high powered amplifier power is just that, inexpensive. I remember when I was in high school over 20 years ago now and if you had a 1000 watt amp in the car pushing two 12s your car was "bumpin". Now I have two 8000 watt amps pushing two 15s and my car is "meh".
You are exactly right.
Best tip I can give, don't rely on the alt to fully charge your battery. It's best to charge your batteries with a charger once in awhile. This will extend the life of your alt.
Yep I have a battery charger connected to my rear battery and a power inverter in my car. Once a month I turn on the battery charger overnight to top off the batteries.
yes alternator output matters alot!!! yeah they cost alot but will make a big difference power to amp and subs.
The alternator is the only component that makes power.
If you're like me and enjoy older vehicles it can also be a challenge. In my 83 S10 it had a 37 amp alternator. Previous owner did an electric fan upgrade. I put a simple 250 watt amp running a single JBL 10 inch sub and I had to turn the stereo down at stop lights because the fans would slow down and it would start to heat up lol. I ended up getting a bigger stock alternator from a different truck, but that was crazy, even with that small of an amp.
I remember those days! That truck probably had hand crank windows, so that 37a alternator was all the truck needed.
@@DIYAudioGuy carbureted V6, no computer, manual trans, manual windows and lock. It was as basic as it got. But with a simple sound system you could watch that volt gauge drop like a rock
Some vehicles even run better after they get electrical upgrades. Several of my old cars ran better after alternator upgrades and fixing old grounds.
its definitely not just the alternator. you need to have the battery bank to match or be better then what is needed for your system then you can run any size alternator to keep it topped up as you don't have your tunes cranked all the time
I use to run a stock 135 amp alt with a 5x100AH battery bank on 5000+ watt system with no light dimming at all
mind you all upgraded cabling 0/4 haha
great video btw!
The main thing is that you can't just throw a 5kw amp in your trunk and hope for the best.
It makes sense you wouldn't have too many issues with such a large bank. I think many do not realize how current flows in a DC circuit powered by an electrochemical battery. The sole job of the alt is to force extra power into the positve side of the battery so electrons drop from the cathode and can then exit the battery from the negative pole. Electrochemical batteries are designed with a chemical on the negative side that has extra electrons and they use a closed circuit to travel to the positive side of the battery which houses a chemical deficient in electrons. Without the alt, the cathode would fill up as the chemical attraction between the two chemicals in the battery reduces and it would be seen as reduced voltage.
17 Silverado 170amp factory alternator. Nape 80a agm, & xs power d1200, xtr1500, xtr500.4 . It's a daily driver. I do a maintenance charge about every three months so far no problems. Been up and running about three years. Going to upgrade charging so I can upgrade a little
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This is why I try to aim for efficiency, and why I like Williston/BigDWiz efficiency % tests on amps.
I have 2 12s in an isobaric configuration in a 3.4cuft box previously tuned to 16.1 hz and now at 28.5hz; wired to 4 ohms. I only need 250-300w to hit xmech. I don’t think I could ever go away from isobaric setups now.
Absolutely!
isobaric lowers efficiency tho
@@blakebrockhaus347 in comparison to just one of the drivers, it doubles actually
@@blakebrockhaus347 from my exp with a clamshell, the ohm load doubled, but I still could hit the same excision w/o touching the gain. Ie: still bottomed out the sub.
Plus, most cases when you increase the ohm load you increases dampening and amp efficiency. So i actually got more output out of a cheap amp I had.
But in terms of like 2 subs parallel, you r right, but the cons vs isobaric pros is that the frequency response in the same box will hit lows louder, so it’s a win-win tbh. Try it and it’ll blow your mind.
What I would like to see conceptualized is the difference in these max power Dyno runs on a test tone as opposed to what the average output and current draw is in a vehicle playing a couple of music genres ranging from heavy base to less so.
The old school beer style caps can help when used in lower power setup adding one to my setup with just a kicker 600.1 gave me a gain over 1 volt and that’s using the cheap Walmart 500k cap. I got it for free so I tried it.
You can't beat that price!
@@DIYAudioGuy dang right and the voltage display comes in handy lol
You can put a 4001n diode or two on the exciter wire and it pick your charge voltage around 1/2 a volt as well.
Great cover of the big details of cheap and powerful amps.
I have to add my experience. I Powered a 2k skar amp fully off of a 400ah lithium ion battery I made, with very little dip in voltage. With a 20amp battery to battery charger made by renogy solar, it made stock alternator use a breeze.
It's not like we are cranking these systems up for extended periods of time, so on some instances, this is a good idea too.
Did you charge it overnight every night, just when you knew you needed to top it off?
@@DIYAudioGuy the renegy controller charges with the vehicle alternator, only when the remote trigger is on, or ignition is on. The renogy will charge at 20 amps until it hits a preset voltage, which I think is 14.7v max. They make larger versions.
So a 4s4p 400ah lithium ion battery to diy will set you back $1000. However, a 200ah pack would probably do just as good for 200amp draws.
@@DIYAudioGuy if you want to do a pt 2 to that video, I'd build you something to try out. I have some 130ah cells I could part with, just to see my idea tested. No cost, no need to return.
Just put my Singer hairpin 250 in my 2022 wrx and couldn't be happier
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in older vehicles like from the 70s you only had light bulbs and ignition coil to power but today there are computer modules that are sensitive to noisy power so your car could be effected.
you can get a cheap clamp meter and it should give fairly good reading the only thing i can think of that the more professional ones would have is maybe better features and better safety like forgiving for applying voltage across the resistance ports and settings or across the current ports and settings by having internal bleeder shunts to bleed off the voltage to the resistance and current ports and ensure a blown fuse.
cheap meters may or may not blow the fuse before destroying the meter.
On a lot of modern cars if you replace the battery you have to go back in and clear a bunch of low voltage codes afterwards.
Those "ultracaps" have a recall on them. they have been known to catch fire.
I was just looking at some of the B-stock ultracaps and read about that. Best I can tell the B-stock are marketed for off-road use only.
I love the 9106d it’s a great amp. I run 8 of them in my jeep 😎 this amp makes a load of power and can handle high input signal voltages (I feed mine 15v from my matrix line driver and never had issues.) only thing I don’t like is the terminals are not big enough to run 0 gauge power wires easily, you need a reducer or run 4 gauge.
8 of them? Wow.
I have the 2 channel version of this amp that bridges to 500w rms a JBL p1222 subwoofer in a box the same as what U have 🤣 factory alternator with a odyssey extreme pc1750 battery , it slams hard glad too know these amps put out there rated power
My setup is two xs power d3400 batteries, two massive audio hippo xl122r, two jp33 amps and a 320 amp alternator. And of course the big 3 upgrade. I have yet to check the voltage on full til because it keeps snowing here.
Got an LTO XSPower VX6500 under the hood and a D4S LTO6.0 in the back powering a B2 Audio Rage 2500v2. Still got the stock alt with the big3. 13' Ford Edge V6.
I am debating between a pair of the D4S LTO6.0s and a single XS power Titan 8, or a JY Power LiFePo and a battery delete.
@@DIYAudioGuy Have you looked at the jp40 lithium battery? Might be cost effective to get one of those and then put an ultracap under the hood. Just a thought.
@@AToMx2k10 That is one of the ideas kicking around in my head, if not an ultra cap then a battery delete so I have a place to mount fuses.
Project Farm channel showed the best car batteries with his awesome tests I'd give it a look if you want to see which battery really was best, and it wasn't the red top optima, not even close
That video popped up in my news feed, I have not had time to watch it.
@@DIYAudioGuy you're a busy guy
Question, is there or should there be a noticeable difference between 2 or more amps from different companies that offer the same stats like mtx kicker skar etc offering 500 watts max @ 2ohms
And what really makes a subwoofer hit deep lows. Watts, magnet size, or what? If you could answer this or make a video some day that be incredible
80a factory alternator, Odyssey agm, 24ah Headway bank, big 2 (can't get a good connection to the alt post) powering a Sundown 2500. I check my voltage periodically and it's always strong but I don't push it for very long.
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I have a Uni-T UT210E multimeter with a current clamp, it costs $25-30 and I think it's great. But the ones you shown for $130 are, of course, better.
I will have to check that out.
First something to know about newer cars/trucks is that they do not run at 14.5 volts anymore, they run 13.5 volts and are switched charging. Switched charging is when the ECU controls the alt and loads and unloads it, this is done in the name of "Fuel savings". But like the stupid start-stop in new cars/trucks it does nothing to help real world MPG numbers, just makes shit wear out faster. So you're starting out a full 1volt less than and older car/truck, and the OEMs started using them at different times. Toyota has it as far back as mid 2000's with Ford picking it up in the 2010's.
Second you really need the BIG 4, the BIG 4 is the same as the BIG 3 but you add a direct ground to the rear casing of the alt. In some alt setups the casing grounds through the front cover with the rectifier mounted on the rear casing. It then has to pass through the casing bolts to the front casing then to ground. On almost all alts there is a threaded hold on the back of the casing and it's for a ground strap, take it straight to the chassis.
Also on Toyota's if you have weird voltage fluctuations you need to completely replace all your main power and ground wires. For some reason Toyota used bare copper wire and did not seal the ends of the terminations and this causes corrosion to start and travel down into the casing and ruin the wire and increase resistance. I have cut open tons of their Alt Cable's to find over a foot of corrosion into the insulation. I normally replace with a Marine grade OFC tinned cable and make sure to seal all crimps and terminations with Marine grade heat shirk, that fixes the problem and keeps it from happening again.
You are 100% right.
Great video Justin can't wait for the alternator install . I've got a 2010 ram I've been vacillating to do an alt or not.
Mechman makes a 240 and a 320 for my engine. The 240 makes more power at idle and the 320 makes more at higher RPM Mechaman tech support told me to measure my drive shaft pully. If it was big enough then the 320 would make more power than the 240 at any engine RPM. IT WAS!
Running new 12v amg under hood, big 3, 320 ho alt, and d4800 xspower in parallel. Pushing cab45 about half way up Running two vxf12s and a d4s 234 Running highs and mids. It runs nice but i still need to install the pwm controller to trick the computer to charge without running lights or a/c
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I’m still on a stock 150A alternator. I have an additional ground cable from engine ground up to main battery ground. I have a Rockford Fosgate T600-4 running front 2-way RF T1 components, no rears. A Memphis VIV700.1 running a single Memphis M6 12” sub, all from an AC DM-810. Total rated RMS wattage with the sub wired to 2 Ohms is 550W. On music, testing mostly metal, the system draws an average of about 10A at my normal windows-up listening volume. For my battery, I use an Odyssey Performance series group 48/H6…which is overkill for my system, but I’d rather be safe than sorry because my TCM needs all the power it can get😂 (it’s a DPS6 for those that know)
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Xs power battery to replace my stock battery and also have a high output alternator and big 4 upgrade. Supporting 3000w rms. Best idea is to replace the stock battery with a xs power and then upgrade your alternator and wiring.
Definitely going to do a big 3.
I got a 320a alt at 14.8 with 64ah headway bank and xs power d3400 on an isolator powering a smart 5k. I only drop .3 or .4 in a Mercedes-Benz E350 🤷♂️
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I have a 2021 Toyota Hybrid,the hybrids take their 12v dc from a ac to dc converter,not an alternator! Toyota recommends 30a max acc power,I have a JP3 that can pull 100 amps on bursts,have never had any voltage problems,the 12v battery in the hybrids is a deep cycle type,as this battery does not start the car. Hybrids do not headlight dim,no alternator,or any other belt device! I also have a rav4 hybrid with a sub and amp,they work great for modest systems.
I upgraded to a BNR Parts - 200 Amp High-Output Alternator just for my Skar Audio - RP-1200.1D amplifier wired at 1-Ohm. The amplifier is very inefficient at 1-Ohm @ 54% efficient & my headlights still dim pretty badly & my 200 amp high-output alternator can not keep up with the heavy current draw. I changed to LED headlights but they still dim down to about half there brightness at full undistorted volume level. I have tried everything I can to stop voltage drop but sometimes there is too much current draw even with a high-output alternator to help solve the problem.
Have you tried the big 3 upgrade?
Great video as usual bro...
In Our country,lithium is still very new and not really aimed at car audio..
I wonder how those 100ah deep cycle solar lithium batteries will work for car audio...it's the only ones we can get Our hands on currently
I've been trying to learn as much as I can about lithium batteries lately. My understanding is that those batteries do not have a fast discharge and recharge rate. Apparently the thing that makes the magic happen in car audio is the discharge rate. If you put a bank of those solar power batteries into your car it would perform like a big AGM battery.
@@DIYAudioGuy so the most reasonable gain will just be weight saving...damn
@@vpowerelectrix998 plus reserve capacity.
The more I read about lithium the more confused I get,I see numerous companies now offering "drop in" replacement lithium batteries for vehicles,plenty 100ah aswell,they actually look very much like a stock lead acid battery that fits under the hood,but strangely when I read the specs of these batteries(they also have built in BMS)...they say "max" charge current 25A...won't a stock alternator put out much more amplege to this lithium battery.
Great video I have a question about how to hook up a dap amplifier with a after market radio
dap?
I’ve got that Klein hall-affect clamp meter. Works great id recommend it, no need to buy the expensive Fluke ones (I do like Fluke though I wish haha)
I'm debating between that and a Harbor freight model. I just can't resist the cheap tools at Harbor freight.
@@DIYAudioGuy I definitely get that! The Klein one was only 80 or so from Home Depot though and it seems quality. Even came with a temperature sensor (cool but unnecessary tbh)
DIY audio guy: how about a guide for finding the right amplifiers to use for a hybrid car where you are limited by your 12v battery and charging system. ive seen some people run 2,000 watts in a prius say they have no problem and others say if you run more than 500w you could case fires. its a minefield of misinformation out there! More and more cars are going hybrid and electric it's not so simple as buying an upgraded alternator and adding auxiliary 12v batteries anymore!
That's a different ball game.
love your vids... even got an oscilloscope to tune the amp (nice)... problem I'm running into is 3 letters: BMW... My alternator is liquid cooled embedded into the timing cover (M62TU 4.4L V8). In theory it should be 150A. I am running the SKAR Audio RP-600 5 channel AB/D powering 2 SKAR VD-12 D4, and 4 Kicker 5 1/4. I stripped out all of the OEM stereo/nav 'stuff' that I could find from tracing wire harnesses and figure that should 'free' some overhead to power the amp/head unit. BMW has a beefy 2/0 possibly 3/0 wire going from the alternator to the battery (in rear hatch- 1999 540it wagon) which already uses an AGM battery.
TL:DR Question: How much do you predict I could throw at this system before needing to manufacture a bracket to add an 'external' alternator, which I would then run 2 separate voltage systems, OEM and audio? Mind you, I am not looking to find the resonant failure point of 23 year old plastic bits, or do the t-shirt floating in window trick... but I would like to occasionally scare the neighbors :D
Holy crap that is crazy. When did luxury get redefined to mean over-complicated? The problem is that all of the fancy electronics are going to soak up most of your alternator's capacity. So I have no idea how much power you can run. I would not go more than 1kw.
@@DIYAudioGuy I probably should have recorded how much each of the devices consumed while operating before I took them out. You showed in your video the KLEIN clamp meter. I use the one I got from homedepot almost daily and is an excellent entry level meter, but does not support DC. Another one I use for DC power is the Reed 5030 clamp meter for testing 24V/125A welders. The Reed meter is a great meter if you're looking for "I don't have to sell a kidney for a meter" price point. If you're looking for HIGH amp readings, the Reed 5060 goes upto 2000A DC.
Nice video, Sir. However.....adding batteries to a stock or aftermarket can technically help. This because you create a larger pool of power stability.
Now, if you run all your extra batteries into the dirt.....theeeeeeen your alternator will hate life. Alternators like to maintain or top off batteries, not completely recharge them.
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The car will
Use 60-70% out of the factory
Alternators output. Therefore If
You have 100a alternator you only have a max of 30a spare to run a system.
Fortunately the battery will help bridge the gap, but batteries don't make power.
@@DIYAudioGuy I’m my 25 years of car audio and being the importer of mechman and xs power to New Zealand I’ve always lived by the saying of you need power to make power.
Using a cap bank on certain 2k Amps if seen over 2800wrms out of them, the good things of holding 14.9v ,)
@@Andrew_kiwi_AF what mechman alternator fits an fg falcon then ? 😅
@A. Melbs hey man. Where in aus are you?
I had 2 of thoes Kenwood amps on 4 mofos and it blew me away. 1000 watts at 2 ohms they were rated. absolutely rocked my car.
I had no idea these answers were so popular! When I bought mine several years ago it was a good deal, but the price seems to have shot up a bit since then.
@@DIYAudioGuy they are 300 a piece now
I had it on 4 12 Kenwood kfc w112s and it was bad ass
i've got a question :D I'm running a 74Ah 750 CCA battery with an stock 120A alternator, Big 3, an Vibe Subwoofer with 450W Rms and a AB Class Crunch 2ch amp, which can output 1x600W Rms 4ohm and 2x300W Rms at 2ohm, the sub is DVC 2ohm ... And when i crank the Gain up the lights with the engine running are start to flash :)) ... I''ve got good 4AWG cables, good grounds points ... And now my question : If i buy an clas D amp which is more efficent, then clas AB, and it drows less current, my headlights stop flashing :-? Or shoud i upgrade the battery with an 80 or 100Ah and 800 CCA :-? Sory if my english is bad :D Thanks
Those crunch apps are probably only doing about a fourth of their rated power. Honestly, you should have enough electrical to support that much power. Switching to a more efficient amplifier will help, and upgrading the battery will help. I recommend that you do both. But there's no guarantee that that will completely fix the problem.
I have a question about audio and the power needed for the speakers. I have an amp that is rated 2*220 x 350 for the sub. If I get speakers for this 2.1 channel amp should I be looking to get 2 speakers that add up to the rms or 2 speakers that are both equal to the rms?
That is an unusual amplifier. What is it?
2x 84A duracell regural car batteries, 86A alternator and amps at 1040W rms ans 1,8KW speaker rms.. in theory.
That is pushing the limits!
@@DIYAudioGuy ruclips.net/video/kUsFWO08CO0/видео.html
I'm looking at aftermarket alternators. My alternator is currently the reason I am locked into my current amp.
Pay close attention to the power output at idle, especially if you plan to sit in a parking lot and pound away.
@@DIYAudioGuy yeah, I've been monitoring power output. With all accessories turned on and I mean everything, I can still pull 60 amps without voltage drop. Stock alternator is 140 amps. According to my amp clamp, with everything turned on and my amplifier pulling 60 ampers, total current output from the alternator is approximately 128 amps. So I am absolutely positive that any power upgrade will need an alternator. 90% of the time I'm driving the car when I'm playing music, but the other 10% I like to draw a little crowd in the parking lot at my job. I work for AAA so I'm surrounded by a bunch of car guys who are indeed quite interested. As the weather gets warmer, I do spend a bit more time in parking lots. I looked up linkwitz Transformer. I kind of want to test that out. I'm not sure how far I'll go with it though because my goal is to get a two and a half Cube ported box, and eventually 1,000 RMS.
Keep up the good work buddy, I am a big fan
My new alternator can pull 160 amps at idle, 339 peak. And you can feel it, at idle the alternator is feeding the amps all of it.
I need to ask you a question, about sundown subs like the one you have, what's the quality of the sound compared to jL audio,and where did you get the box?
I am very happy with the sound. This one came preloaded in an enclosure. Hit the link in the description to check out the box.
I will, thanks.
will an 800 watt amplifier be too strong for my alternator and battery?
That depends on the car, and how hard you push that amplifier. Is your car has a 90 amp alternator and you crank it up to 11 every time you're in the car, for the entire time you're in the car, you will have problems. If you're riding around in a heavy duty pickup truck with a massive alternator from the factory and you listen to your music at a moderate volume and very rarely crank it all the way up then you will be fine.
?? I used the old stiffening caps ( still do on a kicker cxa 600) what’s the knock on these now if you’re around 12-1300 watts ?
I am just not a fan of them. I don't believe that they work as intended.
i need that power source you are sing where can i purchase one?
amzn.to/3yzjmmH
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Thanks for watching!
So I have 2015 royta corolla s and I'm pretty sure mechman said I could put a HO alt in my car for some readon..I can't remember exaxtly why but JS alternators says they sell them for my car so now I'm confused because 2 reputable companies have told me to different things and I don't wanna spend almost 500 just to guess of it will work or not..csn anyone help me with this??
I don't have any experience with that car.
@@DIYAudioGuy just think it's odd mechman says no but JS says yes ...idk what I should do lol
@@DIYAudioGuy I did not relize how messy my first message was..I apologize for you trying to read that atrocity lol
So upgrading ur amp to 7k u would need new alternator or big is ok
You'll definitely need to upgrade the alternator and add extra batteries.
@@DIYAudioGuy
Sorry or adding big 3 will work
You need to pressure wash your engine bay...if you're in Cali I'll do it 😆
I pop the hood and give everything a thorough wipe down the other day. It's not perfect but it looks a whole lot better.
@@DIYAudioGuy awesome, I detail cars, so you showing it some love eases my anxiety thank you 🤟🏼
for the love of God do not buy the d4s LTO 6.0 it's a horrible battery and absolutely a horrible value.
which lithium setup you go with would really depend on charging voltage. anything above 14.4v and 6s lto takes the cake, under 14.4v and 4s lifepo4 typically is used granted it has a lower lifespan. sometimes you can get away with 5s lto but usually you need a changing system that charges low like realistically 14v or less. else you start to eat up the lifespan of the lto cells.
cylindrical cells don't require compression and only containment, punch cells and several but not all block cells require compression and containment.
if it were me I would want to run a 40ah 6s lto setup at 15-15.5v in conjunction with a 6s ultra cap under the hood. this should easily support 4kw and be rather low strain on the alt.
I like ultracaps under the hood due to the increased temperature range they can operate in. plus the closer you get them to the starter the easier the care will start. and since you are ditching the traditional batt under the hood they work well as a battery delete.
the lto in a single 6s configuration can be configured to fit a large variety of shapes be it the traditional 6 pack 2x3, end to end pole style, or sitting next to each other in a 1 layer thick approach 6 cells wide.
the 15.5v is acceptable for most car electronics and 15v is plenty to get 85% of cell capacity while being low enough for most sensitive car systems.
if you already have a large reserve bank of lto and want more dynamic power the shenquan 6ah cells are amazing for the size. they can pulse discharge 75c which is 450amps and continuous 40c or 240amps from a 6ah bank. I love using these in conjunction with the normal yinglong banks right next to large amps but they are expensive and little reserve capacity makes them fairly niche use.
That's a lot to take in! I'll be charging at stock voltage so I'm pretty sure lto cells will work just fine.
Where can we get that excel spreadsheet you use?
Send and email to diyaudioguy@gmail.com with the word wire in the subject line. I have an auto-reply set up that should take you to the spreadsheet. You just have to download it.
I have a stock alternator in my 2019 Chevy Trax LT but I have a full throttle 4800 AGM an isolator in between that and my D4S 6.0 LTO and a 500 farad cap bank for a D4S JP23 on 2 Resilient Sounds RS 10'S voltage doesn't drop below 13.5
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