capacitor

Okay...with the first part, you missed the point.  I haven't had enough interaction with the posters to know their style and how to take them, feel me?

Thank you VERY much for that information.  I completely understand what your'e saying and I appreciate the straight-forwardness of your posting.  The way it was explained to me before was....the capacitor stores electricity for the amp when needed, so it's not a constant draw on the battery, therefore...allowing less of a draw on the battery which means it's easier for the alternator to keep the battery charged.  So basically, if I had a strong enough amp and I hooked it directly to the battery with no cap, and I pumped it loud and long enough...I could essentially drain the battery before the alternator had a chance to recharge the battery. 

Does that make any sense to you?

Understood...and thank you.

DYjohn is right again, as I keep noticing on this board.  I think the common misconception on Caps out in the world is that the cap is 'isolated' from the electrical system as far as power strain is concerned.  As D was explaining, the cap needs to recharge after the amp 'sucks it dry', and thus draws the current from the system to 'fill it back up' 

As far as the newer vehicles coming with 50 different power plugs throughout the car, the idea is that they would most likely be used for cell phone chargers and the like, which draw very little current.  Even the power plugs in the back of vehicles, like some of the Ford SUV's, are intended to be used while the vehicle is parked and not running.  So in this scenario, the alternator doesn't even come into play.  This is where the smaller alternators are being used more and more in passenger vehicles, and smaller SUV's.

I get customers all the time that don't understand how much a 1000watt system taxes the stock electrical system.  They want their cake and eat it too.

Which would be wrong.  Whoever told you this does not understand how capacitors work... and probably has a number of other misconceptions as well.

Thanks.  I just realized I've been doing this kind of stuff for a living for 35 years.  This month, in fact...

This is what I'm starting to understand.  This had never been an issue for me because my previous systems all fell under 500 watts and never gave me any issues as far as lights dimming or anything.  The current amp I have now is pushing at least 600 watts and an installer here in my area suggested installing the cap...so I did.  However, still having the issue with the lights dimming had me turn to this forum where I've received a lot of great advice in the past.

I've been really good a putting together good quality average power systems, but I'm getting started with systems that are a bit stronger and now I'm understanding that one must take into account how that system will affect the vehicle in terms of draw on the electrical system.  I've learned a lot, but I'm not ashamed to say I have a lot to learn as well.

Well...it now makes sense as I'm still having the dimming light problem, which caused me to turn here to see if I can get a 2nd opinion...which I did.  Again...thank you very much!

So...can I assume that I really don't even need the capacitor in my system?  I can take it out and everything should run as it does now?

You don't even need a capacitor in your system.  You need to upgrade the big 3 and probably get an HO alternator.