Electrical upgrade for stereo

[DOZIER]

Hello everyone. As you should know if you have been reading my latest posts, I have recently purchased two RE Audio x.. 12's. I will be pushing these two monsters with two US Amps AX3000DE amps. My question is this. I currently have 1/0 ga. wire running to the rear of the vehicle and 1/0 ga. for a ground wire. Should I get another one ran for the other amp or is it ok to do both amps with the single one? 3000 rms each amp. Two amps = 6000 rms, at 600 amps of draw. I am thinking I will also have to upgrade my alternator too. What alternator should I use? Maybe two alternators? What about how many batteries and how many capacitors and what kind? Maybe two more yellow top batteries and two Kinetik HC800's? Please give opinions. This is something I am buying currently and need input. I am buying one of the amps next week and the second the week after. I then will have to upgrade. Thanks in advance for any advice.

 

[TTG]

I would say put a civic engine in the back to drive one giant alternator, or better yet, just use this civic engine as an alternator. You'll need that much power

With 6000W RMS you can go for a single REALLY big cap, or lots and lots of smaller ones. I'd personally so go with a single big one. As far as alternators go, get the biggest one you can find. I'm not a huge fan of extra batteries, I would try to get a big enough alternator first.

 

[DOZIER]

Don't think I have that kind of storage.

 

[davesexplorer]

Dont worry about caps.... An alt would be a good idea, I think a 300amp one will fit. I'd suggest that and 4 1/0 guage (or equivalent) runs back to the amps. Do one (or two) batts up front and maybe 1 or 2 in back if you have the room. I personally like Kinetiks offerings, I fit a HC2400 Monster up front, I'm sure you could do the same and maybe one or two in back?

You'd have to fab up stuff (bracketry etc.) for the dual alt setup. Did you ever think about going to a 18v setup? You just need a 18v alternator, a battery up front that either has 18v and 12v posts or a separate converter/step down to get the 18v down to 12/14 for the cars accessories? Turbostart made a dual post batt, both 12v and 16/18v posts.

 

[DOZIER]

I thought about doing the 18 v. setup. But I don't want to have to deal with the extra stuff like step downs and electrical system frying if I mess up. I do everything myself and I will try the Alternator and the batteries and the HC800's. I will also leave one 1/0 wire for now and try it. I contacted Monster Cable and they said that I might be good with the one for right now. Maybe if it needs it which I am sure it will, then I will do it. but I will try it out first with one. If I upgrade I will probably only do two wires though. I think four might be over kill. That wire is expensive. I paid about 200.00 for the power wire alone. I had to unroll it off of a spool at Tweeter by the foot is was 6.50.

 

[AUexplorer06]

Alright if you put a cap in there, thats like getting your leg cut off and trying to put a bandaid on it. You need a big ass alt, big 3, and more batteries

 

[DOZIER]

I got a quote for a 240 amp alternator for 379.00.

 

[AUexplorer06]

That'll be good, BTW, Nice choice of amps and subs. I used to have an RE x.. myself. Is it the new x..'s? Those are completely badass.

 

[DOZIER]

Yes. Two 06' x.. 12's. I am waiting on the new 6.5 x.. components to come out in 1-1/2 weeks also. I will be purchasing 3 sets.

 

[AUexplorer06]

The new ones look badass, haven't had the pleasure of hearing one myself, but I've heard of nothing but good. 3 sets of components might be a little excessive though.

 

[davesexplorer]

You pay out the @ss for wiring! did you ever try welding cable before? Or just ebay wiring? I have plenty of stinger 1/0 I got for very cheap on ebay through various auctions, and some 1/0 welding cable I bought as well, I dont have near $6.50 a foot in it.

You may be hurting yourself with the single run of 1/0 as well, best case scenario you'll be peaking at something like 600 amps with both us amps going full tilt, as well as whatever you are using for your full range? You may want to pay a visit here:
http://www.powerstream.com/Wire_Size.htm

Assuming 12 feet of 1/0 you will have a 12% voltage drop, or 1.454v, netting you a whopping 10.54v or less at the amps, that is with a solid 12v, if you are dropping even lower at the battery you could be in the single digits of voltage very quick! This is full tilt however, but if you ever plan on showing off your system, you dont want your amps letting some smoke out? (Or having to replace fuses/wiring in front of the crowd..)

 

[expo5.0]

i got those kicks for you-

stop ordering stuff without asking me how much i can get you the same thing for- i could do 4 runs of 0 gauge in your truck for $240 shipped and make my profit (with just as good of cable)

what brand alt are you looking into? you have to careful with alts

 

[expo5.0]

If you run the batteries in the back- that will avoid most of that voltage drop issue... keep the wire as short from your deep cycles to the sub amps as possible.

that said, it would cost as much to get optimum power to those amps as the amps and subs cost together- it's just a battle to get as much as you can afford at this point.

 

[DOZIER]

Dominick Iraggi [dominick@tds.net]
Here you go..

220 $359
240 $379

If you need higher than 240, you would need to make brackets.

Thanks, Dom

Dozier LCpl Adam M wrote:

Hello,
My name is Adam and I am in the market for a HO Alternator for my 2001 Explorer Sport. 4.0 Liter V-6. I am looking for 300 amps or higher. I was referred to you by Lee Sumner of LB's. I would appreciate a price quote and any information you have for me please. Thank you.

Adam

I sure could use a price quote on two new sets of 1/0 ga wiring with the clamps for under the truck. I will be running the wires under the truck. The writing above was the actual email from the alternator guy. The alternator was being ordered custom from a shop. I did not order it yet. I am broke until the 15th. All this stuff I am spending on is killing the bank. My truck comes out of the body shop in about two days or maybe sooner. I don't know much about battery isolators and stuff either. I need to get one I guess if I plan on buying two more batteries for the rear of the truck. The reason I wanted to purchase three sets of component x.. 6.5's is because Expo is building some kick panels for me and I will be replacing my 5x7 rockford fosgate speakers with the x..'s.

 

[expo5.0]

if you are running a dual alt set-up- may as well go with a chevy case. then you can go larger for just a bit more $. That is what i did anyways. Mine is an Iraggi too.

 

[DOZIER]

I did a little research and found out that I can go with a single 240 amp alt. and still be ok with the batteries that I am going to use...Multiple batteries that is. Also Expo, could you do the kickpanels to the specs of the x.. 6.5's? I can get the info on the specs for you shortly.

 

[expo5.0]

only thing i would say-

you don't want to run the x.. components in the rear doors... would be a waste of money and effort imo. through something lesser back there if you really want some rear fill. If you put the components in and use them to their fullest they will actually detract from your sound stage.

I can make the kickpanels to the specs of the XXXs- it would be best if i had the actual tweeter cup plastic piece to use. Not sure how i'll get it "exact" otherwise.

too bad my fiberglass door panels won't fit in your sport... i'm really considering selling them (they are already set up for two 6.5s, and a 4" mid)

 

[DOZIER]

Ok well I guess keep the kick panels handy and get your materials together and I will order the component set as soon as they come available in about a week or so and I will have the first set sent straight to you and the second set to my house. I will go ahead and leave the rockford fosgate speakers in the rear seating area. I would think that better speakers all around would sound better. I will take your word for it though. Plus it saves me money. What kind of head unit should I go for. I am still working on my fiberglass sunvisors with the TV's in them and I have at home a 10.4 inch flip down not installed yet. I have a dvd player seperate. I would like a dvd/cd/mp3 player for a head unit. Any suggestions.

 

[AUexplorer06]

Yes, as he said, pretty much any speakers in the rear is going to kill your front sound stage, and also what I would do id just order 1 set of components and then just the mids for the components, 4 tweeters up front would sound, uhh, not good. You could put just 1 of the mids in a kick and 1 in the stock location then the tweeter in the a pillar or something to help raise your sound stage up. As for a HU, get something with processing and go active and you'll never look back, I have the pioneer 780mp, also I really like the eclipse cd7000 or you could get a 8455.

 

[expo5.0]

i disagree on the tweeters- properly located you can do it (and i would in your situation).

just have to put the tweeters right next to each other or an equal distance from you- if you have one set in the kicks and one set firing up where the stock defrost vents are (does your sport have these?) it will sound correct- i did a lot of measuring with strings and ran it that way for many shows and competitions.

anyone who knows me knows i'm going to recommend that you go with clarion and with 5.1 surround/pro logic II. In my opinion, the pseudo pro logic II surround is the greatest!

You can run one of their high end hu's and the dvh940 processor--- or you can do what i'm doing in my audi and run one of their dvd players connected with the optical cable to the same processor (dvh940) and then just run the processors stand alone controller (dvc920) as your control center up front. The only drawback to going that way is that you will not have a radio tuner- however, you will have just as good of sound as with ANY more expensive option.

You'll be happy with keeping the cheaper speakers in the rear.

What will you be using for amps? Where are you ordering RE from? I might be needing to put an order together too- I am planning on building an 8", 6", horn component set for my truck now and may use their stuff for the two mids. I lost the phone number i had for the guy i used to get RE stuff from too... sucks.