Well, I finally got it all together, after a year of deciding and tweaking this is what I ended up with in my 01 lightning.

20GB empeg in-dash player
1 pair infinity reference componet speakers 5 1/4
1 Alpine v90 90 watts rms amp
2 kicker comp vr 10
custom box for kickers
Alpine MD500 500 watt rms digital amp


The system rocks, it hits so hard you can feel your hair on your head moving. I have one problem though, hehe about a week after getting everything in, my alternator is making the sound that lets you know it is near death. Does anyone know of a manufacturer that makes a high current alternator for the lightning? the Alpine MD500 pushes 500 watts rms into 2 ohm, and has a huge 60 amp fuse on it.

Any help would be appreciated

Exuviae

 

did you think about getting a power cap. that would eleminate the strain on your alternator and your battery. you can usually pick them up for about $100.

 

A cap will not fix any electrical problem!

I don't know why your alternator is struggling with 500 watts. I have two amps (combined, 1000 watts rms) and don't have any problems. Is your alternator old?

 

its not going to make the alternator struggle all the time, but when you have a constant draw its going to effect the lights dimming and everything else dimming.

I would definetly get atleast a 1 farad cap for every system just for precaution. there less then 100 bucks now so its cheap safe insurance. I got two 1 farads with two optima's in my truck with only 150 amps of power drain max. no dimming lights on my truck at all.

 

you are right it won't fix it. but it will prevent it from happening again. your lights wont dim. your alternator won't need to recharge your battery as much.

so if you spend a little now u won't spend alot later.

 

I don't think the cap is going to help you either. My understanding of the benefits of using caps is to provide the power needed for the instant repsonse/draw when running large dedicated sub amps. The other reason is for using caps is for show. Just like people telling you they can hear the difference in speaker wire.

 

A cap only holds a few milliseconds of power if you follow the 1F/1kw rule. Don't throw a bandaid on the problem and expect it to cast some sort of voodoo spell on your electrical system to make it better.

 

Batteries make the difference, not capacitors. Get an Optima Yollow top and be .

 

i got 4 10 inch jl w'6 with two rockford 1200 watts amps with two caps and my alternater is fine

 

u need a cap for the purpose of the amp.. the amp needs to be at 14.1 volts to give u the full power of that amp. the battery gives u most of the power to the amp but a cap will the give the amp more power.. another reason is the voice coils in the speakers need shouldnt drop below 13 volts u can damage them. on a system like mine they make a notice diff in loud and clearness. with a big amp that battery not going to stay at 12 volts all the time it going below it

 

Capacitors will not solve an electrical problem!! Capacitors are constantly charging and discharging...capacitors are more like filters than power banks. The only way a capacitor would give you anything better than minute gains is to plug it directly into the bus bars of the amp. This would provide power filtering directly into the amplification circuit rather than the power supply circuit.

The 14.1 volts you see comes from the alternator not all from the battery.. if you put your truck on Accessory you'll only see that you have about 12.5 volts. In ACC mode you're running totally off of battery power and the alternator is not supplying any power.. thus you only get what the battery is capable of supplying (just over 12 volts)

Exuvaie.. what size power wire did you use for your amplifiers?

 

2 g wire to distrub then two 4 g out to each amp...
the batt only goes 12 volts that y u get cap to hold amp at 14 volt. with out cap u go around 11.4 or mybe lower depending on the stereo size
on big stereos like mine it is good to have caps. if u only have 500 or less u should really need one bec then they wont make a diff...
well i been installing stereos for almost 5 years and caps do make a diff when u got a big stereo
that my advise but u can do it any way u want.

 

Hmm interesting though OZZ... funny how my truck runs at 14.2 volts while the truck is running.. but only 12.6 volts when the truck is not running. I have no capacitor on my amp. The capacitor WILL NOT change your supply voltage from 12 volts to 14 volts. That's ridiculous.

I have a Phoenix Gold RMD Port Voltage Display that constantly shows my amp Supply Voltage.

The only thing the capacitor will do is smooth out small millisecond long dips in power. The capacitor stores a small charge of energy and discharges when the energy stored is greater than the energy supply, although, the cap discharges very fast and wouldn't help prevent a problem as serious as the truck lights dimming on musical peaks. Therefore, it filters the power supply rather than supplying any power.

But hey.. that's just my opinion.

 

Please disregard everything ozzquake has said in this thread. Thanks.

SVR > Optima

That is all.

 

15 years installing - 10 years car audio shop owner. Caps will help to some extent. I would suggest a bigger batt. and upgrade the alt. You have to remeber also that using a cap. adds an extra load to your charging system.