Batteries VS. Alternators.

[Ahmed Johnson]

You could easily find a good used alt for your truck. That has to be the most popular case. I think you should get another quote on those alts, we have the same style case and I checked with all the reputable alt dealers and got cheaper prices than that. I paid 600 for the 370 I have now that does way more at idle than what you are about to do. Where do you live? I'm not doing any shipping but if you're close to Chicago I got a recased singer alt 275 amps that I'm letting go for dirt cheap. It will go on your truck

[Skullz]

I cannot tell you how many hundreds of people come on here wanting to build a big system from scratch, they simply do not have the money, knowledge and understanding of what it takes to do a big system. They start out buying this, that and the other and months down the road everything is still sitting in a closet waiting to go into something, and once they have everything in place to start, either something in life happens or something they purchased a year before is bad. This happens all the damn time, so, unless you can do a system on a set budget that can go in right now, i would work on building a smaller system that can be upgraded as you go so nothing sits in a closet losing the warranty you paid for.

This requires a sit down session that details every single item you need and budget for so you can get this up and running, there is nothing wrong with lower power and smaller subs to start with, as it is a platform to build off of.

[Ron36]

Since your thread is batteries vs alternators in your case go with like 20 batteries for the eBay alt's .

[Wasteland_Audio]

I cannot tell you how many hundreds of people come on here wanting to build a big system from scratch, they simply do not have to money, knowledge and understanding of what it takes to do a big system. They start out buying this, that and the other and months down the road everything is still sitting in a closet waiting to go into something, and once they have everything in place to start, either something in life happens or something they purchased a year before is bad. This happens all the damn time, so, unless you can do a system on a set budget that can go in right now, i would work on build a smaller system that can be upgraded as you go so nothing sits in a closet losing the warranty you paid for.

This requires a sit down session that details every single item you need and budget for so you can get this up and running, there is nothing wrong with lower power and smaller subs to start with, as it is a platform to build off of.

^ this. I spent 2 months online and making phone calls getting everything together for this build. my original budget was $3500, but when it was said and done and the parts were in the mail, it was well over $7000. There just isn't a way to build a solid system without investing in the proper foundation for such a build. Everyone wants 10k but they get sticker shock when they find out how much it actually cost to run it.

[Skullz]

Electrical is the most important thing in car audio.

Buy the best quality you can get, and the rest will take care of itself.

[Ron36]

The only thing u can skimp on in car audio is labor because u work for free on your build.

[BudgetBuilder]

Listen, neither I nor strangeduck are trying to be rude, but you've gone price blind. ebay alts claim that they make all kinds of power for a fraction of the price. This just isn't true. If you look through every build log on this site you will not find a cheap alt. This is because they have been proven to fail. These alts are put together using chinese parts that are weaker than stock and then overdriven with a smaller pulley. Please believe it when I and all the other experienced builders on here tell you that you are much better off and will actually save money by getting reputable, proven parts.

I've seen several builds using eBay alts and haven't heard of any problems, that's why I'm coming here to ask.

And all the top reviews off google look good.

You could easily find a good used alt for your truck. That has to be the most popular case. I think you should get another quote on those alts, we have the same style case and I checked with all the reputable alt dealers and got cheaper prices than that. I paid 600 for the 370 I have now that does way more at idle than what you are about to do. Where do you live? I'm not doing any shipping but if you're close to Chicago I got a recased singer alt 275 amps that I'm letting go for dirt cheap. It will go on your truck

From Michigan, I was actually just in Chicago this morning buying the truck.

I'll PM you.

Anyways you guys have convinced me not to use eBay alternators.

However the main question still stands, when is the proper time to choose between a bigger/more alternators, and between more batteries?

I assume the guys doing 60kW systems have to use batteries because you eventually run out of room for alts when you have 6 300A ones in there or whatever.

But for a fairly small system like mine, can I get away with one good 370A singer alt? Or will I need batteries?

I'm not trying to aggravate any of you, just trying to learn some stuff because a lot of the info is contradictory.

[Wasteland_Audio]

Realistically you could get away with a single 270 - 370 amp alt and 2 D3100 batts. Make sure you do a good run of OFC 1/0 wire. The guys you see with 6 alts and 30 batts are designed to sit at idle all day and play at full blast. A daily driver that gives a few demos and does a few comps now and then, this will be plenty of power as long as you keep an eye on you're voltage.

[_paralyzed_]

You need both batteries and alt upgraded to upgrade a to a serious system. The batteries store power. The alt puts power back in the batteries after it's used.

Your stock alt should charge two group 34 agm batteries fine. Start there, it's your cheapest option. 2 good batteries.

Then install system. If you have too much voltage drop, you need to add an alt. Still too much drop? Add another battery.

Don't buy eBay alts. They work, but don't do rated power, and are known for failing.