Charging at 13.9 too low?

[SLYentist]

Just top off your batteries once in a while. 13.9 will never fully charge them, but it is a safe voltage to run your amps on.

[boom50cal]

my F150 charges at 14.5 cold and 13.9-14.0 hot.

don't worry about it.

[ChevyBoy95]

My truck has always and forever will charge hot @ 13.9v. Cold is generally 14.3-14.8 depending on how cold it is outside.

Dual alts.

Don't be worried about charging voltage, all that matters is your voltage isnt shit when all the knobs go to the right.

[Karkov]

my amps were rated at 14.4 but my vehicle hot charges at 13.8

That shit drives me nuts. Won't hear a difference but to me it was principal of the thing. Got a second alt dedicated to stereo that would hot charge 14.8. With rise I'm sure I never saw rated voltage anyway but still. When wanging I was at 13.0. Again, it was my personal preference to charge higher to get the most out of my equipment and it was my money spent. Do what ya want because 13.9 won't hurt anything and you most likely will just throw money away getting it to 14.4 for the same performance.

I just believe in getting the most out of things.

If 100HP will move your car then why do you need 400 when 100 is "good enough"?

[ChevyBoy95]

my amps were rated at 14.4 but my vehicle hot charges at 13.8

That shit drives me nuts. Won't hear a difference but to me it was principal of the thing. Got a second alt dedicated to stereo that would hot charge 14.8. With rise I'm sure I never saw rated voltage anyway but still. When wanging I was at 13.0. Again, it was my personal preference to charge higher to get the most out of my equipment and it was my money spent. Do what ya want because 13.9 won't hurt anything and you most likely will just throw money away getting it to 14.4 for the same performance.

I just believe in getting the most out of things.

If 100HP will move your car then why do you need 400 when 100 is "good enough"?

^ terrible analogy.

And no, you aren't "throwing money away", only way you would get 14.4v power is if your voltage drop is to 14.4v. Whether you're charging at 13.8 or 14.4, if you drop to 13.0v on either during load, in the grand scheme of things, what does it matter?

[Miguels]

my amps were rated at 14.4 but my vehicle hot charges at 13.8

That shit drives me nuts. Won't hear a difference but to me it was principal of the thing. Got a second alt dedicated to stereo that would hot charge 14.8. With rise I'm sure I never saw rated voltage anyway but still. When wanging I was at 13.0. Again, it was my personal preference to charge higher to get the most out of my equipment and it was my money spent. Do what ya want because 13.9 won't hurt anything and you most likely will just throw money away getting it to 14.4 for the same performance.

I just believe in getting the most out of things.

If 100HP will move your car then why do you need 400 when 100 is "good enough"?

I get what you mean. but reality is that even if you was at 13.9 you would still only drop to 13 v. Setting higher don't mean squat since it will drop to the same voltage another alt would have helped keeping it at a higher voltage. So even if you would have set the voltage to 15.2 you would still drop to 13v

Horsepower gets you faster.. Higher voltage gets you louder but only if you can maintain that voltage. If you can't maintain it you're back to square 1

[Miguels]

Just top off your batteries once in a while. 13.9 will never fully charge them, but it is a safe voltage to run your amps on.

What makes you think 13.9 won't fully charge the batteries? Batteries rest at 12.8 so anything above that will top them off but it would only take longer. Now if he can maintain 13.9 at full tilt he won't have an issue keeping them topped off. Problem is when you drop below 12.8 is when the alt can't top them off..

The lower the voltage the better for that batteries. they will last longer

[bman8891]

Wow lots of feedback here that's awesome thanks guys. So heres some more input from me, the truck is an 07' f250. Big 6 is done all in 1/0. Alt to each battery (fused), pos between the batteries (fused), neg between batteries, each batteries grounded to the frame on its respective side, and that same point on the frame is grounded to block. Plus 2 runs to the back (fused). Amp is saz 3500d and also has 2 runs of ground ran through the floorpan directly to the frame. Other than stock alt my electrical is rock solid. Batteries should be fully charged I drove it for like 3 hours the previous day. Amp is currently at 1ohm on 2 2512's and drops from 13.9 to 12.8 at full wang. This weekend I'm gonna try putting 2 xl12's on at .5 ohm and I'm assuming ill see much more voltage drop. My main concern is that there is no voltage difference between idle and high rpms. Its 13.9 as long as its running. My honda does like 13.2 at idle and 14.4 at higher rpms.

[Karkov]

my amps were rated at 14.4 but my vehicle hot charges at 13.8

That shit drives me nuts. Won't hear a difference but to me it was principal of the thing. Got a second alt dedicated to stereo that would hot charge 14.8. With rise I'm sure I never saw rated voltage anyway but still. When wanging I was at 13.0. Again, it was my personal preference to charge higher to get the most out of my equipment and it was my money spent. Do what ya want because 13.9 won't hurt anything and you most likely will just throw money away getting it to 14.4 for the same performance.

I just believe in getting the most out of things.

If 100HP will move your car then why do you need 400 when 100 is "good enough"?

^ terrible analogy.

And no, you aren't "throwing money away", only way you would get 14.4v power is if your voltage drop is to 14.4v. Whether you're charging at 13.8 or 14.4, if you drop to 13.0v on either during load, in the grand scheme of things, what does it matter?

I don't think it was a terrible analogy so whatever, lol

my amps were rated at 14.4 but my vehicle hot charges at 13.8

That shit drives me nuts. Won't hear a difference but to me it was principal of the thing. Got a second alt dedicated to stereo that would hot charge 14.8. With rise I'm sure I never saw rated voltage anyway but still. When wanging I was at 13.0. Again, it was my personal preference to charge higher to get the most out of my equipment and it was my money spent. Do what ya want because 13.9 won't hurt anything and you most likely will just throw money away getting it to 14.4 for the same performance.

I just believe in getting the most out of things.

If 100HP will move your car then why do you need 400 when 100 is "good enough"?

I get what you mean. but reality is that even if you was at 13.9 you would still only drop to 13 v. Setting higher don't mean squat since it will drop to the same voltage another alt would have helped keeping it at a higher voltage. So even if you would have set the voltage to 15.2 you would still drop to 13v

Horsepower gets you faster.. Higher voltage gets you louder but only if you can maintain that voltage. If you can't maintain it you're back to square 1

I know what you both are saying but I guess I meant full tilt the lowest I would see was 13.0 but otherwise yea, you're right, unless you can maintain it doesn't do shit. Unless I was full tilt I would stay a LOT higher with hairpin 370 vs. stock alt. I am talking a full volt higher using the 370 dedicated to substage only and to me it was worth it.

Apparently it's just me but when I was using amps rated at 14.4 I would much rather NOT start out at 13.8 AT THE BEST than I would to start out higher and drop to 14+ under most occasions.

Nothing wrong with being at 13.9 for voltage OP. Won't hurt anything, perfectly fine for anyone etc.

Again, just my opinion but for me, I like making things error proof and chasing down the weakest link and to me hot charging at 13.8 didn't suffice when running amps that were rated using higher voltage, that 95% of the time I could maintain (RF amps).

[kalilac619]

1 have a single 320a alt that charges at 14.6 hot all day err day....does it stay that way when I decide to let my TFE loose??? Of course not it's only 320a....BUT 14.6 will charge my batts back up in between runs,demos,etc faster than 13.6 is the reason I like to charge higher....