I have (2) JL 13W'7's and (2) JL 1000/1 Amps. (2) yellow tops in the trunk isolated for these amps. I was running the stock Alt until about a month ago I was having trouble when it is on real loud with the bass up the subs would cut out then come right back on. When I turn it down a little it plays fine. I just put a high amp (200A) Alt on and still get the same problem. The system is about 8 months old and when I first got it I didn't have any problems. What can I try?
upgrade your big three...you shouldn't have an isolator that fully isolates the rear batteries from the front. A heavy duty relay is what you need. Diode isolators (I think?) have too much voltage drop and the rear batteries voltages are prolly really low. How are the grounds for the amps?? Amps are shutting off prolly due to low voltage
My van has 5 batteries, one in the front and 4 in the back. We tried an isolator and a high current relay. The isolator never supplied enough voltage to the back batteries (what Azn said, it dropped voltage) The relay worked for a while. But the contacts became resistive. The contacts in the relay didn't like the amount of current going through it. We finally gave up and hooked everything up straight. Never had a problem again. Also we used the stock Astrovan alternator and never had a problem with it. But the alternator never had to work hard, we kept a trickle charger on the van whenever it was not used.
Is there any danager of hookng the back up without the isolator? The grounds for the amps look great and this wasn't a problem from the start. It is getting worse. Thanks for all the help
There are some people that say that it is perfectly fine to not use any kind of isolator...some will say you have to. Depends on the condition of your current front battery. If it is fairly new than I would say you will be fine without an isolator if you drive the car everyday. If your battery is old and weak than it will kill the new battery. There are people that have had their system without an isolator for years without problems and some that have killed there batteries in months. My friend has had a stinger battery in the back for about two years now without problems...he has an interstate in the front and a stinger in the back.
I have 2 yellow tops in the trunk and a red top in the front. They are all 7 months old. I see that the installer made the wire from the alt to the isolator bigger but the ground to frame is stock it's not a real small wire but not like 4 guage either. The wire going to the alt is stock also. Would or could these cause this. The wire to the rear is 0 guage and none of the wires get hot.
To solve your problem we need to see whats going on. We can throw ideas at it all day. I would start by measuring the voltage at the amp while its playing loud. Ideally we want no voltage drop (thats not gonna happen). First do we have about the same voltage at the front battery and the rear. It should be within a few tenths. Now, how much drop do we have as its playing. We should ever drop below 12-1/2 volts. Amp ground and rear battery ground should be next to each other and short as possible. Can you post a pic of the set up
Ok I will check the voltage in the A.M. and see what I have. I have a couple pictures but dont know how to show them here. I will post the results thanks I put 1 as a Acatar but doesnt show much so I will take more tomorrow again thanks.
