kickass audio

yea a bigger belt may not work. Idk bro i always just get a ton of leverage on the tensioner. Hell when i put a new belt on my envoy i had to put the tensioner all the damn way down to get the belt on and it moved 1/8 of a inch from where i had the tensioner fully pulled down.

i would assume your belt is too small if its not working. You should always set your belts up onto all the pulleys and then leave the tensioner as the last one you have to put the belt onto as it is easier to put a belt on the tensioner than it is to fit it over the other non-moving pulleys. What i do to cheat with getting the tensioner down all the way is to get a breaker bar and put that on my tensioner and get a strong piece of a metal pipe (i use a fence post) and slip that over the breaker bar and it gives you a ton of leverage and force and allows me to get the tensioner all the way up and slip the belt onto it.

no problem, glad to help you out with this. If you get stuck by all means feel free to ask me for help i have made my fair share of screw ups and mistakes on my previous car i had and i now know what not to do with my truck from it. lol. And dont forget pics or Best of luck with your build

No problem glad to help you out. If you get stuck by all means you can ask me. I have made my good share of mistakes and i wouldnt mind helping you or anybody on here for that matter avoid from screwing up like i did. Best of luck with your build and dont forget pics or lol.

that sounds like it will do you pretty well like that. Oh and just to let you know if you plan to charge your batteries on a charger like the xs power intellicharger you should keep the batteries the same type. Either wet cell like the one in your picture or absorbed glass mat (agm) because from what everyone says they are different chemistry's and charge differently on a charger but the alternator doesnt really affect it. To be completely honest i dont think its all that true, i charged both my xs batteries with my dads old as hell schaeur 12v battery charger that normally charges at 5 amps and has a boost mode to charge at 15 amps. It is made for wet cell batteries and i had it work perfectly fine for my xs's but i only had them on the charger for a few minutes and had a DMM on the battery the entire time to make sure i didnt overcharge it at all.

Personally i never ran a deka battery so i cant say anything about them. I have ran nothing but xs batteries for upgrades and they always were the strongest batteries i ran. I originally had the s3400 which is somewhat similar to amperage to the battery you took a pic of but it was AGM. I ran that battery down all the time by blasting my music in the parking lots at school and it never failed me. It always cranked my car back up. One time i even drove home 50 miles with my alternator off because it broke on me when i got it and i was running the entire car off just battery power and it didnt affect me, just my lights were not the brightest since the voltage wasnt high but thats to be expected. One thing with the deka batteries is that im not sure if they are agm or wet cell batteries but you do NOT EVER want to run a wet cell battery inside your car. If your alternator charges them too high they will leak O2 gas which you cannot smell and can kill you. AGM batteries do not gas unless you overcharge them way over their specs which i have had my xs's up to 15.9v before and they are 12v batteries but they still worked like a charm and it was only that high of a voltage since it was a ice cold engine. You should never run wet-cell batteries in your car even if it wasnt for the O2 gas because wet cells can get the electrolyte to leak and start to corrode your car big time which in your interior wouldnt be a good thing to have. But hey bro, its your car so its your call for what you choose to do with it, id say to get the battery like you posted a pic of and run maybe one of the aq's to see how it handles with that much current draw after you do the big-3 for it all and then get the mechman alt and throw the second aq in your car and after you can choose whether a second battery is necessary or not. chances are you may not really need a second one if your alt can handle but id say maybe a small little battery in the rear would be nice because it will help keep your voltage nice and stable on both ends of your long power wire you need to run from front to back. Let the bashing and trash talk begin but i personally dont really favor running caps anymore. I did run one and it did a fantastic job for the demand it had but they are like putting a band-aid on a deep wound, it just wont fix it. I prefer to get batteries instead and then if you want to look cool, get a cap after your electrical is nice and beefy.

is that stock? damn thats a way better battery than my truck had stock. But that is a good start for a primary but i would recommend another battery in the rear or else you will take the risk of cooking those AQ's from being overheated due to voltage drop. Amps do not appreciate when the voltage gets down too low because they have to work even harder to put out some power. Heres what i would say to do since you are on a budget: 1.) Do the big 3 in your engine and get a battery thats sized like that one and see where it gets you 2.) if your voltage drop gets down to about 13-12v then i would get a second battery 3.) If that still doesnt help then getting the alternator is your last option. Personally i went a little fast on my electrical for my old car when i started getting big amps. I bought the XS power battery then got my 250 amp alternator from Matt at Mechman then got a second battery when i got my truck. Think like this... You could have a hundred batteries but all they do is store power, they dont add power like an alternator does. The batteries will just allow you to play at a higher volume for a longer period of time every time you add a battery, they NEVER raise your voltage or anything like an alternator does. An alternator however adds power because it keeps up with the current you are demanding from your battery and re-charges it as it is taken. Now if you draw way more current than the alternator can demand you will have voltage drop as well so that is why people run numerous batteries to keep their vehicle running when they draw a ton of current but after they get done using it, they slap it on the battery charger to get them fully charged because a discharged battery is not good to have and can drastically kill their life.

lol i miswired my subs a few times when i was starting out. It happens. After you cook a few speakers and your wallet starts to lose a ton of weight then you will start to learn really fast how to do things right. Taking your time and asking questions will help you out more than you think. Rushing stuff in this business is not good at all because one simple overlook can be a big problem down the line. Plus taking your time to make an install nice and neat is better than leaving it all sloppy. Nothing turns ppl away from your system than a crappy looking install. You may have a system that slaps the hell out of your head but if it looks like crap it wont win ppl over all that much.

Very good point i didnt think to mention but yes it is very important. I have always used a stock GM grommet and cut a hole through it for my wire i needed to run and then i would take some HVAC putty and put that all the way around the wire on both sides of the grommet to really make sure it was a water tight seal. I have never had a problem with the wire shorting out or anything. Oh and just to make a point because ill admit it, i was a moron to do this. DO NOT, i repeat DO NOT mount your fuse block for you power wire on your engine. If your engine has one of those plastic covers for it NEVER screw your fuse block onto it. I managed to get my 4ga wire loose from my old setup in my car i had and it shorted out and melted the wire back 3 inches!! Find a good secure location to mount it where it wont get too hot and is no more than 6 inches from your battery. And since most ppl ask this or from what i have seen dont even think about it; if you are going to run dual batteries you MUST put a fuse for the power wire that runs from the front battery to the rear battery on BOTH ends of the cable. This means that you need t put a fuse within 6 inches from your front battery's positive wire and another like fuse that is within 6 inches from your rear battery's positive terminal. If you only use one fuse your fuse on that end will blow but all the current from the un-fused battery will continue to short out and you can say goodbye to your car. I dont live anywhere near you but if you have any questions when you start to get going i will be more than glad to help you out. Plus you are on the right site as when i was just starting in the car audio hobby 3 years ago, joining this site really helped me gain a ton of knowledge really fast. There are a ton of knowledgeable guys on here who will always be able to lend a hand and some tips and tricks. When i get ready to start tearing my truck apart (that is if it gets back from the repair shop or else i will get rid of my envoy and get a different truck) i will make a fully detailed how-to and build log of it on here. Most of the important stuff i already have installed but i will have to tear a good chunk of it out when i re-do it all.

Just to add, i dont mean to say that you NEED to get the alt. I did have a bigger alt than you have for my first system so i could handle more demand but i still had a single battery from xs power and it did a good job so do like canderton said and get 1 or 2 good batteries and see how that goes for you and then go from there. Gotta start somewhere right?

Honestly its not hard at all to wire up a system as long as you have a brain. lol. The hardest thing to do is find a hole that is big enough in your firewall or a location to drill through the firewall to run your power and grounds through. For wiring a headunit its just a matter of matching up like colors really. For wiring up the amp just pay attention to connecting positive to positive and negative and negative and make sure your impedance is set right. If you tell me what impedance your speakers are going to be then i can easily help you out with getting your speakers wires up correctly. A good installer tip i have for you though is when you do the big 3 ALWAYS ALWAYS ALWAYS grind the paint off your ground points. I prefer to use something like a Dremel tool or anything with a sanding disc that can rotate very fast for you. You want to have ground points that are like a mirror finish to them because paint does not really conduct electricity like bare metal does. Another good thing i would highly recommend as it will be your best friend, get yourself a multimeter or an o-scope preferably. This will help you out more than you can imagine because you can check out the resistance of your power and ground wires to make sure you get as much power as possible and check your voltage, plus your resistance of your speakers.

Yea that alt is boning you hard for getting a damn good amount of voltage. If i were you, id hit up Matt at Mechman Alternators. His email is [email protected] . He has a great reputation on here and i ran his alts in both my vehicles and i only had one fail but that was damaged in shipping so i cant blame Matt or any of the guys for that. Matt has a great knowledge of electrical systems for cars and trucks alike and he should be able to take good care of you with getting a better alt because that 90 amp alt isnt going to handle your demand with 2kw of power. You could add multiple batteries but that will stress out your alt too much because it cant keep up with the current demand and charge your batteries back up to their voltage of around 14.4v. For your battery, im not trying to say what you have is totally crap but wet cell batteries are not all that hot for car audio. They dont pack as much of a punch per say as an AGM (absorbed glass mat) battery like xs power or even optima. If you get multiple batteries for your car it will allow you to use the system but you will have to slap that car on a charger numerous times throughout the day because you will drain your batteries fast and by draining them and letting the voltage get down low will also greatly decrease your battery life. If i were you, id say get a hold of Matt at Mechman Alternators and get a quote from him for a high output alt. Id see if he can get you something around 200-250 amps because that will do a pretty good job for you with a 2kw system. Then invest some money into a better battery(s) I always recommend to go like what i did with an xs power s3400 in the front (not sure if that will fit in your stock battery tray because i never owned anything but GM vehicles) but ask Matt which battery would be the largest to fit in your battery tray and go from there. From what i have seen running dual batteries (one up front in the engine and the other in the back by your amps) will help you out a ton with keeping your power under control. Capacitors do help but they charge and discharge so fast that i never really recommend to use one of them for systems unless you have a damn good alt to keep up with the constant stress of multiple charges/discharges that the capacitors will do to your car.

If you could please elaborate what size alt and what brand/type battery you have currently installed that would help me guide you in the direction of what you need and what you dont. For the longest time i ran 2kw off a single 140 amp alt and an xs power s3400 with a bit of voltage drop but nothing too bad (only had 1v drop on very heavy bass hits)

that sounds like the abuse i put my xs power through. I drove home in my car when my mechman alt failed (shipping is the cause for it) but i drove home for 65 miles without my alternator charging and my voltage never dropped below 12.5 which is pretty good for my entire car running for a long time on just battery power and i only had an xs s3400 in at the time. Damn good stuff from them. I hear ya on the warm weather part, im waiting to get my truck back from the mechanic hopefully sometime this week and then for the weather to warm up so i can get my doors redone and then for summer when i can drag out the table saw and make a box for my smd. i HATE waiting for the weather.

youre welcome bro. Its not all that much behind it but the biggest thing you need to look for is crank amps. Thats how i go for batteries and to be honest i run xs batts and i totally love them. They rest at 12.98v so thats pretty high for a 12v battery system without the alt being on. Id say to possibly save up some cash and get an xs battery. They do cost a little bit more but they stand behind their products all the way and they are very very reliable from what i have put my batteries through with a ton of abuse. I never an a Kinetik battery so i cant speak from comparison but i went from a wet cell to the xs battery and it is a HUGEEE difference in performance. Its nice to know that if it is freezing outside i can still crank my engine up without any problems and xs surely delivers that to you. And dont forget to do the big-3 on your vehicle. that helps immensely with keeping your voltage steady and high. It may not seem to help but let me tell you, i had a problem with my truck where the voltage would go up and down without any loads and it was a problem where the one ground wire was a little bit rusted underneath it on the frame. Once i cleaned that up i had almost a volt increase in my trucks electrical and it is steady from my front battery to the rear battery.

RC is reserve capacity. That tells you how long you can draw a like 25 amps of current before your voltage is at 10.5v which is extremely low and probably wouldnt start your engine at that low of a level. So pretty much the higher the number, the longer you can slap your music with the engine off before you have the need to turn the engine on and charge up your battery (but dont be the dumbass to try slamming your music without the alt on, it is pretty stupid to do since you more than likely arent getting as much power out of your amp as you can if your alt was charging your battery and raising the voltage. Plus if you have an insane system you never want to run just battery power because you can run into the problem of killing the life of your battery fast because you are charging and discharging it a lot plus you may discharge the battery far below what is recommended to keep the life on the battery in good shape. So to sum it up, get a batt with over 1000 cranking amps and i would say maybe a reserve capacity of 100 with the amps you plan to use. Also get a AGM, they are far superior than wet cell batts from what i have both seen and used.

I have a amp thats a little bigger than what you are looking for but it still puts out damn good power when i was using it with a single solox 12. I have a stetsom 2k6d amp (2 ohm version) that is rated to do 2600w rms at 12.4v and 3000 w rms at 14.4v. Ill do $350 shipped or if you have an offer by all means let me know. Also i know you are wanting dual gaskets for your sub but i have a single gasket from my Elevation Audio SQX woofer that is in pristine condition that i can toss in with the amp for you.

hey, ill admit before i say this that i didnt read all the posts on here but it seems like 100% you are facing what i had for my cheap Fusion Powerplant PP-AM3000 amplifier. Mine no matter how i set the gains, wired it up or anything if i had a strong bass note hit, the music would cut out in a fraction of a second and then come back as long as the bass wasnt heavy hitting. I thought it was because at the time i used bass boost (stupid noob thing) and so i turned that off completely and figured out where to get my gains with an DMM and freq adjustments and it still messed up when i had a loud and heavy bass note hit. Then i at the time was grounded to the floor of my car so i figured why not put it to my strut tower so i did that and yes i did grind the paint off completely and use a washer on it and still, it would cutoff when i had a bass hit. The power light would stay on the entire time and the protect light would never illuminate but if you took my DMM to the speaker output leads of the amp when the bassnote hit with or without my sub connected you would see the voltage go from being like 150v ac to drop down to 0v ac so i knew something was up. My power had a little bit of loss but nothing to be all that concerned about. So i took this amp out and put my friends amp in before i bought it from him and his was 3 times the power that i had and it fixed everything. no more cutting out. so to me it seems your amp is faulty. Also i sent my Fusion amp in for service and they "tested" it and it came back stating that it tested fine but i hooked it up as soon as i got it and same damn thing. If you know any guys at a local audio shop see if you can grab one of their amps and just test it on your car, they should let you as long as they are with you and then you can prove that its your amp malfunctioning.

I dont have 4.5kw rms coming out of my old system but i did have what the manufacturer rated of 3kw at 14.4v coming out the amp at 2 ohms (i never measured rise with my old setup) and i would at most get a 1v drop if i was at a stop sign or a red light but if i was driving around it would be fine. but this is totally normal since at idle it doesnt always put out the highest amount of power. I have a 270 mechman alt with an xs power d3400 and a d3100 battery for the old setup i ran with 3kw and it did great for me. Also i have the big 3 with all 1/0 gauge wire so you MUST do this with big alts and batts or you will never get the true power out of the alt and can fry the alt.

hey i have a stetsom 2k6d im willing to sell. its rated for 3kw rms at 14.4v and its the 2 ohm version. did a beautiful job for me. Im looking for $350 shipped but i can take some offers for it if you are interested.

i have a stetsom 2k6d that ill sell for $350 shipped. its rated for 3kw rms at 14.4v but i myself have never gotten around to clamping the amp before it came time to rebuild. This is the 2 ohm model of the 2k6d and it is pretty beefy for its small size if you ask me. Let me know what you think.

i will in like a week have my stetsom 2k6d up for sale. idk what ohm load you want to get your amp at but my 2k6d is the 2 ohm model. i never clamped it before i blew my sub up with it but im sure it had over rated power of 2600w rms at 12.6 $350 for it shipped. its in perfect working condition and if you are good with it you can fit 1/0 wire into the 4ga power blocks (but i really think that they are 2ga holes since my 4ga was very small in there)

was the 10Hz frequency like you were blasting it or was it somewhat low for power? It should be low for power. Subsonic filters are never 100% going to kill the frequencies that are below the tuning point of the amp. Also your amp may not have a very steep slope for it to cutoff the freq below the subsonic setting.

in my opinion i think the subsonic should not go any lower than your box's tuning point but i have read and heard of a lot of guys on here going 2-3Hz lower than their port tuning to set their subsonic. Personally i make my subsonic right at the port tuning and have anything lower than that drop off at a 24dB curve. i dont have that problem when im messing with my 3sixty in my house.

just because you arent feeding them up to or over their RMS power doesnt mean a single thing. Hell i fed my 12" solox 1.4kw rms for a very long time before i stepped up my game and got 3kw going to it and if i hit it with a low note (which was damn near everything i played because stupid me didnt know my box was tuned extremely high) you could hear the coil banging the shit out of my basket and like i said, coil rub was a dead give away, then the burning smell, then poof. goodbye solox. lmao. but i did a LOT of things wrong with it, i hit it with notes wayyy below what were acceptable for it in my enclosure, it had a very badly clipped signal going into it, and apparently it was slightly off center for the SPAIR so it was making it worse for coil rub. Dont do what i did with my previous systems. Prefab is NOT the way to go. lol