I was thinking last night and figured that I would ask the Audio experts. I will be running alot of power this summer, neons, gagues, lights, and of course the system. My question is

how do you hook up and connect a second battery
what type of battery do i need
I have a few AC delco freedoms at my house will they work or do i need somethin else?
what kind of percautions will i need to take puttin it in the trunk??
will the alt need to be upgraded anyway?
will i still need a Cap.

thanks for all your patience while i build this thing

i dont know but if anyone does i'm interested in this too.

Taylor where are you????

i have a optima blue top as a second batt.... i just ran 4 gauge from the positive of the first batt to the positive of the 2nd batt. then grounded the 2nd batt in the trunk... they reccomend that for a 2nd batt you use one of the same brand/age as the 1st one... concers would be mounting thems o theyd ont move around and i dont know if the delco'* should be vented or not... but the optima i have is not required to be vented... you MIGHT want to upgrade anyway, especilly if your alt is weak... i need to upgrade mine now... and as far as needin a cap.. i dont think you will... because thats basiclly what the 2nd batt is actin as...

What exactly are you running that'll use all that power? Why do you want a 2nd battery? Personally I'd recommend upgrading to a 200 amp alternator, and then upgrading to a new battery that'* 650+ CCA.

If you're gonna be pushing 1000+ watts RMS or something, I could understand designing a new electrical system to accommodate that, but otherwise, it'* more hassle than it'* worth.

It'd be sorta fun, though

I will be running a 1500w 2 channel and a 300w mono amp anlong with a bunch of other crap

hey Taylor how did you do your second battery in the trunk??

yeah i want to know too

Sorry for the delay guys and gals, My second battery is run just like firedevil said
Mine is 2 gauge, but the same, DO makee new bigger grounds off both batteries to the frame, back seat battery is grounded to the big 25mm seatbelt bolt that goes thru alot of metal. trunk is to any clean spot that'* convient.

Mine is Optima Yellow top. Don't buy a red top for a 2nd battery, there designed for a cars main battery, mine is still stock for now, will look into a red top, but not sure if it will fit in the slot under back seat. Anyway not up to date as what the blue tops where designed for, think Marine use.

As for an Alternator up-grade, I'm sure it'* a good idea but I don't have one yet, car only has 26K on it now, when it goes it goes. Then I'll get a 200 or something higher

Caps, I do recomend them for +1000 watts of bass, won't hurt you especially with 2nd battery, but I bet not neccesary, I do think the new style of caps like mine are better than the old stiffing caps aka battery style cap. Mines 5-farad from alumnapro.

With my setup my DIC voltage is almost allways 14.7 even with all assesories on and bass pumping. I check the voltage off the amps and they also match the DIC.
When the batteries get drained from listing while off, over maybe 1hour or so comes down into the mid 13'*. Takes good hour of driving to get them back to 14.7 but when it gets there it stays.

Interestingly talking about Alt'* and voltage and stuff with my installer buddy. He has been reading about the advantage of voltage-regulators and jacob electronics sells these, orignaly designed for race cars. What ever the amps it gets it puts out the set amount of 14.7 volts or what ever you want. 13.5 or say 15.2. These will increase amps power big time. Not sure though If I can put inside my car, they got hot and should be under the hood, need to write Jacob'* and see what they say. Topic came up as dosen't matter how many amps you make, how much constant voltage are you getting. This sounds like a good idea and am looking into it, I know that hardcore SPL guys have been using these for years, that amps gotta get x amount of voltage all the time to produce X amonunt of DB'*

Anyways, hopefull I answered the orignal question and them some. Any more?



Back seat


trunk setup

like the set up. oh and thanx for the info