Aftermarket Sound: Require Other Vehicle Mods? (Battery, Alternator, etc.)

At what point, if ever, does an aftermarket sound system require vehicle modification-improvement? Ill be having your typical dual amp (one for sub, one for speakers) setup and am wondering if thats standard affair or if it will have some form of impact on my truck.

Thanks!

 

I asked the same thing! I was told with the TRD setup that I have the AMPs would get plenty of juice. I never get any dimming. I am going to upgrade my battery to a Shuriken 120 amp hour battery that I am getting from my installers. It is battery made just for audio systems.

 

I used Kinetik batteries 2 HC600 100 fared capacitor with the stock battery and alternator with no problems.

 

^You mounted them on the left side as opposed to the stock location? What was the reason for that? Also, what are you running that you need so much juice?

 

Stock location had the original battery still with 0 gauge wire. Heres most of what i was running. In a DBC 2007 prerunner sr5 longbed

 

nice old school PG/Hi Fonics

 

Thanks

 

You need upgrades (bigger alternator) when the average current draw of your amplifiers exceeds 120% of the amount of current your alternator can produce minus the amount of amperage the normal electronics in the truck can pull.

Say for instance, you do a current draw test on your truck with lights on bright, interior lights on, heater/ac on full blast, radio (without amps) on full blast, windshield wipers on and let the windows up or down. Lets say in this situation a draw of 50 amperes is measures. The stock alternator has an output of 130 amperes. That leaves 80 amperes of current draw left.

80 amperes x 13.4 volts (output voltage of alternator) = 1072 watts of total RMS wattage from your amps. Keep in mind, regardless of the rated power of your amps, you will only ever pull that power less than 20% of the time. most likely anyway.

Thats as a rule. The alternator can safely produce 120% of its rated power for short times.


The battery in the truck is there simply to crank the truck. After that, the alternator provides all power to the vehicle. When there is a problem, such as lights dimming when the bass hits hard, then what happens is the current draw of the amps exceed that of the alternator's capability, and so power is pulled from the battery. Then, the alternator has to struggle to power the system, and the truck, and recharge the battery, which results in light dimming as there isn't enough power to go around.

Extra batteries and capacitors are bandaids to the real problem, too small of an alternator. Get a bigger one, and all problems are solved.

Its also dangerous to have multiple batteries without a battery isolator between them so the alternator isn't trying to recharge multiple batteries at once, and shortening the lifespan of the alternator.

Not yet.

 

Thanks for the schooling there but ive been running this setup for a few years now with no problem.

 

Great post Corey! I agree that a larger/more batteries are a bandaid but they have their use too. If you listen to music with the truck off for a while (at the park, SQ comps) then having some extra juice is a must.

I would say though, that exceeding 120% of the max alternator output (based on average draw from amps) would be a bad idea. Reason being is that the alternator (to my knowledge) doesn't produce it's peak amperage at ALL RPM's. So you wont be getting all 130 amps all the time. And also, if you max out your amplifiers every now and again you would go into severe debt with your battery. 120% is already debt but it's somewhat recoverable if you don't listen all the time. I for one, listen to music nearly 100% of the time in my vehicle.

 

So Corey do you think Im going to have problems with my TRD Off Road running two amps powering a single sub and some components up front?

 

^Not likely. Unless that sub amp is going to be doing 1000+RMS or something crazy.


Also, something that most people don't understand is that an amp that makes 500RMS DOESN'T MAKE IT ALL THE TIME! So for example, that 500RMS amp running a sub. You have the volume fairly low; it's probably only doing like 10RMS or something. Only when the amp is at full tilt will the rated power be produced.

 

Also, I think the 130 amp alternator only came with the trucks equipped with the towing package. All other stock trucks came with the 90 amp alt if I remember correctly.

 

I am running a JL Audio Slash 1000/1, Slash 300/4, 1.0 Farad capacitor and Optima Red...still dim my lights.

 

Ive got the tow package for what its worth.

 

Excellent, me too. And I got it FOR the alternator specifically.

 

Damn I am so jacked to get this stereo installed...

 

Like others said, really unnecessary unless you play your system with your car off, or you just running some amps with ungodly high current draw, like say the old Phoenix Gold ZPA amps. As long as you make sure you ground your battery to chassis and amp to chassis with the same gauge wire as the power wire you use, you should be fine.

That being said, you could do the big 3 upgrade. There's a million debates and opinions on whether this does anything however. But when I installed my system, I had some nifty battery clamps, a bunch of 1/0g wire, and some fancy PG compression terminals just sitting in a drawer, so I did this to mine. Batt (-) to chassis, Batt (-) directly to alternator housing (basically engine block), and Batt (+) to alternator.

Was it necessary to do this? Prob not, and prob def not in 1/0 g. But I had the stuff, so why not. Did it help the stereo? Again, probably not. I'm running the same JL HD 900/5 amp Italyn Stylion is, which doesn't have much current draw and has get to get hot even under my seat.

BUT my truck does seem to run better now. Seems much smoother, if that makes any sense at all. I thought it might be just me, but my buddy also noticed it when he rode in it. So that makes it worth it to me at any rate.

 

Thats because that Hifonics Europa amp is rated at 30 watts per channel, 4 channel, and the zuess is 600 watts rms into 2 ohms. Thats a total of 720 watts. You aren't pulling enough current to really tax your electrical system. Actually, the batteries and caps are probably overkill for your system. You will have problems if your current draw does increase by almost double with any regularity and starts to drain from all those batteries.

Nice looking install none the less.

I don't have the book next to me, but I am positive it says in on of the two MECP study guides that the power draw of the audio system and the rest of the electronics in a vehicle can be 120% of the alternators rated output, as its unlikely anyone ever will use full power and use all of what the alternator can provide anyway. So while the system is capable of pulling that much, under normal use it wont, therefore it doesn't actually exceed the alternators capability.

 

Agreed