That'* quite low. Heck, I have the 125 amp alternator with an 800 watt amplifier and I can cruise around at night with everything on and my voltage stays right around or above 14.4. You definitely need to upgrade something if you are getting into the 13'* though,

I agree completely. You are running low. But the advice above about cleaning all your connections first has alot of merit.

Both ends of ALL the cables. Trace them out, find where they go, disconnect them, clean with a wire brush, and reassemble with dielectric grease. Clean where they mount TO also.

Then see where you sit. If the voltage is still low, and you still flicker, change your alternator and battery as a pair if the battery is over a year old.

Use a DECENT alternator. Advanced Auto and NAPA seem to have the best reputation on rebuilt alts, Autozone seems to be the worst. A good battery can go a long way towards extending the life of an alternator as well. If you can afford an Optima Red Top, do it. Otherwise get a GOOD battery.

x2 Just like Willwren said a cap is a bandaid to your problems. Their are a few things you could try... A smaller alt. pulley - this would help charged the battery when you are at a stop. Ryan did this and it really seemed to help alot. You can also run an alt. rewire - run a wire from your alt. to your accesory post.

Ok..having some LED experience lately and hopefully understanding what you are mentioning I think...THINK you have a slight variation in voltage. LED'* can show 1/3 of a volt very easily.

While the possible cause could be that your regulator isn't regulating perfectly. Try this. First using a multimeter..see if you have voltage fluctuations. If so..then I would recommend a new alt or fixing the regulator as it'* asking for help. Secondly. Try putting a resistor in tront of the led to bring down the voltage or look into the LM317 regulators CorvetteCrazy showed me. You can regulate the output and remove flickering from voltage changes.

yes thats exactly what i meant. I am NOT having a problem with power demand. I wanted to use a cap to reduce the variation. I am going to look into the regulator. It seems like its not regulating the voltage as much as it should.

All my led circuits have resistors in them because they would blow instantly without a current limiter. I also have LM337 (negative voltage version of LM317) voltage regulators in some of my lights. The voltage regulators and resistors do not eliminate the flickering effect. Thats what I want to use capacitors for. They act as a voltage source when the supply voltage drops down. So the leds see a constant voltage. Thats what the alternators voltage regulator is supposed to do. But if mine is dying then it would explain why it is so noticable. I think that adding a big capacitor to a good working alternator would reduce the voltage fluctuations even more.