shizzzon

ok here u go. the following is what the car looks like stock- Notice the fuse in line with the alternator, that fuse is actually in your fuse box but everything else is dead on. The alternator's factory ground is ran through the mounting bracket that holds the alternator so there typically is no wire for alt ground. Now the following is more advanced wiring that u will need to do- ok, lets start with the alternator- First, you will want to upgrade your ground with a wire this time. If using an alternator which is rated for ~135A or less, 4awg ground wire is gine, otherwise 1/0 is highly preferred. To run this wire, make it less than 3ft long and connect it somewhere on the alternator's bracket via a bolt that currently exists and attach the other end to the car's frame. Some people will say to just attach it to the engine somewhere... Well, the point is to upgrade the alt's ground so by forcing it to go through factory brackets(multiple connections all joined together equals more and more resistance)... it's best to ground directly to the alt then to car's frame. Next, you will want to ADD, not replace, but add a new power connection from alt to battery. Same gauge wire recommendation as ground still exists here, however length can be as long as needed to reach battery's + post. MAKE SURE U FUSE THIS WIRE. Some people don't. If you do not and the connection ever goes to ground... your battery can explode or wire can catch fire, etc... fuse is best! Fuse this connection with either the fuse size of the factory fuse(if still a stock alternator) or the rating of the wire itself (4awg = 130-150A, 1/0 = 250-300A) Now you see another ground wire coming off starting battery.. that's necessary to decrease resistance. If you ever upgrade your alternator, It's MANDATORY that you do this or wire can catch fire if too much current is forced through factory wiring. Again, same gauge wire recommendation for this ground wire too. Now, the wire that joins the front battery to the rear needs to be big due to it's length. I recommend a minimum of 1/0 for this cable. Now you see how there is a fuse there right after the battery on this cable! Make sure you put that on there NO MORE THAN 18" from the starting battery! Now, we follow the cable on down to the SOLENOID. The solenoid is lenient on connection points so it's hard to goof this up. There are 4 points on a solenoid, 2 large and 2 small. the 2 large are POWER IN, POWER OUT. This is what the 1/0 cable is ran into and back out of. The other 2 points are ground and 12v ignition wire. It doesnt matter which one you use, just ground one with 18awg wire or larger wire and the other point MUST BE connected to 12v ignition wire using ~16awg or larger due to it's length to run from the back of the car to the front. 12v ignition wire is ran to the stereo so u can tap off that. This wire is usually the large red wire going to stereo but make sure it is before just tapping into it. Now, we go power out from the solenoid to another fuse. This fuse is the SAME SIZE as the previous fuse size on the same wire. Both fuse sizes can be either 250 or 300A. These fuses are to protect the wire and since this is 1/0, that is there typical current rating. MAKE SURE THIS FUSE IS WITHIN 18" OF THE REAR BATTERY! Now, after that fuse, it runs into the battery's positive post. If you have another battery back there, the positive on the first battery will run in parallel with the positive on the other battery. Also parallel all grounds to all rear batteries. It is NOT required to run a ground from the back battery to the front AND NEVER recommended to do that as a primary ground for the rear battery(ies). After all batteries are connected in the back, run 1 or 2 4awg or 1/0 wire grounds to the car's frame with each wire being no longer than 3ft. That's it! When connecting amps, try and run the amp's ground directly to the battery if it's within 3ft of length. If you think it's gonna be longer than 3ft to get to the battery's ground post from amp but u can run it to the car's frame in under 3ft, do that instead. When running power cable from all amps to battery(ies), make sure you put a fuse on EACH power run within 18" from the battery it is going to. that should do it.

all the roads are fine so no abnormal danger to watch out for. I'm still sick... but i'll let u guys know by tomorrow if i'm going or not.

ill try and get u a diagram this evening

the weather is fine but im sick hopefully im still goin if i get better i still havent tested anything yet

tell him devices only receive current when they need it. just because cuttrrent runs over something doesnt mean it receives it too

yea u let it cool down by removing the load. I dont think that information should be posted because i don't see how it could be proven that the front battery could ever attempt to charge the back bank for a split second. Even if it could be proven, it's so fast, the information is irrelevant for safe practices.

dekas that i've seen rest at 12.8-12.9v. kinetik batts i've seen rest at 12.9-13.0v XS Power batts rest at 13.1-13.2v

there is one thing i disagree with and that's when the rear battery(ies) discharge power to the amps the front battery will try n charge the rear and then the alt will charge the front in a fraction of a second... that's wrong. Whoever has the highest voltage level is in control so let's start with that first- The alternator supplies power to the stereo all the time. that's why when a user is jamming, his voltage still remains above the battery's rest voltage. Now, let's say a quick bass note happened and the voltage regulator couldnt respond quick enough. the rear battery would compensate for the drag and the alternator will still continue to power the car stereo and immediately give the rear battery a small charge back. The front battery has VERY little to do with the stereo system. I tested that one time wanting to know how much current the front battery sends to the back when the car is off. I had a consistent 235A current draw when the car was off from 2 amps so i clamped the link cable that combines the front and rear battery bank... the front battery only dispersed about 23A of current to the back... that's nothing. The amps will get power from the point(s) of least resistance first. The batteries closest to the amps will get worked more than the front battery will. That's why when using mult batts, buss bars are nice to have. You can attach amp power points on the bars in between batteries so you can attempt to evenly distribute battery drain. Understanding when an alt is stressing is good to know too. The lower your voltage is when driving, the more the alt is being worked. If you have a low or no aftermarket load on the alt and it's still sagging some on the voltage, it's because it's hot. If the alt typically runs around 15v and it's running around 14v flat with low load... let it cool down! I don't know what a threshold is from one alt to another but heat kills alts.

1 Week after Casper, there will be a 1x event back for another Madvette show. This show usually brings in about 12-20 competitors in a variety usually a little in every class here in there. Cliniques start at 10am Judging at 11:30am Time is CST so if you're in EST, come an hour later, Here is flyer- http://www.mecacaraudio.com/flyers/2-27-10TN.pdf

this is what i do, it's cheap and effective- Isolators cause a voltage drop for one so scrap that idea. Solenoids(big ass relays) is what you would want. www.oznium.com sells them for cheap cheap. Go to teh relay section and get you a 200A relay. This is how it works- For one, solenoids don't cause voltage drop so that's good. When the car is off, the batteries are "isolated". When in ignition mode(or started), the batteries are joined together. They cant fight each other because the alternator has the higher voltage level and will disperse charge to anything that needs it. Once car is off, they become "isolated" again. Now, if you replace ur front batt with a shuriken then u wouldnt need this but these things are a lot cheaper than a battery. I have used my stock battery for 3.5 years now and out of that, 1 of those years i've got over 10,000w of power in the car with xs power batts in the back separated with a solenoid. My stock batt nor my xs power batts have ever had problems and won't unless the solenoid dies... if that happens, the alt can't charge the back batts but that's what a voltmeter is for too.

well, got some good news so far! We didnt get hit with 8 inches as predicted... It is to snow tomorrow but not that much... ALL MAIN ROADS including expressway is 100% okay! It looks as if it just rained, no sludge or even ice... but there will be ice during the night when traffic slows down. The snow storm that's coming Saturday will be in the low 40s so the chance of it sticking is minimal.

i personally only see it useful for competition purposes. Just get u a dmm and make sure all amps are set the same.

Casper is getting closer. For those that are coming to Casper and do not live around here.. or those that do and don't watch the weather.. Listen Up! Those of you traveling into Louisville, KY this coming Saturday morning will need to do so bout 30 minutes earlier than planned. We are about to be hit with up to 9 inches of snow by Tuesday morning and the temperatures are going to remain below freezing from right now til Friday morning. Friday will be the only day it's gonna be above freezing then come Saturday we are getting hit with ANOTHER big snow storm that will continue through Sunday. Total accumulation is unknown...

All i gotta do now is just screw the subs in and wire em up! I'll be doin that tomorrow evening. I won't be postin pics til after Casper for comp reasons.

lol, wonder how many weeks it's gonna take to get some, haha. Tell him he better go buy em locally.

that amp is fine for power. we got somebody local running that AP 1500w amp and it does well.

:) 95% complete... all i gotta do pretty much now is wait for everything to dry and install a few more brackets and done with it! I'll be ripping the trunk apart soon for casper but after i do some testing to it tomorrow so i know where i'm peaking at.

look up somebody by the screenname of "pimpin at my house" He is a northeast dealer and user of their products. I havent seen him active here in forever but goes by the same name on other forums.

it is 1 ohm stable. the ap30001d is 2 of the 1500s in one case so that's why the 3000 is @2ohm but this 1500 IS at 1ohm.

he means if u have to ask, it's best not to try it.

were u not there at this show because i never remember seeing your car? Oh and nice score man!

On those aluminum bars- if it's 3" wide or more, those bars are capable of at least 1150A continuous using typical aluminum alloy. If it's 2" wide, expect rating to be somewhere in the lower 800A continuous.

i would ONLY suggest using buss bars IF you already have them... If you do not, just use wire! It's a LOT cheaper, trust me! I just spent over $100 on 3ft of copper bar that's rated @1,750A continuous. Plus u have to use anti-oxidant grease on all connections, that's more money... Unless you are trying to run more than 19 connections, he doesnt need buss bars. those D3100s can accept up to 6 ring terminals per post.

Well... after working all day.... the new baffle IS IN!! I still gotta do a lot more bracing to it tomorrow and some more work inside the wall but the hard part is finally done! I am hoping that it should be about 3-5hrs worth of work tomorrow.. then the subs should be put in and see what the wall is tuned to as is.

sorry man, you're right, i subtracted only 4 instead of 14 when i was thinking of batts on the side... oops! how bout this!! Put the batts in front of the box like planned... but side to side, width-wise. You will only be able to fit 3 side by side... so he will have to build a rigid battery rack to hold the other 3 on top of the bottom 3. this will still keep him below the 18" mark as well! The width of the batts would be the depth and that displaces 7" so lets say 8" so that would be 58"x43.25"x18". Using DOUBLE layered wood 3\4" thick for both sides, front, rear and top(bottom single layer), i come up with- 20.17cuft GROSS There's your extra 3cuft.