Too much amp, Not enough power...

[Dallas91]

I just wanted to throw my issue out there so the next guy can take it into consideration before they make the upgrade. Long story short I added a skar 8 inch evl subwoofer and their 1500 MoNo block amp. The thing rocks. Bad side is it is stressing the battery. To the point the floor lights dim and most recently and most concerning the powersteering has momentarily stopped worked until the music was turned down. I plan on adding a capacitor and possibly upgrading the main battery soon.

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[CrazyCooter]

There has to be more to this? No way an 1800 watt amp is overtaking a 200+ amp alternator! I dont have my JT yet and don't know how the bateries are wired, but don't see how it could happen.

I run a 1000 watt amp, light bar, fridge, ham radio, and more off my 137 amp alternator with no issues in my Yj.

 

[Dallas91]

I don't really understand it either. But its happened twice and only when its turned up for a while. I know it doesn't help I don't drive it much. I'm guessing the powersteering has some sort of protection from low voltage or the battery is failing.

 

[MrZappo]

I don't really understand it either. But its happened twice and only when its turned up for a while. I know it doesn't help I don't drive it much. I'm guessing the powersteering has some sort of protection from low voltage or the battery is failing.

Are you driving or sitting at idle when this happens ?

 

[Dallas91]

I've only noticed it when driving.

 

[MrZappo]

I've only noticed it when driving.

I agree with @CrazyCooter in saying that there is more going on here ...

Assuming it is connected properly with the correct gauge wire adjusted for length and you are driving at a consistent RPM or course ...

Do you have a volt meter that you can monitor while driving to verify consistent voltage or not ?

 

[Dallas91]

I do have a volt meter but not able to observe it while driving. Power wire and ground wire are 4 gauge and cut to length. Ground is to bare metal at the body. No amp wine or other noise. The jeeps battery gauge in the main screen shows 14 +Amps. Thats what led me to belive its just from quick drops of power from the amps draw causing a relay to trip and cycle on. I've done several installs before but nothing this new. Also no warning lights as of yet.

 

[athous]

I do have a volt meter but not able to observe it while driving. Power wire and ground wire are 4 gauge and cut to length. Ground is to bare metal at the body. No amp wine or other noise. The jeeps battery gauge in the main screen shows 14 +Amps. Thats what led me to belive its just from quick drops of power from the amps draw causing a relay to trip and cycle on. I've done several installs before but nothing this new. Also no warning lights as of yet.

imhad a similar issue in my old excursion. I had bought an amp kit that had 17’ wires with ring terminals at the end. It turned out the crimp on the ring terminal wasn’t making a solid connection from the wire. I ended up just soldering it on to give it more metal on metal. This fixed the problem for me. You could also get a 12v amp meter (cheap one on Amazon) and watch how many amps it’s pulling when the system is in use. On our boat our amp kept burning fuses whenever it was on. Turned out the amp in that case had an cap issue and was drawing 3x as many amps as it should have.

 

[Dallas91]

I used the extra space on the terminal post connector and never messed with the main post. It shows 12 volts not running and 14.8 running with nothing on. Between 14.8 and 13.7 with the radio up pretty decent. I'm thinking the added draw of the amp, cabin heater fan and the powersteering. I'm going to invest in a capacitor and see if it helps.

 

[Darkamek]

My Gladiator has a JL vx1000/5i amp and I do have a Stinger Hybrid capacitor installed using zero gauge wiring from knuconceptz. Depending on the manufacturer of the wiring they might not be true to the size. Some manufacturers put a thicker insulation instead of the proper size of wiring. Now the capacitor probably isn’t necessary for me right now but I wanted it because I plan on adding a second subwoofer in the future. I haven’t had any issues with dimming while playing the sub and the dash usually indicates 14.6V. The past couple of days though the dash has been indicating 13.6V in these cold temperatures. The alternator on my Gladiator is the 180 amp alternator. Now I do have a 240amp alternator and a genesis dual battery kit in my garage waiting to be installed. Just picked these items up because I plan on needing them for camping.

 

[Darkamek]

Also it isn’t a bad idea to do the big 3 upgrade.

 

[Radiosdead]

Also it isn’t a bad idea to do the big 3 upgrade.

What’s that..?

 

[Darkamek]

What’s that..?

Upgrading the alternator wire and grounds to the battery.

 

[kooltoys]

I would run a dedicated ground to the battery and even a larger guage wire 2 or 0... if running for long time periods a cap would not hurt

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