Currently i am running a scosche 550 watt max amp with a 8 gauge wire and one infinity 1242w sub and at night when i turn it up real loud my head lights dim. I have another sub, same one, in my room and im looking at the power acoustik LT980/2 so i can run both subs at 2 ohms. Is this too much power for a stock alternator, i have a brand new battery also. I have a 96 bonnie SE. Also what size AGU fuse is recomended?

The first thing you need to do is use the 8ga for clothes line and go buy some wire that is big enough to handle 500+ watts.

The stock alt can take a lot, I still use my stock one from 96. It is not a bad idea to upgrade though. I would suggest doing the "Big 3" which should help reduce dimming.

yeah do the big 3 first, that did not do much in my case and with about 1200watts rms at full tilt my voltage is dropping significantly. I am using a "custom built" alternator right now from a industrial shop, seems to work better but I will still get dimming at deafening volume levels.

helped me out a lot, I pretty much dont have dimming anymore.

what size did you use for the big 3, I used 4ga.

I used 4GA but left the stock wire from batt to alt, I think that is a 8/6GA line though.... ...However on my last car I did 4ga on everything and it had no effect...

Also saw improvment when I put a new battery in.

I also left the stock line, figuring if one of mine failed I would still have something there.

BTW, on your fuse question...you should add up the fuses on the amps you are running and then use that rating for your main fuse near the battery.

ex: my one amp has 2-20amp fuses, the other has 2 30amp fuses so my main fuse should be 100amps. I ordered the wrong one and have a 110 amp one, but I also have 2 sets of fuses before the power even reaches the amp, plus the fuses in the amps themselves.

if you want to know more about that, amps=watts/voltage

lol nice. i was planning on going 4 gauge once i get the new amp and tossing the old one. the amp has 4 25A fuses on it i think, so that would be 100 then. how difficult is the big 3, i've looked at it before but have you run into any problems?

big 3 took me maybe 1/2 hour, and if you can crimp ring terminals and use sockets, you can do it.


I would suggest something bigger than 4awg for a 100 amp draw. I run 2ga.

I saw the CorvetteCrazy setup. Very nice job and while operating on the stock alternator..it seemed to work very well.

The amp only has a 4 gauge input so how would i do that, would i have to run 4ga and turn it into 4ga? Also how many feet do i need, 17?