unless your installer knows better I would stick with the correct part because of potential differences in wiring (some alts are one wire, some are two and some are three)good luck..

 

its an oe fit model, should work all the same just probably wont last as long. about $300 cheaper than the bosch unit. very tempting.

 

Your voltage is dropping because when the bass hits the amps are pulling more power than the alternator and stock battery can provide. Like was said before if you have a 600W system it prob is not really pushing 600w even at full tilt, but will be about a 20-30amp draw. Most vehicles come with a alternator that can cover what the stock vehicle needs, and adding to that can make the lights dim and other things when the voltage drops.

I would in on means purchase a capacitor for your vehicle. They are a complete waste of money when you look at it. You can get a smaller battery to run as a secondary battery for the extra power (pretty cheap and easy to do), or you could upgrade your starting battery to a AGM battery and prob cover all of the electrical draw.

Titan Motorsports (a supporting vendor of the site) carries XS Power batteries and a S1200 would work fine in your application, or one of the smaller 975 or 925 batteries. The S1200 would supply your audio system with 1500watts as a starting battery and would be smaller than the OEM battery for your vehicle. Your vehicle is a Group 54 battery and the S1200 would be a little smaller in size while providing a ton more power. It only weighs 33lbs. Like I said though you could get away with using the S975 (26lbs) or S925 (23lbs) as a starting battery and have plenty of power.

If you wanted to just add a small secondary battery you could run the D680 (15lbs) and have about 1000watts of power going to your system. These are AGM batteries so you do not have any worries of them leaking or corroding in your vehicle.

 

more_speed, I appreciate the education. Can you further explain how the supplimental battery is wired? And how is it charged?

 

The wiring shouldn't be a problem, especially if the system is already hooked up. I would recommend using nothing smaller than 4 gauge wire (0 gauge is better but not really needed in this application) and you simply run from your starting battery to the secondary battery (positive to positive and negative to negative) with a fuse coming off of the starting battery and another fuse just before the secondary battery. This way (god forbid) you get in an accident you don't have a live wire with a ton of power on it getting nicked and coming in contact with metal.

After you get the wires ran to your secondary battery you simply run your connections wires to from the secondary battery to the amp/s. The stock alternator will charge both batteries.

When you are not playing the system at full tilt the alternator will not have a problem charging the batteries, and when you are at full tilt the secondary battery will supply the extra power needed without demanding it all from the alternator.

There are high out put alternators out there for these applications, but with a system of that size I dont really think it is worth the money and trouble of upgrading the alternator. With a big system (2500 watts or more) then yes the alternator upgrade would be needed, but not in a 600W system.

Here is an example of a D680 installed under the seat in a F150 (I know this is a much bigger vehicle, but the same principals apply).

 

Thanks! A few follow-up questions. Doesn't having two batteries present an extra load on the alternator though? With this configuration, should we be concerned with burning up the alternator?

marvelusmarvcus, hope you don't mind me asking these questions on your thread. Not trying to hijack.

 

Doesn't really increase the load on the alternator, because the alternator is only going to produce what is required of it. So, if its a 125amp alternator and lets say the vehicle requires 100amps (just throwing a number out there for example), and the system is pulling 50amps at full tilt (again just an example). That means that under full load you have 150amps of load that the alternator would try to produce. If you have the secondary battery then your electrical system can pull from the secondary battery to take part of the strain from the alternator. When you are not playing the system at full tilt it may only be drawing 20amps (again example number), so you would only have 120amp draw and the alternator would only produce 120amps.

With all that said. The secondary battery isn't putting more draw on the alternator, but basically supplying the missing power the alternator can not produce. During normal driving the alternator could charge up the secondary battery without being over worked.