130 amp alternator enough

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ra0062

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Joined: December 10, 2006

Location: United States

Posted: April 21, 2007 at 7:06 PM / IP Logged

I'm thinking about running 3 amps. The fuses required for the power wires of the three amps are 50, 50 and 40. I have a 130 amp alt. and have upgraded the big three, and have a yellow top optima battery.

Of course I won't be cranking the volume to the max every minute the truck is running.

Will my charging system be enough?

Would my lights dim when it's cranked up?

sedate

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Joined: July 03, 2004

Location: Colorado, United States

Posted: April 21, 2007 at 11:58 PM / IP Logged

ra0062 wrote:

I have a 130 amp alt. and have upgraded the big three, and have a yellow top optima battery

I have a smaller alternator and about the same amount of current draw. My primary charging system upgrades are the big 3 and a Yellow Top as well... and I have no problems or any light dimming.

Those Yellow Tops are unstoppable.

ra0062 wrote:

Would my lights dim when it's cranked up

This however you'll sort of need to hook up and find out. Personnaly, I've never put a yellow top in a car and still had light issues, but I'm not 100% on this one.

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ra0062

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Joined: December 10, 2006

Location: United States

Posted: April 22, 2007 at 10:34 AM / IP Logged

From what I've read here in other posts, (I'm pretty sure) that once the motor has started, your running off the alternator only. Please someone correct me if I'm wrong.

But, like you said, I'll have to wire it up and see what happens.

sedate

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Posted: April 22, 2007 at 2:17 PM / IP Logged

ra0062 wrote:

Please someone correct me if I'm wrong

Hehe. I've been in flame wars with this entire board on this subject.

Umm. Strictly speaking, this is not precisely true. In terms of starting your car and everything being equal.. it is, but your hooking up huge amplifiers... in your case you will be relying heavily on your battery.

You're alternator will put out voltage hovering around 14v, while your battery will put out voltage hovering around 12.5v... So what happens is that when your amps pull lotsa of current, the available current might drop down to about 11v right? The battery is what makes up that difference... again, up to about 12.5v..

In your case, your voltage drops will *certainly* be rather severe, but the Yellow Top shouldn't have any problems dealing with them or failing after being put up to such a huge load.

Your alternator does power the vehicle while it is on, but only to a certain point. You will certainly eclipse that point considerably.

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DYohn

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Joined: April 22, 2003

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Posted: April 22, 2007 at 2:38 PM / IP Logged

You run off your alternator only, unless your system demand is so severe that the alternator cannot keep up, and then the battery is used to help supply the load until it, too, cannot keep up. IMO if you run an alternator that is so severely overloaded that the battery must be used regularly, you have created a recipe for an eventual burned-out alternator (and perhaps other damage to the vehicle's electronics.) The correct way to set up a system is to use an alternator with sufficient capacity to supply your system's load with batteries as surge capacity and for powering the system when the car is off.

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ra0062

Member - Posts: 46

Joined: December 10, 2006

Location: United States

Posted: April 22, 2007 at 6:20 PM / IP Logged

Point taken, I really don't want to burn the alternator or any other electronics. I'll have to factor that in my budget...with this upgrade.

Thanks for the help guys.

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130 amp alternator enough

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