That only masks the issue...... batteries will only help for so long, until they get drained. There is no way to make up for charging current from the alternator.
If he has a 300amp HO alt oviously its not going to put out alot at idle hell even with a small pulley. A good battery or even two would help alot at idle to keep his voltage from dipping lower then 12 so it wont hurt his amps and kill his battery faster. when he drives the batteries charge.
not really if hes cranking it...and if he is id expect voltage drop like that at idle...this is why I say look for a high idle amperage like iraggis 125 amp on a 200 amp and with the cars amperage to run the cars electronics that takes amperage too
i have had three diff alt on my truck everything is done tightly i just checked my 160 amper alt did the same when i say 11 volts thats with lights on and heat at level one and system cranked up with lights off heat off about 12.5 volts i believe i need a bigger bat in the back i have the smallest kinetik they make back there
my system power wise is about same as yours. i have a stock alt that is 105a and i don't have the big 3 done. i don't even have the battery in the back.
the other day i wanted to see my voltage at the amps so i stuck my dmm in the amp power and ground connections. i turned on the air conditioner moderate with the high beam on playing a hypnotise by young jeezy loud. my voltage never dropped below 12.5v.
sean that alt is fine for him even at idle. i doubt he sits at idle playing test tones. and hence the reason i suggested another battery or a better one.
zack now that youve given a better description it sounds like the alt may not be working right you still havnt gone into detail enough. when you rev or are driving at 2krpm+ what is your voltage with system on/off. what does your car idle at. are you sure the pulley is smaller then stock. is your battery good and hold a load. are all of your connections clean. do you have good grounds on everything.
"sean that alt is fine for him even at idle. i doubt he sits at idle playing test tones. and hence the reason i suggested another battery or a better one."
I know... if you look I said he does seem to have a problem since he has an undersized pulled and his voltage is still droping like that
ok my connections are great they get no better and the voltage is sexy at 1200 rpm when a note hit it will drop on the cap in the back (not the dash gauage) into the 12's then instantly and i mean instantly go back into the 14's my truck idle at about 550 rpm and i am certain it is a smaller pulley because they sent the factory pulley and the smaller one but with music off and lights on heat on i will idle at about 12.8-13 the thing that makes me think its not the alt is all three alt i have had on it have done that the 12.8-13 with amps kicked off and lights on and heat on, the amperage alt that i have had on this are the stock 100 amp a ho alt 160 and now this 200 amp ho alt and i can not see how all three alt would be bad there is no possible way so now what are your thoughts and suggestions thanks a lot guys
well really you shouldnt be running two different batteries in parallel which it sounds like you are. but that doesnt sound ilke your problem.
sounds like your truck idles low and the small pulley makes up for it a little. if you raise your idle a little which i wouldnt exactly suggest but that should fix the problem. as long as you dont go below 12 you should be fine.
look why to you guys need picture heres exactly what i did i bought a 2-three foot runs of 0 gauge and 1-2 foot run of 0 guage all ends got ring terminals, one three foot run went directly from bat neg dirctely to factory chassis ground other three foot run went directly from bat neg to factory engine block ground the two foot run went directly for bat pos to pos post on alt you guys may not believe me but i have triple checked the tightness of the bolts and i ran my wires to the factory negative holes so i would have zero doubt in the quality of the grounds and what do you mean by running my batteries in parrell series how in the hell else can you run batteries i went from pos on bat in front to pos in back scrapped paint off my truck and bolt down a seperate ground for bat in back the positive from bat in back to the amp them neg to amp i scrapped more paint bolted to truck then to amp so bat and back and amp have totally different grounds, and the reason snarl doesnt drop is because his total amperage between battries is prolly about 3200 he has the 2400 kinetik right and up front prolly another 750 800 amperes so thats a total of 3200 amperes of battery power i have 1450 amperes between both of my batteries i think thats what my problem is i have a 750 amperer bat up front and a 800 amperer kinetik in back and all s-10's prolly idle the same from factory and snarl has the same vehicle i have
in fact my buddy owns his own car audio shop and helped me do the big three he has been in business for about fifteen years now so my big three is good to go
i idle fine when i give alt time to charge battery in back i just am having problem bumping and idling if i bump for say a half hour then turn system totally off then go to idle i with am at like 13 volts and i slowly go up
the batteries are wired to each other you have to connect the batteries to each other to keep charge to the one in back and i did say that voltage at idle without system playing is 14.5 thats giving it time to charge battery in back after extensive pounding and with pounding at idle 11.3 i told you this multiple time before in this thread lol and my buddy is busy has has three shop one in colerain fairfield and centerville in is quite a busy man so 0 to 4 gauge for the wiring of the subs will change my charge by three volts i cant see that happening and whats wrong with wiring the amp to a seperate ground
jeremy a ground is a ground but you have to make sure it is a clean ground no paint etc and i am willing to take the advice its just ou guys kept doubting my big three and i did everything the chevy factory did but in 0 guage so you can not doit any better lol
gosh car audio is a pain sometimes i tested my batteries they are good but still need to test alt to see if its doing 200 like it says under the circumstances that it is doing 200 amps what the hell else could be wrong i called ohio gen told them exactly what i have have they said should be no problems, could only running 4 gauge to amps instead of 0 gauge make a 3 volt diff at idle?? i am mind boggled
the grounds may not be the problem but its only one way to find out. the best way to do the big 3 is this. alt + to bat + where the alt bolts up to the eninge bracket to bat - then run a + and - wire to the back bat from the front. ground all your amps to the back battery and get the power from that battery.
basically it seems to be why your alt isnt giving you good idle voltage is because your truck idles low at about 600rpm. and the alt isnt spinning fast enough to turn on and generate enough power at this speed. that is what the small pulley is for but it still doesnt seem to be helping. make sure your belt isnt to tight and that its not to loose. with the smaller pulley you may need to get a belt a little smaller.
yeah belt is tight i still need to figure out a way to check my amperage out on the alt at idle and 2000 rpm an suggestions on how to do this volt meter will work wont it?
you cant do it with a basic DMM. you might be able to get an amp clamp that adapts to your DMM iv got one from snap on. or you can buy an amp clamp unit.
basically you get what you pay for. i doubt you want to spend alot so maybe you can borrow one or buy a cheap one see what it says and return it or something. it will atleast give you an idea.