New system. New car. Electrical prep questions.

[chrispychicken]

Hey guys I'm brand new to the forum. Have been directed here countless times on my search for car audio info, so figured why the hell shouldn't I just register?

So my new vehicle is a 2001 Pontiac Sunfire. I believe I read somewhere that my alt is 105 amp stock. Not too much power, but decent for a small car I think. So this is what I plan on eventually having in the vehicle:

- (2) 12" HDC3's

- (1) AQ3500.1

- (1) ~400 rms 4-channel for front components and rear deck 6x9's

- (1) D925 under the hood with 1/0 wire running to

- (1) D3400 in the trunk

- Big 3 with 1/0

I have the following questions about this setup:

- What are my options to getting power to both amplifiers in the trunk? Do I have to run the 1/0 to the rear battery, and then from the rear battery run 1/0 to a distribution block, with 1/0 and 4g wires coming out of the outputs to the two amps? Or, if space under the kick panels in my car permits, would it be easier to put the runs of 1/0 to the rear battery and a separate run of 4g to the 4-channel? Should both amps be running off of the power cell in the back to get the full potential of the juice? Is it wise to wire the 4-channel bypassing the extra battery?

- Given these electrical upgrades, do you think this setup will work without too much of an extreme a voltage drop? I know a HO alt is necessary down the road, especially if I plan to upgrade. Unfortunately I don't have the money for the 2 power cells and a $500 alt, so i just want to know if this should be ok for now.

- Anyone record the exact 1ohm RMS output of the 3500.1? Heard it can put out about 4000, but wanted some other people's experience with it.

I know this is a wordy/lengthy post, but I know there are a ton of very knowledgable people in this forum that could help me with my future setup. I'm real excited for the eventual install. Gonna take a lot of saving though. Thanks for any replies

[Tarball]

Helllo chrispychicken and welcome to the forums. IMO if you are trying to jump into an AQ3500.1 then a H.O. alt is a requirement not an upgrade. The stock 105 amp alt really sucks on these cars. I couldnt keep voltage up on a Kenwood ps400m - in fact I burnt the alternator up one time just stopping at a traffic light coming off the interstate and I forgot to turn the volume down. In hindsight I was probably clipping a bit (gains to voltage then backed down a hair, bass on 0 no boost, volume to ear for distortion) but you get the idea. I may have an extreme "be safe" opinion and some may say just get a bigger battery bank to run the AQ but if you wanna go big it costs big money in supporting electrical, wires, fuses etc.

To answer your other question about wiring. you want 1 or 2 (ideally 2) runs of 1/0 from front to rear battery fused twice per run (once near the front batt + and once near the rear batt +. From rear battery you can pull power directly from it - fused - then into your individual amps. Don't bother running the 4ch from the front, just pull off the rear battery also.

[chrispychicken]

Thanks for the reply Tarball, really appreciate the advice. Guess I was being too optimistic about not needing a HO alt right away. So with the 2 runs of 1/0 : 1) Don't think theres any possible way to fit this inside the vehicle along the kickboards or anything. Looking at CE Auto Electric Supply, I saw they actually have the option of giving you some protective wrapping for the wiring for the second battery so it can be run under the vehicle. Is this really safe/easier to do? And 2) So you mean i need 2 fuses on each wire going to the back, including the ones going from - to -? So a total of 9 fuses would be needed all together, inlcuding the one off of the rear + to the amps? Should I use a distribution block here or just have one 1/0 and one 4g wire coming off the battery, both fused, to the individual amps? Sorry for the large amount of questions, just want to be absolutely sure about everything I'm gonna do.

[chrispychicken]

Also, I just found out that knukonceptz supplies HO alts. For my vehicle they offer a 160 amp for $225. Can be seen here:

http://www.knukonceptz.com/productDetail.cfm?prodID=8275

Anyone have any experience with these? What are their idle ratings like?

[chrispychicken]

Anybody have any info on knu's alts?

[Tarball]

You wanna look at DC Power / Mechman for a quality alt. I dont know of anyone that has run the KNU alts.

[snafu]

Thanks for the reply Tarball, really appreciate the advice. Guess I was being too optimistic about not needing a HO alt right away. So with the 2 runs of 1/0 : 1) Don't think theres any possible way to fit this inside the vehicle along the kickboards or anything. Looking at CE Auto Electric Supply, I saw they actually have the option of giving you some protective wrapping for the wiring for the second battery so it can be run under the vehicle. Is this really safe/easier to do? And 2) So you mean i need 2 fuses on each wire going to the back, including the ones going from - to -? So a total of 9 fuses would be needed all together, inlcuding the one off of the rear + to the amps? Should I use a distribution block here or just have one 1/0 and one 4g wire coming off the battery, both fused, to the individual amps? Sorry for the large amount of questions, just want to be absolutely sure about everything I'm gonna do.

Running large cables under the vehicle is easy and often recommended. Our under vehicle kits include all the hardware required to do it properly. I've been doing this since the early 1990s with no issues.