I am not running near what I ran in my car and the lights are still dimming really bad in my truck. I am running 1200 watts to my subs and 480 watts to my mids and highs. I upgraded my big 4, went with an optima yellow top, and had my alternator rebuilt to 200 amps, which should more than clear everything I am pushing. I have checked all my grounds and they seem to be soild. I will be really dissapointed if I need to run two batteries for 1680 watts on this electrical system. Need some help I am about at the end of my rope here.

(I have an 02' supercrew, with the 5.4ltr)

 

Try a 2 farad capacitor

 

Thanks for the input. I do appreciate the help but I dont want a bandaid I want to fix the problem. Something has to be wrong, new battery, 200 amp alternator, O gauge wire on all connections (body, frame,motor, and alternator). There has got to be something I am doing wrong and just overlooking.

 

That isn't a bandaid. It should fix the problem.

 

What type of wire/connectors did you use for the big four and for the amps? If you are dropping voltage through a wire run or a connection, you can isolate it with a meter.

For instance, check from one end (whatever it is bolted to at that end) of a ground wire to the other end (again, whatever it is bolted to) with a digital voltmeter with the system under load. Can do the same with the power wires....the higher the indicated voltage (drop) the higher the resistance of the wire/connector/connection.

Not sure what amps you are running, but a "true" 1200 watts RMS output delivered to a sub/subs takes a lot more than 1200 watts on the input side.

Most of the wiring kits out there are total garbage. And no it doesn't take "monster" cable, it just takes commercial stranded cable and commercial connectors.

 

I have not had time to test the grounds with a volt meter, and I am running all 0 gauge fosgate cables with soldered ring terminals. I have them all bolted down with factory ground bolts. I did notice today something is leaking where my battery and block are grounded on the frame so I have plans to move them and check with the meter this weekend.

 

Sometimes no matter what you do dimming lights are just apart of cranking it. I have the following:

Pioneer AVH-P4200DVD, RE SXX 12 in 2.45 Custom Port Box, Power Bass Components Front, Powerbass 5x8 rear, Powerbass ATM 900.1D Wired 1 ohm for sub, Powerbass XAX 4160FD for front and rear speakers, Stinger PRO 50F Digital Hybrid Capacitor all wired using KnuKonceptz KCA Kable 1/0 with the big 4 power/ground upgrade powered by Mechman 270 Amp High Output Alternator.


Now with all that I still get some dimming when hitting hard. It is what it is...yeah know.

 

You can't really go by the output numbers of your amplifiers when considering your system draw. Don't forget, they are not 100% efficient. Your sub amp is probably 85-90% efficient, and your mids amp is probably 65%. You could very well be spiking over 200 amps in your audio system alone depending on how everything is tuned. And remember also that other than charging your battery, your alternator is also running your entire vehicle's computer systems and lighting. Adding an extra battery would help since two batteries can discharge a higher current at once, and when your system isn't being pushed then your alternator can sufficiently charge both batteries and run everything just fine. But I would say to have your alternator checked out and metered to make sure you're getting what you paid for. At what RPM is it even supposed to hit 200A anyway?

And don't install a cap. Those aren't even band-aids, they're just there to look cool, and provide a pinch of extra power during an amplifier's peak power draw, which isn't even audibly noticeable unless you have a strictly SQL sound system and a very sensitive ear. Nothing but a strain on your electrical system, plain and simple.

 

They don't even provide a pinch of power. They can filter out a voltage ripple, but the filtering caps in the amps' power supplies do that anyway. There is no way that you will ever hear a difference regardless of how sensitive your ears are.

The alternator only needs to meet the average demand of the system. On high demand transients, the battery is doing the deed. A good battery or pair of batteries (an Optima doesn't fall into this category) will go farther toward preventing or minimizing light dimming than any size alternator ever will. The typical musical transient lasts less than 0.1 sec. It takes the alternator that long to ramp up its output to meet an increase in current draw. The bigger the alternator, the longer it takes. Real world average current draw isn't nearly what most people think and unless you listen to music consisting of continuous long droning bass notes at extremely high volume, the stock alt backed up by a pair of good batteries made with car audio in mind will serve most anyone fine on a daily driver system.

 

There's several of these out there with different brands but when I install a 800 watt or more sub amp I always try to get the customer to purchase one. I let them go at cost when I'm installing a system just so I don't have to deal with the dimming light issue and a customer that just doesn't understand why it's doing it. This small battery goes right next to your amp and replaces any capacitor that you would be putting on it. Some call them a "cap killer" since they say it equivalents to a 100 1-farad capacitors.

This is the Kinetik HC600 and can be found from about $85 to $100+

 

what size fuse are you running??

 

Fuse wouldn't make a difference on dimming lights, if he was trying to draw too much current through a fuse too small it would just blow the fuse.

 

if hes running to small of a fuse it will cause dimming issuses because the amp is starving for power and it causes it to take away from truck. he needs atleast a 250amp fuse on that. when i had my three 1000d crossfire amps and 6 viair 480 compressors going i had a 500 amp fuse and no problems what so ever.

 

and before some trys call me out on there being a 500 amp fuse i figure go ahead n post pic 500amp anl

 

The pizzaman is right, fuse size plays 0 role on light dimming. If the amp is starved at pulling power it is because the charging system (alt/batt & grounding) cannot supply properly. The fuse only protects the wiring/component down the line by blowing (not limiting the current).