Forgot to answer your question about grounding. Grounding anywhere in the vehicle is acceptable. Try to ground all of your amps etc to the same place. This will help reduce the chance of a ground loop. You can run a ground wire back to the battery, but this is not preferred and can actually introduce noise into the system.

 

I only have one amp right now. And its grounded to the body via a seat floor bolt. I had to wallow out the end of the connector to fit the seat bolt through it, but i think its got excelent ground connection.

And thats what i needed to find out, was what is stock wire size. So are you suggesting i need to add additional wire to the big 3 as opposed to replace the factory big 3?
-Patrick

 

Exactly. You would just want to add the three wires to the existing factory wiring. The existing stock wiring, at least on my vehicle, looks like 4 guage.

 

Just as an FYI I went back and edited my previous post. You should actually fuse the alternator to battery terminal on the big 3 for all cases. The fuse on the line should equal the output of your alternator (I.E. 130 for a 130 amp alternator, or somewhere close like 120 or 125) Make sure the fuse is closer to the battery side of the wire. I apologize for the mistake. If your wire were to ground out it could cause the battery to explode, and or blow the regulator on your alternator. Fusing the line will cause the fuse to blow in that case, at least stopping the battery from exploding.

 

ok cool, yah i was under the impression that i should be replacing the wires and not adding to them... So i should match alternator output, as oposed to matching the factory fuse. I dunno if they are different, but id thought id ask now while ive got you attention.
-Patrick

 

Exactly Pat. I'd try to match the alternator output as closely as possible. The fuse will just protect the battery incase the line were to short out, or if the regulator on the alternator fries and tries to send too much power to the battery. That way the fuse would pop instead of your battery blowing up.

Sorry for the confusion on my earlier posts. I think I need to drink more coffee before I start replying to posts

If you want to take the time to replace the wires you can, but there really is no need to. Both wires can be utilized, and power will flow through the new wiring until the resistance is the same as the old wiring and then flow through both. I always leave the stock wires in place so that I can easily take out everything if I plan to sell the vehicle.

 

The power will flow through both wires at all times. The one with the highest resistance flows less current than the one with lower resistance. Ohm's Law.
The resistances do not become the same. Look at it like 2 resistors in parallel.

I would replace the factory wiring with new when doing the big 3.

 

I was thinking about that, but then again it kinda makes sense tho that two 4 gauge wires are better then one new less resistant 4 gauge wire...

But yah if i get a 0 or 1 gauge ill just replace.
-Patrick

 

This is distribution block right? Truck is 2004(old body). Do I need to change my alternator because it is 130??

 

TX, the instructions listed are for upgrading the wires from the alternator and battery. A distribution block would be used to split one wire coming from your battery to multiple amps etc.

You may need to upgrade your alternator or you may not need to. It all depends on the amount of current that the amp draws.

 

Norm, you are exactly right. My explanation wasn't exactly up to snuff.

 

Im confused, theres suppost to be a wire that runs from alernator to battery? Do you have a picture of this? How can I tell how much current it draws?

 

TX, take a look at the link listed below. Its explained in greater detail by people much more knowledgable on the subject then me. While the pictures are not directly of the upgrade in an F150, it will give you an idea about what the upgrade entails.
http://forum.sounddomain.com/ubb/ult...c;f=5;t=007801

You can also look at the gallery listed below towards the bottom for the pictures labeled Big 3 upgrade. This is from brypink2's truck and the Big 3 upgrade that he performed. This will give you an idea of what the upgrade looks like in an F150. Brypink's gallery was the only one I could think of off the top of my head that had pictures of the Big 3 upgrade, but I'm sure if you did a search in the gallery for big 3 you would find some more pictures.
https://www.f150online.com/galleries....cfm?num=10040

 

Can Big 3 be done with stock battery or Optima? Does alternator have to be taken out to wire, or can it be done from where its at?

 

TX, you can do the upgrade with any battery. As long as you can reach the alternator you can do the upgrade without removing anything.