Upgrading sound system. Any insight?

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12-15-2008 | 01:16 PM

jockhater2

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Joined: Dec 2008

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Upgrading sound system. Any insight?

So I have a 1991 Jetta Carat. It's my winter car. I have two 2200 watt amps that I want to hook up to my 2 subs. I want to set them at maybe 1500 watts maybe 1800. I am getting a yellow top optima battery and moving my other battery to my trunk. I will be running 4 gauge wiring. I did the math for the whole thing. I think I did it right. 3600 watts divided by the two batterys 24 volts combined = 150 amps + my car needs 65 amps to run itself. SO my brother and I are thinking we need a 215 amp alternator. But were afraid it's just going to be working itself non stop to power everything and we don't know if we can find an alternator with that much amps to fit in my car. Will all of this work? Any suggestions or insight?

01-12-2009 | 08:27 PM

Audio Junkie

Joined: Jan 2009

Posts: 3

RE: Upgrading sound system. Any insight?

Quote:

ORIGINAL: jockhater2

So I have a 1991 Jetta Carat. It's my winter car. I have two 2200 watt amps that I want to hook up to my 2 subs. I want to set them at maybe 1500 watts maybe 1800. I am getting a yellow top optima battery and moving my other battery to my trunk. I will be running 4 gauge wiring. I did the math for the whole thing. I think I did it right. 3600 watts divided by the two batterys 24 volts combined = 150 amps + my car needs 65 amps to run itself. SO my brother and I are thinking we need a 215 amp alternator. But were afraid it's just going to be working itself non stop to power everything and we don't know if we can find an alternator with that much amps to fit in my car. Will all of this work? Any suggestions or insight?

wow thats alot of power, 4 gauge wire is a very very bad idea. you need to run 1 possibly 2 runs of 1/0 gauge wire, just 1 single run of 1/0 is barely enough to supply both of those amps.. you got the formula wrong for amperage draw the best way to calculate amperage draw is divide total watts by 10. the reason i say 10 and not 12 or 14.4 is because you have to account for the efficiency. so 4400 watts divided by 10 is 440 Amps of total current draw. 1/0 maxes out at 300 amps, anything over 300 is a bad idea. go with an OHIO GENERATOR replacement High Output alternator and leave the factory battery up front and put the optima in the trunk.

02-18-2009 | 12:28 PM

jockhater2

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Joined: Dec 2008

Posts: 2

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well actually we bridged the amps so they are only 880 watts max each. so thats a total of 1960 watts. and we don't listen to them at max. so were going to try getting away with a 110 amp alternator. b/c my brother in law doesnt think the 2 alternator idea is a good one.