ncc74656

my HID's are american made, got them for about 300.00 and they work very well, i am quite happy with them. a friend has some Hids in his car and they are no where near as bright as mine. it is my interior lights that dimm, i would say the gauge cluster and after market gauges dimm as if they go from 14V down to about 7V. i am gauging this based on intensity of light and not by a meter but its quite noticeable. with out the sub on i only see a small flicker.

i do have 55W hids and they are fine. the lights dimm quite drastically in the cab when my sub is full tilt however i also am pulling power with a 2500W kicker, a 800W eclipse, and a 300W audiobahn (rough numbers) while driving down the road and 90% of my driving time is spent with the system at <95% volume. i am currently planing to add a second 2500W kicker and perhaps a second 18" sub (2 Fi team 18's) so i was thinking it may be time to just build up a second dedicated power system. i do not believe the current PCM runs the alt at full tilt for more than a 40% duty cycle (per my repair manual) so i was thinking switching to an external voltage regulator would be greatly beneficial. i have been reading into conductivity of 1/8" mild steel and question if i should have the batteries under the truck with in 1' of a grounding block for the amps so as to allow me to ground directly to the batteries vs to the frame. is it possible that my frame acting as the grounding point is the issue given the large power draws i am pushing?

i already picked up a couple KX2500.1's. i dont think im in need of an amp atm but i can throw that offer out to my co worker, he is wanting to build a 4th order.

I have a guy waning to buy my SP4 so im considering an upgrade. the low end bass of the 29hz box has grown on me and i want it louder. my thought was to keep my 8.2 cubic box that i have my SP4 in and use that for a Team 18. I currently run a single KX2500.1 (2005 model) for my SP4. I was thinking of setting it up with a second KX2500.1 and buying a dual 2 ohm T18. then running 1 amp per coil, throwing my factory alt back into my truck and bracketing my mechman next to it. taking my 3 AGM G49's and isolating them along with the mechman into a dedicated power plant for the stereo and letting my factory alt handle my normal vehicle needs with a couple cheap lead acid batteries. the specs of the TEAM seem very close to that of the SP4 so i would think the box would work just fine as its made of 1.5" mdf. of course i can always build a new one but i wounder if thats necessary given how similar the subs are. has anyone on here run 1 amp per coil before? i have never done it but i would think i could use a DMM to voltage test the outputs and match them to keep both amps in sync. anyone see a reason why this would not work?

how much power could one safely put into a fully loaded Fi q 18? i got my sp4 fixed and will be testing some boxes but if i dont get the sounds i want i am going to sell it and buy another sub. the Q seems a logical choice as i want more frequencies but also want to keep the volume. i am undecided on single or dual or sealed vs ported. my thought was that if i replace the SP4 i would get 2 q's and thus have greater cone area with more control and higher bass frequency range. in my mind that would mean i could get more volume out of them than the sp4. the power handling would be close to the same

its my dash lights that are dimming, i have one headlight as my retro solutions relay pack is not arriving until Thursday. then ill have my hids back in and running. could i just throw a cap with a diode on the fuse box for hte truck and let that fix the issue? its only 40A worth of internal ringamaru while the trucks running. i am in the process of ordering the recommended o scope, however shipping seems to be an issue as the local Richie express rail road has broken down. don't worry tho as once its back up i will for sure order that sucker for over night delivery.

spent all day today working on my truck and with in the next week i expect to have an amp again for my sub. so let me tell you what my intended lay out is, what my electrical will be, and then you tell me if you think i will need a power cell in with the amps and what size capacitor i should use. 2 batteries under the hood (both AGM). one diehard platinum marine group 31 [1150CCA, 205RC, 100AH] and one diehard gold group 49 [975CCA, 190RC, 95ah] battery. I will have CCA 0ga connecting these batteries to each other, the alternator, frame, block, and 8ga for body. alternator will be a mechman 320A with 0ga ground and power directly connected. I will have either an eclipse 34320 OR a audiobahn A275HC powering a set of Hertz 165.3 components in the front I will have a ZX2500.1 powering my SP4 18" sub. my rear speakers will be on the deck (just some cheap o's). would it be worth upgrading them? i dont think i can hear them in the front seat anyway. I have an option of running new OFC power wire to my 2500.1 OR running 2 runs of CCA 0ga. undecided as to wich i will do. now to my question. should i add a power cell in back and what farad cap should i install. to be clear i am not looking for a cap to help with light dimming but rather to ensure proper, clean power to the amps. thanks.

sweet, thanks. see now thats a helpful gent right there. he does not get hung up on the question of application but rather gives a useful link to a product that he himself owns and uses. what a guy. on another note: my lights are dimming a bit when driving, i just got the system running again tonight and my voltage is steady over 13V but i still have a bit of dimming. what would you suggest i do to solve the issue? i still have my factory alt i could add back to the system to give me a further 138A or i could buy a 3rd battery.

spent all day today at work on my truck. brings the total up to 23 hours spent on the electrical and stereo but its all rewired, distro blocks, fuses, OFC wiring, ect. i have a few grounds to replace but apart from that things are looking up. now we do not have a o scope at our store and i would like ot buy a basic one to play with and learn to tune with. can you recommend an o scope that will be appropriate for this job that does not break the bank?

meh, i suppose what ever makes the money... on a side note i spent 4 hours today in the shop pulling my truck apart. i swear to god i have no idea what i was thinking when i installed 40% of this wiring. im heading to pick up an amp tonight and tomorrow i hope to get things running again. i also got around to replacing my batteries today and now the truck is running VERY strange so i need to pull everything out of the engine bay tomorrow and figure out what wire i missed during the rehook, its such a mess under there that i cant make heads or tails of most my harnesses. the previous owner added a plethora of wires that are T tapped and but crimped together all over the place. If i had 3 days off in a row id love to just pull all the factory wiring and rip all the junk out of it. edit: i went out and bought a craigs list amp, 300 bucks for a KX2500.1 from 2005, the guys that are 1 ohm stable. ill be running at 2 ohm but im still expecting it to be better than my old ZX2500.1 from 08. factoring in the price id say i would be hard pressed to have made a bad buy.

im not saying i would ignore it but its like; if you build cars and you know your market likes having noise while driving so you add paddles to whack the ground while driving would you want your cars to be known for knocking while going down the road? there many ways to make a box look good with out deliberately adding performance degrading hardware to it. i fully agree that you want to do what ever you can to hold and grow your core market but at the expense of quality and performance seems counter productive to me.

i do think bose sound very good but again i do not think they sound as good as there price. a nice set of sony floor standing speakers with a good receiver (like a yamaha) will sound better for the same price compared to bose, imho. still as a company i would think that there name is worth something. the same company that makes the BC2500.1's puts out this crappy sub design... just dont get it.

i had some issues at sears but now finially got my order placed. i got 2 group 49 AGM batteries for my truck. i currently have 2 group 31 lead acid batteries that still work (sort of) but are rather lack luster for starting the truck. so my thought was i save 15.00 on the order per battery to trade my 120.00 group 31's in (they are 1 year old) OR i could keep these 2 as a secondary isolated battery bank that i could abuse as i wanted with out much worry. do we think this is a decent idea or should i just core charge them? they are 1150CCA 195RC batteries. the truck has its stereo and a 16K Lbs recover winch on the front. my thought was that while the truck is running it should not matter what batter is plugged in where as the alternator is handling it all. however i would want to have 2nd ignition relayed into a isolater so the liquid batteries do not drain the charge from the AGM's. i was thinking of wiring these batteries into the system while the truck is running to give more over all battery power for the entire system and power grid to use and while off the accessories could run off these older batteries and i could install a switch to put hte winch on just these guys so i dont drain the AGM's. thoughts?

i have not used one or worked with one before so idk. i dont see how it would matter to isolate while the engine is running so that makes sense. so the isolators trip over only when the engine is running; is what your saying? when the engine is off and only accessory is on the isolator does not enable both battery banks right?

i would buy the hertz drivers in a heart beat, they sound much better than my alpines ever did and a lot better then my current setup. i intend to pick them up in January some time. they are about the same price as alpine and that price range is acceptable to me for speakers. i do think its ludicrous to spend 1200.00 on a set of speakers however, i also cant wrap my head around those rockford preloaded P1's. its a dual 12" enclosure with a vent in the center and they have a grill in the middle. i installed one the other day and was horrified by the port noise that thing has! i was embarrassed to turn it on in-front of hte customer but he thought it sounded better than any other sub he had heard. i just cant fathom why Rockford would design a box with there name on it that is tuned so high and has such poor port design.

lol, im not sure about this driver to that one but i do know the focals are very clear. that said i can not hear a 1000.00 difference from the VERY nice sounding hertz components to the 1200.00 focals. still, some people do spend the money.

ha, at the very least you could check out our 1200.0 focals, ill even sell ya a pair

i am reading more into skin effect now. i do recall that DC did not get skin effect but i think i was told at work that i was wrong about that. although i may have misunderstood, trying to take in a lot of information about a lot of things all at once.

now electrons flow on the outside of the wire (skin effect) so the more surface area of wire you have the more power you can send. the CCA wire is less efficient as it is not pure copper but rather aluminum wrapped with copper so it heats up far faster and has more resistance than OFC due to this and thus can not carry as heavy of a load. this is my present understanding. what is incorrect about this?

more power will flow through high strand count than low strand count so the CCA would have been an upgrade. aside from that the factory wires were extremely oxidized and had many holes in the insulation. my starter wires cracked in half when i tried to remove it :/.

yea, from the factory it came with 2 batteries with 0ga VERY THICK strand wire. i replaced it with some CCA 0ga a while ago.

thats mine. large winch on front with a cable attached to the truck. thats the place. ive started doing my own remote starts now and am learning a crap load about wiring and now that im seeing what bad wiring performs like i have a much better understanding of how it all works. I need to see how the right and wrong way of any project functions in order to properly understand it and feel like i have a grasp on it. in other words its not enough to say "if you touch these 2 wires together it will arc and trip a breaker" i need to do that in order to fell i fully understand how it all works. we are fully into remote start season now but come spring when we start more on stereo stuff i intend to learn how to fab up amp racks and the like.

OK. Do we think these 2 agm batteries will be enough for the system or will I need more batteries or a second alt? I still have my 130a factory alt.

its not necessarily required for work but it would help in future jobs and give me more leverage when talking wages. ill be redoing the install over the next 2 weeks. i am not sure i will have time to build a rack yet but i really do want to. ill see how ambitious i get in -20F weather.

this was my thought process. mixing 2 CCA batteries would not be an issue as they are both 12V and both new so one would not draw from another in any scenario except perhaps running accessories for an extended period with the alt off. the RC being lower on one would cause a mismatch if i drain them all the way but outside of that id think there would be no issue or performance hit by having these 2 batteries. secondly for caps what i was thinking was to ensure hte amps get smooth voltage, devoid of all spikes and dips caused by other accessories powering up and down or what ever else may fluctuate voltage in my truck. seeing as i have a HO alt and strong batteries i am under the impression that a bank of smaller caps would be beneficial in this capacity. i was reading into rockfords caps as these were recommended to me by a coworker "if you really want to go down that road". honestly im not sure i do want or need to go down this road, what i DO KNOW is that i want to do everything i can to ensure my new amps get proper and consistent voltage. I know caps are a load on a system and that they take time to recharge and that they can not supply large amounts of power but that's not the ultimate goal is it? there goal is to provide a buffer to smooth out inconsistency in a circuit OR to supply a larger burst charge to power up an electronic (such as your AC compressor on the side of your house or a bank of high voltage lights). ultimately perhaps my setup is perfectly fine as is, perhaps i need to add a second alternator, a third battery, a bank of caps, or some combination of such things. I am looking for a confirmation that what i have is good or if not then what is recommended to bring it to that next level. edit: as is my headlights do not dimm so that's a non issue. the truck is a diesel so it uses very little power to keep it going. id say under 40A to run the entire truck excluding my add ons. the math i found online was to take the AH of your batteries added to 2/3 of your alts output and that would dictate how large of a system you could run. for caps it should be 1f per 1KW is what my coworker told me today but i found online that 1f per 500W is whats recommended. i have not referenced the MECP or loud speaker books yet.