I'm trying to decide what to do. Heres the deal. I upgraded my amp to one with double the power, and now its seriously tugging on my volts, I can't even turn it up pass 20% without of dimming of all lights on and in the car. Any higher than that, the amp cuts out due to the volts bottoming out below 11v.

So I wanna ask you guys your thoughts? I'm thinking of just getting a better battery like an optima yellow top.

Should I get a new battery?
Should I get a second battery?
Should I get an optima?
New alternator?
2nd alternator?
Capacitor?

Thanks you guys, and as always, I value your options and comments.




[System]

• 1 Rockford Fosgate PRIME R1000-1D (1000W RMS, PRIME Series Class D Monoblock)
  
• 2 Rockford Fosgate P3D2-12 (12" Dual 2 ohm)
  
• 2AWG power and ground spaded
  
• 1 ACD78-60 Battery CCA=670 CA=800 Reserve
  Capacity=110
  
  Wired down to 2 ohms

 

a nice strong battery. i recomment the die hard platnum, thats what i run but idk, its only lasted me 2 years and its already dying so maybe not? i did do some seriouse thumping and plenty of compeating one summer i imagine it'd last a bit longer. and at 220$ youd want a battery to lol

 

Yea thats what I was thinking too

 

A second battery or even a good primary will eliminate the need for a capacitor.
Hell, its best to avoid caps all together.

Your surefire and direct way to fix your problem is to get a new technology sealed battery and replace your starting battery with it.

I recommend XS Power over Optima or anything else really.

They are pricey, you'll be looking at $250 for a single XS D3400, but that's pretty much all you'll need (except a few adapters for the top to sidepost. They have them that allow for cable connections on top for stereos).

Second option is to run cable and add a second sealed battery to the mix in the trunk. I did this for a few years on my previous builds. You can run one of the cheaper XS batteries for that as long as your cabling is good and your starting battery is a quality high amp battery and not the factory or factory equiv. The smaller XS batteries are about $150.

 

Appreciate the info, never heard of XS Power before, but I'm about to look into them.

 

My mechanic who built my Monte ( he's not a stereo guy) said a capacitor will save your alternator from premature failure. See's so many cars come in with big audio systems that have bad alternators from the sub pulling power and spiking the alternator output. These guys know their stuff enough for me to respect their opinion...... Perhaps forum member Millhouse will chime in, he's one of the top dogs here when it comes to audio systems.......

 

The capacitor is more or less a bandaid though.

I agree, on an aged battery and a stock alternator a capacitor is going to help the electrical system survive and be a bit more stable.

However,
Cable upgrades, and a well made sealed replacement battery for under the hood will get you a lot further, and eliminate the need for a cap.

And if you're running more than 1 battery a cap would be moot anyway.

The thing is, you're looking at running a pretty well powered car audio system. Why not get a battery that's made for it.

I'm pretty sure one sealed battery, whether its Optima or XS or Stinger or whatever, rated for at least the ~2k your system does, will do the trick for cheaper and less work than overworking a Die Hard and adding a cap to it.

Eventually the OP is going to be looking at an alternator upgrade as well.

 

Yea I was looking into a new High-output Alternator, but its seems to be hard to find one that is truly high-output at 1000rpm's. Every damn alternator company want to stick "high-output" on there alty's because they reach 300A at 7000rpms.

 

Im running 4000 watt system in mine....
Mine already had the correct wires, When it was instahled...
However mine to also dimed the headlights etc...when I cranked it up...
I then got a heavy duty alternator from the dealer, Like they use in emergency vehicles,police cars etc.....
13 yrs later....and my system is still working like it did when i got it instahled....

 

you mean like from the Chevy dealer? How do I go about getting one?