LUVTruck.com

what are any of you guys running for higher output alternators?
im running a 50amp alt on my luv right now but it isnt enough to keep up with everything, at idle i can see my lights start to dim and if i rev a bit they get visibly brighter. need a new battery soon so that isnt helping matters either

i figure somewhere around
1000w stereo system = 83.333A @12v
headlights... 10a?
wipers 5-7a?
engines ignition another 5-10a?
so by rough estimate 103-110amps at max load on a rainy night.

anyone who isnt sure on the conversion between measurements
Amps = watts / volts
watts = volts x amps
volts = watts / amps
/ (divided by)

anyone find a way to fit something like a 100amp check alt or something similar?

_________________
Luvless
1980 Mikado-Sold.

1993 Lexus SC400 my Daily
2004 Yamaha WR250F my new love in life
2016 Toyota Camry my girls ride

I was thinking of upgrading the alternator on my El Camino recently.

Can't you just find one on Summit for a SBC and slap it on?

Think your stereo system might benefit from a capacitor?

I would say a capacitor and another battery are in order. If it were me I would just add another stock alternator and wire it for the stereo only. You would have to add another pulley or use a string to measure a new belt.

im still running my 1.8 not sure oif a sbc alt would work on it or not. worth a shot
im adding a capacitor when i build a new box and the sub to have a better fit and some more room.
i do have a nissan 60 amp alternator floating around that i could use for the stereo it fits the stock mounts close enough and i have the room... may end up doing that

_________________
Luvless
1980 Mikado-Sold.

1993 Lexus SC400 my Daily
2004 Yamaha WR250F my new love in life
2016 Toyota Camry my girls ride

I am sure you club fab up a set of brackets to make any alternator work. You will want to add a second battery. The battery is just a storage place so you don't get voltage spikes. I have a hard time seeing anyone driving around at night in the rain and the steroid at peak power. Think of a town with only one water pump. It can't supply the complete town at peak times but it can pump water up to a tower to have enough in storage for the peak output times and resupply when the demand is low.

_________________
Certified pilots, looking down on people since 1903.

i have thought about putting my bed toolbox back in and putting the battery back there and add a second one. my old battery leaked and ate up my battery tray and a lot of other parts REALLY quickly by the time i noticed it the battery tray was pretty much toast.
and yeah i do avoid blasting my stereo at night but being in WA it gets dark and rainy early in the day in winter so having everything on at once does happen pretty often. i try to keep the stereo off anytime i have the blower motor, lights and wipers on at the same time.
picking up a capacitor on my next payday to at least help keep everything in check for the time being. would kill for an optima battery

_________________
Luvless
1980 Mikado-Sold.

1993 Lexus SC400 my Daily
2004 Yamaha WR250F my new love in life
2016 Toyota Camry my girls ride

If you did run these many amps and got 1 optima battery would that be enough?

Or is two batteries pretty much mandatory for all that?

Where would you all put the second battery?

I'm thinking of running all the same stuff basically (some time in the future), maybe more lights even, and whenever I get one of those fog light or driving light kits I swap out the 55 watt H3 halogens for 100 watt. So that could be an extra 400 watts if I run off road lights on a bar too.

I would guess one battery would be able to handle the amp, but you would need to make sure everything is designed correctly. I had a 1986 Suzuki Samurai that had the stock alt and one battery. I ran 4 Orian red amps, 4 kicker 12 woofers, a ton of mb quartz mids and highs and never had a issue. Asking questions like will this work or that work is hard to answer without seeing everything you have going on. Bad connections cause higher amp usage and so on. If you are looking for answers I would say you need to talk to a shop that installs high end systems and go with what they say.

_________________
Certified pilots, looking down on people since 1903.

Good point, with old vehicles it always make sense to check for bad connections etc. before doing anything extra electric related.

Even a high output alternator won't put out 100% at idle. You could try a bigger pulley on the alternator.

It's unlikely your 1000w amp is drawing 1000w all the time, if ever. That's 1000w maximum, and depends on the impedance of your speakers, as well as some other factors. It's likely usually running much lower. What's the RMS output of the amp?

For comparisons sake, my band's PA is rated at 10,000 watts peak, and runs on 110v without tripping a 30 amp breaker.

As the red rocker says "50,000 watts of power and it's pushing overload"

_________________
Certified pilots, looking down on people since 1903.

depends on the optima battery they have standard starting batteries (red), marine deep cycle (blue) and starting/deep (yellow) i would be looing for the starting/deep cycle..
havent looked lately.
and the amp and sub are both 500w rms, i have a second of the same sub i am not using yet. im only worried because i am planning to add the other sub as well as a second amp to run 4 mids and tweeters.. dubstep tends to work a stereo pretty hard lots of bass but i doubt im seeing over 750w very often, my current setup can keep up as long as im not sitting in traffic a long time at idle, i usually put it in neutral and hold the idle closer to 1500 if im going to be sitting a bit,

i did fry two old 30amp alts and my old battery with my current system so i got a new to me (slightly used in a friends truck before it was wrecked) battery and the 50amp alt, was going to use my nissan 60amp but its internal reg and i havent taken the time to figure out how to yank out the stock regulator and wire up a internal reg alternator yet.

thank all of you for the input

luvrv8 that is a hell of a lot of stereo for a samurai must haave heard it coming from the next town over

_________________
Luvless
1980 Mikado-Sold.

1993 Lexus SC400 my Daily
2004 Yamaha WR250F my new love in life
2016 Toyota Camry my girls ride

It was in car audio magazine back in the day, I won't say how many years ago but around 20.

_________________
Certified pilots, looking down on people since 1903.

You could add 10 subs and you won't go over the output rating of the amp. It's hard to go over the RMS rating, and if it happens, it's just for a second or two.

good to know for sure! the only time i could see it pulling a lot of power is during a long bass heavy dubstep song where the sub is constantly pumping
so lets go with 500w instead of 1000w
would be 41.66 amps
so i would still be right around the limit of my alternator if i had the stereo, lights and wipers on but not nearly 2x the max it like i was thinking, i can make up for that with a capacitor and a new battery and should be just fine

i noticed the other day the sub being right behind my pass seat has started to powderize the old seat foam and it has a little pile of yellow dust behind it now. and the list grows again

that is awesome a lot of people on this site seem to have been featured in different mags over the years. i am still trying to picture how you were able to stuff 4 12's in a samurai

_________________
Luvless
1980 Mikado-Sold.

1993 Lexus SC400 my Daily
2004 Yamaha WR250F my new love in life
2016 Toyota Camry my girls ride

Re-do your math, it's way off. That amp will not draw over 40 amps as you think. I bet it would never blow a 20amp fuse. Where is your info coming from? Again you need some help from someone in the know to map this out. And my Samurai was a 1986 model, the only year ho have a factory hard top, the back of the body was built into a wall. My Orion red amps I am willing to bet put out much more power then your amp does and this was 20 years ago, again my stock alt held up fine.

_________________
Certified pilots, looking down on people since 1903.

was going from the conversion of 12v @1amp = 12watts
http://www.supercircuits.com/resources/ ... -Converter

_________________
Luvless
1980 Mikado-Sold.

1993 Lexus SC400 my Daily
2004 Yamaha WR250F my new love in life
2016 Toyota Camry my girls ride

not trying to have a pissing contest here i am just going by power coversions that i read into a lot when i was researching solar power systems which are also 12vdc or 24vdc so virtually the same thing. clearly you have more experience with car audio systems i am just concerned about keeping my truck reliable without burning up electrical components in my daily driver. being stuck on the freeway with no power to run your truck sucks and i have done it enough times now to know my electrical system needed an upgrade from stock. i know its about all i have as it because as soon as the stereo is turned off the windshield wipers start going a lot faster.

i want to add a 500w amp to run the mids/tweeters im picking up from my buddy but there is just not enough power coming from the alternator to be able to support it reliably. i wont say it couldnt do it but running at 100% output is not good for any kind of electrical system and will cause it to wear out a lot faster than it would if i was running a 100amp alt with a small pulley and a battery that could handle the power draw at idle

going to see about making a nissan quest 105amp alt fit in and figure out the wiring for internal reg.

_________________
Luvless
1980 Mikado-Sold.

1993 Lexus SC400 my Daily
2004 Yamaha WR250F my new love in life
2016 Toyota Camry my girls ride

The amp you listed may say 1000w but to get there many factors must be met. From what I see you will not get there with wat you have in this thread and others. To get the max watts from amps there are a ton of factors involved, I have a hard time seeing your set up pulling over 20 amps. The amp you said you have is not a real high end one, this will even downgrade the watt output. When I said your numbers were off I ment the real watt output of your amp.

_________________
Certified pilots, looking down on people since 1903.

You design your charging system for the AVERAGE load that you see most of the time, not the peak loads you may see at times. That is the batterys job. So get the biggest battery that fits, the regular 50 amp Luv alternator, and you should be fine.
Think of the battery as a giant capacitor because that's what it is.