picking a battery ?

 have a 99 dakota sport club cab
3 12" audiobahn subs
1 mtx amp pushing around 1500watts.

factory battery died while in storage this winter. it was old anyways.. so im trying to pick a new battery. a buddy of mine pointed me toward Odyssey batteries. the specs on the battery are as follows:

Drycell Battery
With Metal Jacket
12 Volt
26 Ah @ 10hr rate
380 CCA
925 Cranking Amps for 5 Seconds
53 Minute Reserve Capacity
Cycle life @ 77°F 400 at 100% DOD

i have no idea what this means, so i don't know if i am looking at something too low or too high. any sugestions about this, or point me in a new direction ?

thanks


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-- Eric

I jsut recently purchased a battery. I got a Optima Red Top. I got it pretty cheap is the reason why i got it but it seems to be a good battery so far.

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Eclipse 5435
US Amps Merlin MD2 x 2
US Amps Merlin MD42
Kicker Solo X 18"
MB Quart QSD216 x 2

Yeah Optima batteries are pretty good.

380 cold cranking amps(cca) is not a whole lot to work with. I use duralast batts from autozone good price 3 year replacement. 800cca. very good batt I have 2 in my Bronco. no troubles

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Big Dave

this is completely irrelevant but i have a 99 dakota R/T. you should check out the forums @ dakotausa.com (except not the car audio one, it mostly sucks compared to The12)

With 550 watts and the lights dimming a good amount while its turned up, should i get a new battery or should i do something else?

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Volkswagen Golf
Alpine CDA-9851
Alpine MRD-M501
Alpine 12" Type R Ported
Alpine Guy is my hero

a yellow top optima should help a lot, or go with an odyssey

any particular odyssey to go with thats compariable or better than the yellow top ?

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-- Eric

vwgolf1128 wrote:

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With 550 watts and the lights dimming a good amount while its turned up, should i get a new battery or should i do something else?

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If you take care of the "big 3" you should dramatically help your electrical problems. A battery (12 volt) only helps you when the car is off. If you listen to your stereo a lot with the engine off you might think about a better battery or two, otherwise don't waste your money. When the car is on your system runs off the alternator (14 volt). Also, you might consider a stiffening cap.

If you take care of the "big 3" you should dramatically help your electrical problems. A battery (12 volt) only helps you when the car is off. If you listen to your stereo a lot with the engine off you might think about a better battery or two, otherwise don't waste your money. When the car is on your system runs off the alternator (14 volt). Also, you might consider a stiffening cap............................yes then the alternator is keeping two batteries charged! can it handle that...? thought of up-grading alternator...then get a regulator and have two batteries...anyway this topic has been covered before w/ some great answers...try that question in this sites search engine...! hope this helps

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M.E.C.P & First-Class
Go slow and drink lots of water...Procrastinators' Unite...Tomorrow!

...

replace the battery, don't go yellow top/comparible. That isn't meant for cranking, it is meant for storage. Red Top is a better starting battery, and I'd go with it. They have a great rep and a nice warranty. A little pricey, but you'll live. :)

The capacitor IS NOT apart of the big 3, period. Infact, it is up to debate if it should be used. Some circumstances yes, if you REALLY are cheap and want to avoid the HO Alt upgrade and your stock isn't too far away from the desired amount of power. Otherwise just get a HO Alt.

Big 3: Upgrade alternator, battery, and engine bay wiring(Ground/Power for alt and batts and between each other)

Also he just wanted a battery anyways, why do we even care about anything else? I'm pretty sure the alternator in the truck can handle the load of his electrical system (my Monte Carlo 105 amp is holding the 5c Memphis Belle with a 2nd battery and not even sweating).

Starting BAttery: Optima Red Top
Deep Cycle Battery: Optima Yellow Top

https://www.ibsa.com/www_2001/content/about_us/current/june_2001/battery_optima.asp

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1998 Monte Carlo w/
Eclipse CD8454
2xRockford 5.25" Power 2-way T152C
2xRockford 6"x9" Punch 3-way FRC4369
1xMemphis 16-MCH1300 5-channel
2xKicker 12" L5 Solobaric-2 Ohm

A great stand alone battery is any of the kenetik batterys.   I did a review in the car audio fourm on this site.   Check it out if you want to see the results

https://www.the12volt.com/installbay/forum_posts.asp?tid=56051

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2009 0-1000 Trunk WR 154.0DB 2009 1001+ Trunk WR
2007 USACI World Champion
2007 World Record
2006 USACI Finals 2nd Place

I would go with a Yellow Top, they usually only run a few bucks more then a top of the line non-deep cycle battery, then you wont need to worry about playing the system on accessory for long periods of time. That being said, I have a Diehard Silver battery I bought back in November. I left my system (running about 800W) on accessory for about four and half hours sunday night and the battery didnt die, so you can usually get a good amount of playing time on a normal battery, as long as it hasnt already died a few times.

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Sorry, I'm not real familiar with dodges, but it should handle two batts with an isolator setup that has one batt for starting, and another for accessories that can be switched incase one goes down. My powerstroke diesel has two huge batts that are handled by two 130 amp alts. However both alts do not run at the same time and are controled by the computer to switch back and forth.

I added a second batt to one of my broncos as stickshift + off roading = stalling and restarting. However, I had to beef up the alt as the stocker wasn't up to handling increased demands. I got the alt out of a ford tauris of all things as it is the largest ford alt made that dropped right into the wiring harness of my truck.

What is the stock rating of your dodge alt?

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'02 F250 PSD, '97 F-150, '71 F-100, '66 F-250, '93, '92, '88, '84 Broncos

Penn State electrical engineerin' major