I was curious, how quickly does the voltage regulator on a HO alt respond? Lets say that worst case senerio my systenm will draw 250amps and my car will draw 70 amps and I have a 350amp HO alt regulated at 15 volts. Will the regulator respond fast enough to keep the voltage up? I really do not want to add a cap but if I am gonna drop 2k+ for zapco amps I want them getting clear, clean power. Thanks for your time.
It will only take a few milliseconds for it to respond. But you need to upgrade you power wire from your alt to you battery at least to 4 guage. And if uour really pulling a lot go with 2 guage but thats usually overkill. Also upgrade the ground wire from the neg side of the battery with the same guage wire. Unless your in a spl competition I dont think you will ever come close to pulling that many amps. I have an MTX 942 that will pull 150 amps and an Eclipse 4 channel and even with it really bumping it only pulls around 85 amps. Im running a stock 130 amp alt and i have no problems at all.
Alternator response time is not instantaneous. fast, but not "right now". Response time of the regulator/alternator will not be an issue. The issue will be reserve power in your battery/s... A 350 amp alternator, where the hell did you find one? and how much over 1000 bucks is it???
Big three all done with 0g. 0g running to the trunk as well. As for the alt I have not gotten it yet, however excessive amperage can build em that big and they are less then 500bucks. Just need to find a nice big GM one that has similar mounting points.
Well like I said worst case senario I will pull 252amps. The biggest direct bolt on for my ride is 200amps will that be enough?
Do you have the amps already? Are they hooked up? What does your stock alt put out? You may be worrying for nothing, hook them up and see what happens before you spend bank on a new alt that you may not need. 250 amps is a boatload of power and like I said unless you are in spl competition I doubt you will even come close to pushing that kind of amperage. Wire them up and turn it up very loud and put an amp guage on the alt wire and see what its asking for. You will know for sure that way if you are going to need a new alt.
I do not have the Zapco amps yet, however I do have some Cadence Q4000's I used to simulate current draw. Okay with a 2500rms to the subs and 400rms to my highs at stand outside the car volume levels it only pulled 164amps. WTF if I add up the maximum current draw the manuals from those amps it would be like double that. To hell with building a system on paper. I will just buy the 200amp direct bolt on and call it good. My stocker is only 70 and my headlights dimmed at idle before I ever put a system in. Thanks for you time guys.
You are talking about MAXIMUM power. If your planning on spl comps ok but if you are going to drive the car without earplugs you wont be able to stand the noise in the car. What subs are you using and what impedence. My mtx amp pushing 1 12 inch Boston pro sub at 4 ohm mono will pound quite well, but after about 10 or 15 minutes I have to turn it down. My amp will push about 1100 watts according to its certificate, now your going to push double that. Now be serious here, do you think you will be able to push your amps and subs to the max and still be able to sit in the car. I think not. You probably will have to upgrade your alt if its only able to put out 70 amps but I really dont think you will need some crazy 350 amp alt. But whatever makes you happy^_^
hell, if you've got the money to burn, why the hell not? I think it would whip a$$ to have a 350 amp alternator. am I the only retard here who gets excited by maximum overkill? -I mean.. c'mon... you'd never kill it, right?.. I think it'd be cool!
I agree with you wheeler, overkill can be a blast. But its also expensive. But like you said if ya got the $$$ to burn why the hell not. I was just trying to have him realize that in real world situations with real world driving he probalbly will never come close to pulling 350 amps. but like I said whatever makes him happy. Viva overkill^_^
I am using 4 Eclipse SW8000's, they are getting 625rms each. 4, 4ohm subs loaded down to a 1ohm load at the amp. Mind you these subs are in a hatchback so ear splitting is fairly easy to attain. I do not like spl much, in the famous words of John Travolta "It's too much like masterbation without the payoff" Tons of money, tons of work and it still sounds like crap. I went for the SQ angle.
What is it that you dont like about the sound?? What speakers are you using for the mids and highs? What kind of car is it?? Basically what do you want it to do that its not doing now?
I am using Eclipse SC8365's for my frontstage but this is getting off topic. My concern is under volting my amps. I want to keep my voltage as close to 14 as I can. My initial question was if the regulator on a 200amp HO alt will react fast enough or should I eat .5volts in ESR and add a cap to smoothe out the voltage to around 13.5-13.8. I guess I can just buy the alt and find out but I like to get opinions. Thanks for all yoru replies.
